1 Introduction
In order to learn more about the English language and how it is actually used by the native speaker community I am going to investigate the occurrence of bare passives as modifiers and of relative clauses in be-passive form which can be compared to the former in its function as modifier. With help of the queries I will find out how many of these constructions exist in The Penn Treebank and then take a closer look at the beginning of sentences. Which of these two grammatical phenomenon is more frequent at the beginnings of sentences and why? Firstly in this term paper, I will introduce the grammatical phenomenon of the passive voice with its variants ‘be-passive’, ‘get-passive’ and ‘bare passive’ by contrasting it to the active voice. Furthermore I will explain the development of the different queries needed for the research whose findings will be discussed subsequent to that.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 The Grammatical Phenomenon
Differences between Active and Passive Voice
3 Variations of the Passive Voice
3.1 Get-Passive
3.2 Bare-Passive
3.2.1 Bare Passives as Complements
3.2.2 Bare Passives as Modifier
4 The Development of Queries in the Penn Treebank
4.1 Be-Passive
4.2 Get-Passive
4.3 Bare Passives as Modifier
4.4 Relative Clauses in Be-Passive Form
5 Research findings
5.1 Frequency of Be-Passive and Get-Passive
5.2 Frequency of Bare Passives as Modifiers and Relative Clauses in Be-Passive Form
5.3 Frequency of Bare Passive as Modifier and Relative Clause in be-passive form at the beginning of sentences
6 Conclusion
7 References
Research Objectives and Core Themes
This paper investigates the usage patterns of bare passives as modifiers compared to relative clauses in be-passive form within the English language, specifically focusing on their frequency at the beginning of sentences using data from the Penn Treebank.
- Comparative analysis of passive voice variants (be-passive, get-passive, bare passive).
- Development of specific search queries for the Penn Treebank.
- Examination of syntactic positioning and discourse motivation for passive constructions.
- Quantitative assessment of the frequency of modifier types in English.
- Hypothesis on the linguistic economy of using bare passives as modifiers.
Excerpt from the Book
3.2 Bare-Passive
Next to the be-passive and the get-passive the English language offers another form of passive. This occurrence builds its constructions neither with ‘get’ nor with the auxiliary verb ‘be’, rather it is just the past-participial element which makes the clause an instance of passive interpretation. Because of the fact that ‘be’ and ‘get’ are missing these constructions are called ‘bare passives’. (cf. Huddleston and Pullum 2005, p. 245)
i Homer was caught by the Springfield Police again. [be-passive]
ii Homer got caught by the Springfield Police again. [get-passive]
iii She saw Homer caught by the Springfield Police again. [bare passive]
iv Homer caught by the Springfield Police again felt the urgent desire for a doughnut to ease his shame.
Bare passive clauses as in iii) “usually have no overt subject” (Huddleston and Pullum 2002, p. 1430) because Homer syntactically belongs as an object to the ‘see’-clause. Nevertheless there can be bare passives with an overt subject as shown in the following examples:
i All problems solved, we’re very lucky to have found each other now. [short]
ii My daughter’s belly pierced by that guy is the last thing I want to see. [long]
Since the verb is in past participial form the bare passive clause is always non finite and found in subordinate position (cf. Huddleston and Pullum 2002, p. 1430). Either ‘get’ or ‘be’ always occur in the passive main clause. (cf. Huddleston and Pullum 2002, p. 1430)
Summary of Chapters
1 Introduction: This chapter outlines the research goal of investigating the occurrence and frequency of bare passives versus relative clauses in be-passive form within the Penn Treebank.
2 The Grammatical Phenomenon: This chapter contrasts active and passive voice, discussing discourse motivations and information-packaging strategies in English syntax.
3 Variations of the Passive Voice: This chapter categorizes different passive constructions, including be-passive, get-passive, and bare-passive, detailing their specific syntactic functions and constraints.
4 The Development of Queries in the Penn Treebank: This chapter explains the technical creation of tree-searching queries used to identify specific grammatical constructions within the corpus.
5 Research findings: This chapter presents the statistical results from the corpus study and discusses why bare passives occur more frequently as modifiers in sentence-initial positions.
6 Conclusion: This chapter summarizes that bare passives as modifiers are more common in written English and suggests further investigation into their use in spoken language.
7 References: This chapter lists the academic literature and corpora resources utilized for the study.
Keywords
Passive voice, be-passive, get-passive, bare passive, Penn Treebank, syntactic modifiers, corpus linguistics, relative clauses, discourse motivation, sentence structure, English grammar, information packaging, syntactic constructions, query development.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary subject of this research?
The research focuses on the grammatical phenomenon of the passive voice, specifically comparing the frequency and usage of bare passives as modifiers against relative clauses in be-passive form.
What are the central themes discussed in the paper?
The central themes include the classification of passive variants, the role of syntactic modifiers, discourse-conditioned information packaging, and the application of computational corpus linguistics.
What is the main research objective?
The objective is to determine which construction—bare passive as modifier or relative clause in be-passive form—is more frequent at the start of sentences and to explain the underlying linguistic reasons for this preference.
Which scientific methodology is employed?
The author employs a corpus-based quantitative methodology, utilizing the Penn Treebank and developing specific tree-searching queries to extract and analyze syntactic patterns.
What topics are covered in the main body?
The main body covers the theoretical framework of passive voice, the definition of various passive types, the technical implementation of search queries, and a detailed analysis of findings based on corpus data.
What are the key terms defining this work?
Key terms include passive voice, be-passive, get-passive, bare passive, corpus linguistics, and information flow.
Why is the bare passive often preferred in sentence-initial position?
The author hypothesizes that native speakers utilize the bare passive to maintain linguistic economy, allowing them to convey 'old' information concisely at the start of a sentence before delivering 'heavy' new information.
How does the usage of get-passive compare to the be-passive in this study?
The data from the Penn Treebank reveals a significant disparity, with the be-passive being vastly more frequent, which supports the assertion that the get-passive is largely avoided in formal, written English.
- Quote paper
- Annika Onken (Author), 2007, 'Bare passives' and 'relative clauses' in be-passive form as modifiers, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/84333
