A study on passive voice in english and in vietnamese
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| II.4.7. Pseudo-passives: Pseudo-passive have a copular verb followed by a predicate adjective that looks similar or identical to the past participle. They refer to states without reference to past events that brought about the states. In fact, some of these adjectives were participles in earlier stages of English. Rotten is one such adjective, the past participle function is now filled by rotted. 1. “The rope had been rotted by damp salty air”. But not this 2. “The rope had been rotten by the damp salty air”. The st sentence with the participle rotted specifies a result as well as the state of the rope, and a process of rotting caused by the dampness. The adjective rotten, however, refers only to the state that is why it cannot occur with the by phrase. The door was opened. The door was open. In the example above, it is easy enough to distinguish between the passives and sentences with adjectives because the participles are at past participle and the adjective are identical. The door was shut by the butler. The door was shut. The factory was closed by the inspectors. The factory was closed. The first sentence of each pair refers to the actual event of door shutting or factory-closing. The second sentence of each pair however is 36 ambiguous. If shut and closed are interpreted as adjectives the door and the factory are just not open. But these words could be past participles, in which case the sentence would refer to the event, the action of closing. Jacob, 1995:166] Download 281.96 Kb. Share with your friends:
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