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The passive Summary

This text explores the meaning, syntax, and criticism of the passive voice in German. It also analyzes the aspectual form and arguments supporting the aspect analysis.

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The passive Summary

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  1. The passiveSummary • phonological form (data): werden + ge-V-tsein + ge-V-t (1) Der Motor wurde vom Mechaniker repariert. (Duden 2006:551) • problem: subject is ‘patient’

  2. Aims of analysis • meaning of werden + ge-V-t? • syntax: combinable with which verbs and sentences? • (grammatical) form: what grammatical construction does it represent? (How is it to be parsed?)

  3. Voice analysis (Genus verbi) • (Grammatical) Form: • passive derived from active • active and passive are ‘voices’ of the verb • Der Mechaniker reparierte den Motor→Der Motor wurde vom Mechaniker repariert • explains why subject is patient – because it started out as an object

  4. Meaning: • passive synonymous with active • except for theme-rheme organisation • motivation for passive: to make the patient theme

  5. Syntax: • all and only transitive verbs (i.e. followed by object, especially in Acc.) are passivizable • exceptions are listed individually • e.g. besitzen, mögen, kosten

  6. Criticism of voice analysis:contradictions, anomalies, flaws • meaning of werden + ge-V-t? • five formal differences – synonymous?!? • agentive von-phrase • statal passive

  7. adjectival properties • impersonal passive from intrans. verbs: Es wurde getanzt • transitive verbs which do not form a passive, e.g. besitzen, mögen, kosten

  8. Aspect analysis • phonological form (data): werden/sein + ge-V-t • (Grammatical) Form: aspect of type Auxiliary + Participle, like the perfect • Meaning: new state as result of preceding action (change of state) (hence subject is patient) • Syntax: determined by lexical aspect of verb and compositional aspect of sentence (as with perfect): telic

  9. Der Schülerwurde (von dem Lehrer) gelobt(Helbig & Buscha 161-188) analysed as an aspect • der Schüler: subject taken from the lexicon, as with the perfect • wurde: aspectual auxiliary, like haben and sein • von dem Lehrer: a normal prepositional phrase (PP); von means ‘agent’; like many PPs optional, as in Er war böse (auf ihn) • gelobt: aspectual participle, like the homonymous perfect participle • wurdegelobt means ‘action + state’ (hence subject is patient)

  10. Arguments supporting the aspect analysis

  11. trans. non-passivizable verbs explained: lexical and compositional aspect, as always with Auxiliary + Participle aspects • for a verb/sentence to be passivizable there must be an end-point potentially present, which becomes the end-state of the passive meaning ‘action + state’ • i.e. a verb/sentence must be telic to form a passive • proof? Yes, formal-syntactic proof: • recall: we said under Aspect that to form a resultative perfect a verb must be telic • it follows that non-passivizable transitive verbs should also not form a resultative perfect

  12. This does indeed turn out to be the case for 2/3 of non-passivizable transitive verbs: • (2) a. Hans mochte den Roman. • b. *Der Roman wurde von Hans gemocht. • c. *Jetzt hat Hans den Roman gemocht. • (3) a. Er besitzt ein großes Haus. • b. *Ein großes Haus wird von ihm besessen. • c. *Jetzt hat er ein großes Haus besessen. • (4) a. Er bekam den Brief. • b. *Der Brief wurde von ihm bekommen. • c. Jetzt hat er den Brief bekommen. • (see Beedham 1982:59-82, 2005:52-56)

  13. any questions?

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