Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T12:44:11.371Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The passive in English, German and Russian1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Christopher Beedham
Christopher Beedham
Affiliation:
Department of Modern Languages, Language Studies Unit, University of Aston in Birmingham
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It is usually assumed that English has two aspects, the perfect and the progressive. I would like to suggest, however, that there are in English not two but three aspects – the perfect, the progressive and the passive.

The most common description of the (actional) passive is one which derives sentences containing be+ past participle from an underlying transitive active structure. In a description of this kind there are several defects of a theoretical nature which reveal themselves in three main areas. The first problem area is the set of verbs which are apparently transitive but which nevertheless do not passivize, for example in English have, suit, resemble, in German haben ‘have’, überkommen ‘come over’, erfordern ‘require’ (see Steube & Walther, 1972: 20–22).

Type
Notes and Discussion
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , September 1981 , pp. 319 - 327
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Beedham, , Christopher, (1979). The passive aspect in English, German and Russian. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Salford. (Forthcoming: Gunter Narr Verlag).Google Scholar
Comrie, , Bernard, (1978). Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Friedrich, , Paul, (1974). On aspect theory and homeric aspect. IJAL 40. Memoir 28.Google Scholar
Gelhaus, , Hermann, & Latzel, S. (1974). Studien zum Tempusgebrauch im Deutschen. Mannheim.Google Scholar
Helbig, , Gerhard, & Buscha, J. (1972). Deutsche Grammatik. Leipzig: VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie Leipzig.Google Scholar
Isačenko, A. V. (1962). Die russische Sprache der Gegenwart. Teil I. Formenlehre. Halle (Saale): VEB Max Niemeyer Verlag.Google Scholar
Langacker, , Ronald, W. & Munro, P. (1975). Passives and their meaning. Lg 51. 789–830.Google Scholar
Leech, , Geoffrey, N. (1971). Meaning and the English verb. Thetford: Longman.Google Scholar
Lyons, John (1977). Semantics. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Steube, , Anita, & Walther, G. (1972). Zur passivischen Diathese im Deutschen. Linguisiische Arbeitsberichte (Leipzig) 5. 17–48.Google Scholar
Verkuyl, H. J. (1972). On the compositional nature of the aspects. Foundations of Language, Supplementary Series, Volume 15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar