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Books > Language & Literature > Language & linguistics > Grammar, syntax, linguistic structure
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Deconstructing the English Passive (Hardcover)
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Deconstructing the English Passive (Hardcover)
Series: Topics in English Linguistics [TiEL]
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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This book analyzes the form and function of the English passive
from a verb-based point of view. It takes the position that the
various surface forms of the passive (with or without thematic
subject, with or without object, with or without by-phrase, with or
without auxiliary) have a common source and are determined by the
interplay of the syntactic properties of the verb and general
syntactic principles. Each structural element of the passive
construction is examined separately, and the participle is
considered the only defining component of the passive. Special
emphasis is put on the existence of an implicit argument (ususally
an agent) and its representation in the passive. A review of data
from syntax, language acquisition, and psycholinguistics shows that
the implicit agent is not just a conceptually understood argument.
It is argued that it is represented at the level of argument
structure and that this is what sets the passive apart from other
patient-subject constructions. A corpus-based case study on the use
of the passive in academic writing analyzes the use of the passive
in this particular register. One of the findings is that about
20-25% of passives occur in constructions that do not require an
auxiliary, a result that challenges corpus studies on the use of
the passive that only consider full be-passives. It is also shown
that new active-voice constructions have emerged that compete with
the passive without having a more visible agent. The emergence of
these constructions (such as "This paper argues...") is discussed
in the context of changes in the rhetoric of scientific discourse.
The book is mainly of interest to linguists and graduate students
in the areas of English syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.
General
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