Transcript English and Chinese Passive Constructions

English and Chinese (Mandarin) Passive Constructions
Sentence Structure
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Mandarin
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NP1 [recipient] + bei (+ NP2 [agent]) +verb
English
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NP1 [recipient] + be + -ed participle (short
passive)
NP1 [recipient] + be + -ed participle +by NP2
[agent] (long passive)
Use and Function
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Mandarin
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Disposal - an entity or person is dealt with
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Allow affected entity to be NP other than direct
object
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E.g. ta bei ren tou le
yi – ge dianhua
3sg BEI person steal PFV one – CL telephone
English
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Not for expressing disposal meaning
Use and Function
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Mandarin
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Adversity - express an adverse situation
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Implications of adversity with neutral verbs
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E.g. ta de xingdong bei ren zhidao le
3sg GEN action BEI person know CRS
English
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Not for expressing adversity
Use and Function
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English
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Important means of reordering words
(meaning not drastically changed)
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Rare in conversation
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E.g. John bought the mirror
The mirror was bought by John.
Too formal
More common in academic prose, news
Use and Function
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Short Passive
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Convenient means for leaving out agent
Unknown
 Redundant
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E.g. The thief was arrested.
Irrelevant
Use and Function
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Long Passive
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Tendency to place heavy elements towards
the end
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E.g. The suggestion was objected by the whole
class of students
Subject contains given information and agent
contains new information
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E.g. He found a novel on the shelf and the novel
was written by Amy.
Use and Function (English)
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Possible with most transitive verbs
Verbs only possible with passive
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E.g. John was said to be a lazy student.
*They said John to be a lazy student.
Use and Function
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Frequency of usage
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Mandarin passive < English passive
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Restriction to adversity and disposal in Mandarin
Mandarin influenced by English
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Increasing number of bei constructions not
expressing adversity
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E.g. ta bei xuan zuo
huizhang le
3sg BEI elect serve:as chariman PFV
Variant Forms
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Mandarin
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bei replaced by gei, jiao, rang
used in conversation
 content words with independent meanings
 jiao and rang
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cannot replace bei in sentence NP1 bei verb
 E.g. *wo jiao/rang pian
le
I
cheat PFV
Variant Forms (Mandarin)
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bei replaced by jiao…gei, rang… gei
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E.g. huaping jiao/rang ta gei dapo
vessel
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3sg
strengthen disposal function
le
break PFV
Variant Forms
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English
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be replaced by get
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E.g. He got cheated.
Variant Forms (English)
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Get
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Less frequent than be-passive
Avoided in formal English
Restricted to conversation and colloquial fiction
Limited to constructions without an expressed agent
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E.g. He got discovered.
Reflection of unfavorable attitude towards action
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E.g. Why did the chocolates get eaten?
Variant Forms (English)
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Verbs common with get passive
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E.g. married, hit, involved, left, stuck
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E.g. She got married last Sunday.
Usually with negative connotations
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left, hit, stuck
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E.g. He got left in the dark room.
Constraints
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Common constraints in English and Mandarin passive
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Verb constraints
 Active only verbs: copula and intransitive verb
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E.g. *He is been a boy.
E.g. *ta bei shi ge nanhai le
3sg BEI be CL boy PFV
E.g. *He was swum.
E.g.*ta bei youyong le
3sg BEI swim PFV
Stative (middle) verbs: transitive but no sense in passive
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E.g. * The girl was liked by him.
E.g. *na nu
haizi bei ta xihuan
that female child BEI 3sg like.
Constraints (English & Mandarin)
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Object constraints
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Coreference between subject and noun phrase object
blocks passive correspondence
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Reflexive pronoun
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E.g. *Himself was scared by him.
E.g. *ziji bei ta long shang le
self BEI 3sg make hurt PFV
Reciprocal pronoun
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E.g. * Each other is loved.
E.g. * bi ci
bei women xiang’ai
le
each other BEI we reciprocal love PFV
Constraints
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Mandarin
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Definite subject
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E.g. na ge beizi bei diaodiao
le
that CL cup BEI throw away PFV
Cannot ends with a verb only (extra element
needed)
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Perfective marker -le: the most common and
simplest extra element
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E.g. ta bei da le
3sg BEI bit PFV
Constraints (Mandarin)
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Only few verbs can occur in passive
sentence with adversely affected indirect
object
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tou (steal), qiang (rob), duo (snatch), ying
(win)
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E.g. ta bei ren qiang le shoudai
3sg BEI person rob PFV handbag
Constraints (Mandarin)
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bei NP cannot be an instrument NP used by a
person or an animate being
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E.g. *dianshi bei yaokong chi kai le
television BEI remote control open PFV
bei NP can be an inanimate NP affecting action
on their own if adversity is inferred
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E.g. yifu
bei yushui long shi
le
clothes BEI rainwater make wet PFV/CRS
Constraints (English)
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Prepositional verbs – figurative use only
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E.g. This matter will be gone into.
E.g.*The tunnel will be gone into.
Single-object prepositional verbs
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E.g. *Tony was looked at by me.
Exceptions
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E.g. Peter can be relied on to repair the car.
Object - possessive pronoun
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E.g. *Her leg was laid by May on the bed.
(May laid her leg on the bed)
The End