Agentless Passives and Diagramming the Passive

1
Agentless Passives and Diagramming the Passive

• Ed McCorduck
• English 402--Grammar
• SUNY Cortland
• http//mccorduck.cortland.edu

2
slide 2 definition of an agentless passive

• agentless passives sentences in the passive
  voice that dont have a by phrase, hence in which
  the subject of the active-voice equivalent (i.e.,
  the agent) is not given

English 402 Grammar
3
slide 3 examples of passive sentences without
expressed agents

• exx
• Nuclear weapons are made from fissible materials.
• (Scientists) make nuclear weapons from
  fissible materials.
• My pet scorpion has been stolen.
• (Someone/somebody/a crook) has stolen my
  pet scorpion.
• Saddam was acclaimed a Sunni national hero.
• (People/They) acclaimed Saddam a
  national hero.

English 402 Grammar
4
slide 4 difference between normal passive
sentences and agentless passives

• Therefore, unlike the normal derivation of a
  passive sentence from an active-voice one as we
  saw in The Passive Voice lecture, in the
  derivation of an agentless passive we must assume
  that there always is an actual, indefinite agent,
  i.e., a subject of the active sentence, even if
  this is not expressed through a by phrase in the
  passive

English 402 Grammar
5
slide 5 derivation of a passive sentence with an
expressed agent (a by phrase)

• active
• The cut-rate hospital discards
  the body parts every evening.
• subj pres MV (discard)
  dir obj ADV
• ?
• passive
• The body parts are discarded by
  the cut-rate hospital every evening.
• dir obj pres be -en MV (discard)
  subj ADV

English 402 Grammar
6
slide 6 derivation of an agentless passive

• cf.
• active (with indefinite subject)
• Somebody/A lackey discards
  the body parts every evening.
• subj pres MV (discard)
  dir obj ADV
• ?
• agentless passive
• The body parts are discarded
  every evening.
• dir obj pres be -en MV (discard)
  ADV

English 402 Grammar
7
slide 7 how by phrases are handled in
Reed-Kellogg diagrams

• In Reed-Kellogg diagrams of passive sentences,
  since by is a preposition a by phrase is
  diagrammed like any other prepositional phrase,
  that is, the head preposition by is given on a
  slanted line connected to the predicate on the
  main horizontal line and the slanted line
  connects to a horizontal line parallel with the
  main horizontal line on which is the head of the
  NP that corresponds to the agent in the active.

English 402 Grammar
8
slide 5 derivation of another passive sentence
with an expressed agent (a by phrase)

• ex
• active The girl decked the
  boy. (Pattern VII)
• subj past MV (deck) dir obj
  
• ?
• passive The boy was decked
  by the girl.
• dir obj past be -en MV (deck)
  subj

English 402 Grammar
9
slide 9 Reed-Kellogg of the active sentence in
slide 8
Reed-Kellogg diagram of The girl decked the boy
English 402 Grammar
10
slide 10 Reed-Kellogg of the passive sentence in
slide 8
Reed-Kellogg diagram of The boy was decked by the
girl
English 402 Grammar
11
slide 11 review of how to make passives of
Pattern VIII sentences

• Recall from slide 19 of The Passive Voice
  lecture that in passive sentences derived from
  Pattern VIII active sentences, i.e., ones in
  which there is both a direct and an indirect
  object, either the direct object of the active
  equivalent (the patient) or the indirect object
  in the active can be made the subject of the
  passive sentence

English 402 Grammar
12
slide 12 alternative active and passive versions
of a Pattern VIII sentence

• active
• Virgil shows Dante Hell and Purgatory.
• indir obj dir obj
• Virgil shows Hell and Purgatory to Dante.
• dir obj indir obj
• passive
• Hell and Purgatory are shown to Dante by Virgil.
• Dante is shown Hell and Purgatory by Virgil.

English 402 Grammar
13
slide 13 Reed-Kellogg diagram of one of the
passives in slide 12
Here is the Reed-Kellogg diagram of the first of
these passive equivalents, Hell and Purgatory are
shown to Dante by Virgil
English 402 Grammar
14
slide 14 Reed-Kellogg diagram of a passive
derived from a Pattern IX sentence
Here is the Reed-Kellogg diagram of the passive
sentence Throckmorton had been thought totally
incorrigible by the townsfolk which is derived
from the Pattern IX active sentence The townsfolk
thought Throckmorton totally incorrigible which
contains an adjectival object complement (the
adjective phrase totally incorrigible)
English 402 Grammar
15
slide 15 Reed-Kellogg diagram of an agentless
passive sentence
Finally, here is the Reed-Kellogg diagram of the
agentless passive sentence My pet scorpion has
been stolen given in slide 3 above

• Note of course that the diagram does not contain
  a by phrase since, as in the sentence itself, the
  agent is not expressed.

English 402 Grammar