A Study on Passive Constructions of English

Abstract

Having reviewed the previous literature from the traditional, structural, transformational and cognitive approaches, we detected more or less problems or incompleteness. In this thesis, we try to study passive construction of English. The primary aim of this thesis is to categorize the syntactic analyses based on the properties of passive constructions. At the beginning, we will see what is passive, and how to analyze it. The next purpose is to list some basic properties of passive construction. The study on the English passive construction has often been thought of as the analysis of the relationship with its active counterpart in both semantic and syntactic characteristics. In this part we will examine traditional approach and transformational approach. In the following part we will examine morphology the types of passive. Chapter one introduces the aim of studying passive construction. Chapter two introduces general syntactic properties of passive construction. Chapter three deals with the syntactic analysis, with regard to the semantics of the passive construction, referring to some previous works of passive construction. Chapter four introduces seven types of passive constructions according to the examples: Transitive passive, Complex Transitive Passive, Phrasal Verb Passive, Intransitive Passive, Complex Intransitive Passive, Adjective Passive, and Get Passive. Finally, by considering all the syntactic and semantic accounts, we try to explain the passive constructions in English as clearly as we can.

Key words : passive, passive construction, traditional approach, transformational approach, transitive passive, complex transitive passive, phrasal verb passive, intransitive passive, complex intransitive passive, adjective passive, get passive