Passive in Danish, English, and German

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21248/hpsg.2013.8

Abstract

We show how the variation in the passive in Danish, English, and German can be accounted for. The dimensions in which the three languages differ are

  • the existence of a morphological passive in Danish
  • a subject requirement in Danish and English resulting in expletive insertion in impersonal constructions in Danish and absence of impersonal passives in English
  • the possibility to promote the secondary object to subject in Danish
The differences are accounted for by differences in the structural/lexical case distinction and by mapping processes that insert expletives in Danish. The passive in general is accounted for by a lexical rule that is uniform across languages and hence captures the generalization regarding passive.

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Published

2013-09-20

How to Cite

Müller, Stefan & Ørsnes, Bjarne. 2013. Passive in Danish, English, and German. Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar 140–160. (doi:10.21248/hpsg.2013.8) (https://proceedings.hpsg.xyz/article/view/802) (Accessed December 31, 2024.)

Issue

2013: Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar

Section

Conference papers