Passive in Danish, English, and German

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.