Fossilisation of Passive in English: Analysis of Passive Verbs

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1For example, Toyota, "Lexical Analysis," 588–91; Toyota, Diachronic Change, 9–13. 2Nedjalkov and Jaxontov, 4. 3Quirk et al., 804; Levin, 107. 4Stein, 149–62. 5Ibid., 147–67. 6OED, s.v. bound v.1 2. 7OED, s.v. endue v. IV. 5. 8OED, s.v. endue v. IV. 9. 9Kern, 18. 10OED, s.v. rumour v. 2d. 11OED, s.v. cloister v. 2†b. 12First introduced in Silverstein. 13See Comrie for a similar argument. 14Givón, On Understanding, 58–9. 15For a similar argument, see, among others, Anderson, 227–8; Givón, On Understanding, 152; Croft, 315; Saeed, 170. 16Jespersen, 168; Givón, On Understanding, 57–64; Huddleston, 441; Dixon, 278. 19Kittilä, 23. 17Klaiman, "Affectedness"; Klaiman, Grammatical Voice. 18Lakoff; Hopper and Thompson; Taylor, 222–46. 20Hopper and Thompson, 253. 21Ibid., 288. 22Siewierska, 93–125. 23Quirk et al., 1181. It is also known as opacity-inducing verbs (cf. Lumsden, 82–6). 24Toyota, "Empty Subject"; Givón, "Topic continuity." 25Svartvik, 183–5; OED, s.v. it, pron. B. 4.b. 26Mustanoja, 226–7, 438. 27Some such examples may be found, e.g. One will be informed as soon as the result is out. However, such use of indefinite pronouns is more than impersonalisation. There is a usage to avoid the egocentricity of I, and one can be used for such purpose (cf. Quirk et al., 387–8, 1467). So indefinite pronouns may appear with the passive, but their function involves a special type of impersonalisation. 28Faltz, 3. 29Croft, Shyldkrot, and Kemmer; Givón, Syntax, 602–5; Greenberg, 150. 30Toyota, Diachronic Change, 115–18. 31Ibid., 15–40. 32Ibid., 103–13. 33Ibid., 115–28. 34Li and Thompson. 35See Shibatani. 39The following abbreviations are used in this example: DAT, dative; IMPERS, impersonal; SG, singular. 36Bauer, 111. 37There were about forty verbs classified as impersonal verbs in earlier English (cf. Pocheptsov for list of such verbs). The majority of them developed into "personal" verbs by the end of ME, but there are some marginal cases where some phrasal or modal verbs started to appear as "impersonal" verbs from "personal" during ME (some of them even around lME), such as have liefer"prefer,"must, ought, þurfe"need" (cf. Visser, §§33, 40–1, 1715; Plank, 322–3; Denison, 71–2). 38Van der Gaaf, 127–9. 40Visser, §1788. 41Toyota, Diachronic Change, 207–11. Additional informationNotes on contributorsJunichi Toyota Junichi Toyota is affiliated with Lund University, Sweden.