ATYPICAL PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR BOOKS

Abstract

All the way from the traditional to the contemporary grammar books of the English language, the passive construction has been defined on the basis of the close transformational relationship with its corresponding active counterpart. As a consequence of such an approach to this construction, many constructions that have reminded of the passive, with regard to their form and meaning, but did not have their corresponding active counterparts, have been neglected in grammatical accounts of this construction. In traditional and most contemporary grammars of the English language, such atypical passive constructions have been left out from the classifications of the passive constructions. Grammarians who recognized their existence limited it to the mere mentioning of such constructions. This has resulted in their marginalizatons, and at the same time, in the lack of the proper insight into such constructions. This can be avoided only if the transformational criterion stop being seen as the main criterion on which the definition of the passive construction is based. As a consequence, the passive construction will assume a certain amount of independence and its atypical forms will be given more space and attention in English grammar books. The aim of this paper is to show in which way atypical passive constructions have been treated in English grammars and to point out to the need of their inclusion and more extensive treatment in English grammar books.