Passive sentences in English and Portuguese / Milton M. Azevedo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Azevedo, Milton Mariano, 1942-

Language:

English

Portuguese

Subjects (All):

Portuguese language--Passive voice.

Portuguese language.

Portuguese language--Syntax.

Portuguese language--Semantics.

English language--Passive voice.

English language.

English language--Syntax.

English language--Semantics.

Portuguese language--Grammar, Comparative--English.

English language--Grammar, Comparative--Portuguese.

English language--Grammar, Comparative.

Physical Description:

iii, 124 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : Georgetown University Press, [1980]

Summary:

This study analyzes passive sentences in English and Portuguese which result from a post-semantic transformation applied when a noun, which does not play the semantic role of actor, is chosen as syntactic subject. Choice between a passive and its non-passive or active counterpart reflects differences in the distribution of information in the sentence as regards the relative importance of the latter's constituents for communication. Such distribution is analyzed in terms of Prague school theory, especially that involving the notions of communicative dynamism and the distribution of theme and rheme.

Portuguese sentences with the indeterminate pronoun se are analyzed here as the surface marker of an incompletely specified semantic actor. While such sentences overlap semantically with passives, they are structurally different from them and thus should not be considered a special type of passives.

The concluding part of the book presents a contrastive analysis of English and Portuguese passive sentence patterns. This contrastive analysis serves as the basis for observations on the teaching of Portuguese passives to native speakers of English.

Contents:

1 The Semantics Of Passives 6

1.1 On the notion of passive 6

1.2 A note on background 9

1.3 Theoretical considerations 16

1.3.1 Surface function assignment 19

1.3.2 Literalization 19

1.3.3 Primary linearization (PL) rules 20

1.3.4 Secondary linearization (SL) rules 21

1.4 Communicative dynamism and passivization 29

1.5 Passivization and contrastive sentences 36

1.6 Sample derivation of a passive sentence 40

2 Passives And Related Sentences 56

2.1 Other passive auxiliaries 56

2.2 Actor indeterminacy 62

2.2.1 A gente, a turma, o pessoal 65

2.2.2 Voce 66

2.2.3 O cara 66

2.2.4 Eles 66

2.2.5 The indeterminate se 67

3 Contrastive Analysis Of Passive Constructions 85

3.2 First set of patterns 87

3.3 Second set of patterns 94

3.4 Third set of patterns 100

3.5 Fourth set of patterns 103.

Notes:

A revision of the author's thesis, Cornell University, 1973.

Bibliography: pages 117-124.

ISBN:

0878400788 :

OCLC:

5777011