1436 Chapter 16 Information packaging

complement: "'They say Kim to be a manic depressive; in other constructions) of course,

it occurs freely in the active. 40

10.1.3 Adjectival passives

There is a large-scale overlap between adjectives and the past participle forms of verbs,
and since the verb be can take complements headed by either of these categories we
find a significant resemblance, and often an ambiguity, between a verbal passive and a
complex-intransitive clause containing an adjectival passive as predicative complement.
Compare:
[32] i The kitchen window was broken by the thieves. [verbal: be-passive]
ii They were very worried. [adjectival: complex-intransitive]
lii They were married. [ambiguous)
Broken in [i[ is a verb, worried in [ii] is an adjective, while married in [iii) can be either.
The ambiguity of [iii] is very clear: in the verbal interpretation it is dynamic, describing an
event, while in the adjectival interpretation it is static, describing the state resulting from
some prior event. Compare They were married last week in London (verbal) and Hardly
anyone knew that they were married - that they had been for over ten years (adjectival).
We will see, however, that this sharp semantic distinction does not apply in all cases.
Adjectival passives are passive only in a derivative sense) and we will not say that
[32ii-iii] in their statal interpretations are passive clauses: they belong to the complex-
intransitive construction. The term adjectival passive applies only to the predicative
complement, that is, to the AdjPs very worried and married. Thus the clause They were
very worried is not itself an adjectival passive - it merely contains one. Passives in the
strict sense are always verbal j 4\ more specifically, we restrict the term be-passive to clauses
like [i] or [iii] in its dynamic interpretation, i.e. to clauses in which beis a catenative verb
taking a bare verbal passive as complement.

• Grammatical tests for adjectival status

(a) Modification by very: a sufficient condition
Adjectives differ from verbs in that (if gradable) they can be modified by very and too
(in the sense "excessively"), whereas verbs cannot (Ch. 6, §2.2). Compare:
[33] ADJECTIVE VERB
i a. It was [very enjoyable]. b. *We [very enjoyed it].
ii a. They are [too quarrelsome]. b. 'They [quarrel too].
(The [b] examples can be corrected by inserting much: We enjoyed it very much; They
quarrel too much.)
The presence of very in [}2ii] thus makes this unambiguously adjectival. Similarly He
was too embarrassed by their behaviour to acknowledge that he was their son can only be
adjectival. This example shows that adjectival passives allow by complements (though

0
4 For some speakers take ill is also restricted to the passive, as in They were taken ill ("became ill"); others allow
an active intransitive with the same meaning, '*'They took ilL In BrE the past participle form spelt born is also
restricted to the passive: compare I was bom in Boston and She "ad borne three children. This use of born is
found only in short passives (cf. ·He was born by a Greek peasant).
41 Adjectival passives are sometimes called 'pseudo-passives', though this term is more widely used for preposi-
tional passives.

111111111111111111111I11'1'1"'111111111'1111'11'11111111""""'1"'' '"".,

.I
 there are restrictions we will return to below): the too is sufficient to establish that it
is adjectival, for it is not permitted in the active verbal construction *Their behaviour
embarrassed him too for him to acknowledge that he was their son.
Not all adjectives are gradable, however, and the potential for modification by very
thus provides asufficient but not a necessary test for adjectival status. In The new recruits
were assembled outside the officers' mess, for example, assembled cannot be modified by
very, but this doesn't mean that the example cannot be adjectival- it is in fact ambiguous,
like 132iii].
(b) Occurrence with other verbs taking predicative complements
Adjectival predicative complements are not restricted to occurrence with be but are
found also with such verbs as seem, look, and remain. All of these can substitute for be in
[32ii], but not in [i]: They seemed very worried, but not 'The kitchen window seemed broken
by the thieves. Leaving aside meant and supposed, which involve semantic specialisation
illustrated in [45] below, there are no adjectival passives that are restricted to occurrence
with be, so this test virtually provides a necessary condition for adjectival status: if becan't
be replaced by other such verbs, the passive in question is normally verbal. It is believed
to be a forgery and Someone was heard moving around in the attic, for example, exclude
such verbs and are unambiguously verbal. Note, then, that while assembled cannot be
modified by very it can occur as a complement to remain: The new recruits remained
assembled outside the officers' mess for over an hour. Replacement of be by remain also
serves to remove the ambiguity of [iii] in favour ofan adjectival reading: They didn't live
together but thev remained married. This test confirms, moreover, that adjectival passives
may contain a by phrase: He remained too embarrassed by their behaviour to acknowledge
that he was their son.
(c) The negative prefix un·
Many adjectives form opposites by prefixation of un·, but verbs do not take un· with the
Sanle sense:
[34] ADJECTIVE VERB
i a. They were unrepentant. b. 'They unrepented.
ii a. It was unmemorable. b. *We unrememhered it.
Where un· occurs with verbs, as in untie, unhorse, etc., it has a clearly different sense (cf.
Ch. '9, §S.S). The presence of un· in the following thus marks them clearly as adjectival,
for there are no verbs unanswer and unnotice:
[3S] i The/etter was still unanswered.
ii The cat was unnoticed by the guests for several minutes.
The adjectives here are UDgradable, and hence can't be modified by very or too, but they
pass test (b): The letter remained unanswered; The cat remained unnoticed. Notice again
the by phrase in the indisputably adjectival example [ii] .

• Dynamic vs stative
Adjectival passives always have astative interpretation. The clearest contrasts are between
verbal and adjectival passives that differ as to whether they are interpreted dynamically
or statively:
[36J i They were injured when the platform they were standing on collapsed. [verbal]
ii She is injured and will have to miss the next two matches. [adjectival]
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Chapter 16 Information packaging

Similarly, the obvious ambiguities are those that allow either a dynamic or a stative
interpretation, such as They were injured on its own, They were married (=132iiiJ), The
window was broken, and so on.
It must be emphasised, hmvever, that adjectival and verbal passives cannot be distin-
guished simply by asking whether the interpretation is stative or dynamic - it is for this
reason that we have not included this among the tests for adjectival status. There are h"o
points to be made.
(a) Verbal passives may have a stative meaning
The meaning of a verbal passive matches that of the corresponding active. Compare:
[37] DYNAMIC STATlVE
i 3.Everyone criticised her. b. Everyorle loves her.
ii a. She was criticised by everyone. b. She is loved by everyone.
Criticise has a dynamic meaning, while love has a stative meaning, and in both cases the active
These =.
memo ~ii:
and passive have the same interpretation. The grammatical relation behveen [ii] and [i] is
beca ~.':t~ bm
the same in both pairs, so we must allow [iib] to be a verbal passive - i,e. a passive proper- as
well as liia]. It follows that we must accept that verbal passives can be stative. Byp:-.c'-""
In such cases the difference in meaning between the verbal and adjectival constructions We ha:~
is neutralised. Consider:
[38] i Kim was worried by the prospect ofredundancy
ii The village was surrounded by troops from the First Battalion.
Example [i] can be consttued as differing syntactically from the active The prospect ofredun-
dancy worried Kim in the same way as [37iialbJ differ from [37ialb] respectively. We have
to allow. therefore, that it can be an ordinary, i.e. a verbal, passive counterpart of the active
clause. But at the same time it passes the tests for an adjectival passive, for worried can be
modified by very and be can be replaced by such verbs as seem and become: compare the
unequivocally adjectival Kim seemed very worried by the prospect ofredundancy. Syntactically,
{J8il can thus be either a verbal or an adjectival passive, but semantically, there is no real
perceptible difference in meaning.
Example [38ii] is more complicated, because the verbal passive, like its active counterpart
Troops from the First BaNalion surrounded the village, is ambiguous between a dynamic and
a stative interpretation: either the troops moved into position around the village or else they
were already in that position. Note that adding the aspectual adjunct still to either the passive
or the active version forces the stative reading. In addition, we have the adjectival construal,
whose meaning is effectively the same as that of the stative reading ofthe verbal passive. Vve can
show that there must be an adjectival analysis of the clause because although surrounded can't
be modified by very, it can combine with other verbs than be: The village remainedsurrounded.
(b) Adjectival passives may function as the predicative complement of a dynamic verb
Compare next the following pair:
[39] i It was magnetised. [verbal or adjertival]
ii It became magnetised. [adjectival]
Example [I] displays the familiar ambiguity found in They were injured, They were married,
and so on. It can have a dynamic interpretation, like the active They magnetised it, which
describes an event: in this case it is a verbal passive. It can also have a stative interpretation,
with magnetised denoting the state resulting from a prior event of magnetisation: in this case
it is an adjectival passive. In [iil magnetised is adjectival because it is a complement to become.
The verb become denotes a change of state and thus has a dynamic meaning, so liil as a whole
 describes an event. But this is not in conflict with our statement that adjectival passives have
a stative meaning: the dynamic component in the meaning of [iiJ is attributable to become,
while the adjectival passive magnetised still denotes the state resulting from magnetisation. 4Z

, Complementation
Verbs and adjectives differ to some extent in their complementation, so that some ex-
pressions are admissible as VPs of verbal passives but not as AdjPs in adjectival passives,
or vice versa. One very general difference is that verbs but not adjectives can take pred-
icative complements. In other cases there are restrictions applying to specific le.x:emes.
,.;
Compare:
[40) i Kim was regarded as/considered a liabiliry, [predicative complementJ
ii Max was known to be an alcoholic. [infinitival complement]
These are unambiguously verbal passives, [iJ because it contains a predicative comple-
the l ..""tive
ment, [ii] because the adjective known can't take an infinitival complement: compare He
rm": ::: is
-:-3S
bemme known as a champion ailost causes and "He became known to be an alcoholic.
By phrase complements
,cons We have noted that by phrase complements are found in adjectival as well as verbal
passives) but their occurrence in the adjectival construction is much more restricted
than in the verbal one. Compare:
[41J i The window was broken, [ambiguous: verbal or adjectival]
ii The window was broken by vandals, [unambiguously verbal]
Example [i) displays the familiar ambiguity between a verbal passive clause describing an
event C'Someone or something broke the window") and a complex-intransitive with an
adjectival passive complement describing a state ("The window was in the state resulting
from prior breaking"). The by phrase in [ill. however. is incompatible with the adjectival
construction. so [iiJ has only the verbal reading ("Vandals broke the window"). That
broken but not broken by vandals can be adjectival is confirmed by the second of our tests
for adjectival status, occurrence with complex-intransitive verbs other than be. Thus we
can have The window remained broken, but not "'The window remained broken by vandals.
Bypbrases are permitted in adjectival passives when the meaning ofthe corresponding
verb is stative but not when it is dynamic. Adjectival worried by the prospect ofredundancy
in [38il is admissible because the corresponding verb, worry. has astative meaning. but-
as we have just seen - broken by vandals cannot be adjectival because the verb break is
dynamic. The verb surround can have either a dynamic or a stative meaning, so [ii] con-
strued as a verbal passive is ambiguous, but as we noted above it is unambiguously st3tive
when construed as a complex-intransitive with an adjectival passive as a complement. 43
There are also cases where the complement in an adjectival passive contains some
other preposition instead of by:
·,~"civall
[42] i a, She was pleased ill rhese resulrs, b. She was pleased .b' rhese res"lrs,
~-:r.-al]
ii a. He is known !Q the police. b. The amwer was known l2x everyone.
. "
~...t.Z,1'T'.-:'~

':it=,. f.-bi-:3
42Because the become construction presents the event as a change of slate, the meaning is not quite the same as
that of a verbal be-passive. In many cases the latter will be strongly preferred: The house was painted, rather
than =rhe house became pain.ted, and so on.
43 For adjectival passives with the IIn· prefix there are no corresponding verbs, as we have nored. This construction
allows by phrase complements more freely, as evident from ullnoticed by the guests in 13Siil.
 Olapter 16 Information packaging

The raj examples are adjectival, while the [b] ones can be verbal or adjectival. again have t(: .
ambiguity ~ .
fc Adjectival passives with the negative prefix un'
We have noted that Sllch examples as the following are unambigtlously adjectival becallSe
[46J i Tk."
there are no corresponding verbs unrepair, unaccount, ut/see:
u Th".,
iii Th~.-:.
[43 J i The vehicle had to go ,,"repaired for several months.
Example ii: :.i'
ii Nearly half the money was una~ceounted for.
the active ~
iii He had remained unseen throughout the meeting.
adjectival. - _
There are three further points to make about this construction. 44 Tn the first place, only

I
the degree :;0':
AdjPs like those in [43] can occur as complements to the verb go in the sense "remain", passive, carr.::
as in [i]. Thus, although It wellt black is acceptable, go here means "become, turn", not children, w.;:~'
"remain". Secondly, the adjective may incorporate a preposition. as in [ii]. Although we Ambigui::i~
i
have argued that in We accounted for more than halfthe money the sequence accounted for I with get th"".
is not a verb, and not a syntactic constituent. the unaccounted for of (ii] is a compound I
adjective. The difference in status is reflected in the fact that the verb can be separated
from the preposition whereas in the adjectival construction the parts are inseparable.
Compare We have accounted already fQr the money and ""The money was unaccounted still As we hayc.:,
something :-.
hr·
Thirdly, the morphological process of forming such negative adjectives is highly compleme::::.:
productive, and in many cases the form without the prefix occurs in verbal but not [ii], howeye.
adjectival passives. For example, unseen is an adjective, but seen is not: compare [43iii] or sometli.:.:b
with "He had remained seen througho"t the meeting. A sample of forms in un· found in accepts ac..:e-~"
adjectival passives is given in {44]: The cle""

[44] unaffected unaided unattended unbalanced unchanged undaunted

frightened 0: I
A clear no::-~
undetected undeterred unfettered unharmed unheeded unhindered
Compare L4;;(:,
unimpeded unintended unmoved unopposed unprotected unseen
got caugh::'r-;
unspoiled unsupported unswayed untouched untroubled unwanted
and shai't~; ~
;" Adjectival passives with specialised senses vs verb di~
There are a few adjectives that are morphologically related to the past participles of
verbs but whose meanings have changed, so that they are no longer comparable to
verbal passives with the same forms, and their connection with passives proper is purely
historical:
[45 J She's boulld to win. We're ellgaged (to be married). Aren't you meant to be
working Ot/ your assignment? His days are numbered. Are you related?
I'm supposed to pay for it. He iS1J't used to hard work.

10.'04 Get-passives
!'c:; Get in passive and complex-intransitive clauses
Like be, the verb get functions not only as the catenative verb in an e}..'panded passive but
also as head of a complex-intransitive clause) as in They got angry. Since the predicative
complement in the latter construction can have the form of an adjectival passive, we

44 Adjectival passives of this kind are often caUed •un·passives:

 again have to distinguish between verbal and adjectival passives. with the potential for
ambiguity between them:
[46J i They got killed by the hijackers. [verbal: get-passive]
ii They got very frightened. [adjectival: complex-intransitive)
iii They got frightened. [ambiguous]
Example [i] is synonymous with the be-passive They were killed by the hijackers and with
the active The hijackers killed them, while the very in [ii] makes this example clearly
adjectival, "They became very afraid". Example [ill] can be interpreted like [ii] without
n:_y
the degree modification: "They became afraid". But it can also be interpreted as a short
passive, comparable to the long passive They gotfrightened out oftheir wits by their teenage
children, who tt/rned off the power supply and pretended to be ghosts.
Ambiguities between verbal and adjectival passives. however. arise much less often
with get than with be. Compare, for example:
[47] i The window was broken. [ambiguous: verbal or adjectival]
ii The window gQ[ brokw. [unambiguous: verbal only J
As we have seen, [i] is ambiguous, interpretable either as a verbal passive ("Someone or
something broke the window") or as a complex-intransitive with an adjectival passive
complement ("The window was in the state resulting from prior breaking"). Example
[ii], however, has only the verbal passive reading: it describes the event of someone
or something breaking the window, not the transition into the brokeo state. Thus get

I
accepts adjectival passives as complements less readily than be.
The dearest cases of adjectival passives with get involve gradable adjectives like the
frightened of [46}: alarmed, carried away, depressed. distressed. interested, worried, ete.
~
A clear non-gradable is lost, as in The children got lost in the woods ("became lost").
Compare also adjectival My coat got caught in the door ("became caught") vs verbal Tom
I
f
t'
got caught ill the girls' dormitory ("was apprehended"). With married, dressed, changed,
~! and shaved there is a semantic contrast that can plausibly be attributed to the adjective
vs verb distinction:
[48 ] i They are getting married at the week-elld. [adjectival]
ii They are hopillg to get married by the bishop. [verbal]
[n [i] married is comparable to engaged, which we have already noted is (in the relevant
sense) always adjectival - though married, unlike engaged, does not readily combine with
become: We became engaged/'married. The by phrase in [ii] makes this clearly verbal -
compare They are hoping that the bishop will marry them. Two other forms commonly
found as adjectives with get (though again not with become) are started and fillished, as in
Let's get started/fillished - compare verbal The job gotfinished by their SOil. The difference
in these last examples is that with the verbal passives there is some explicit or implicit
agent (expressed in [48iiJ by the bishop) distinct from the subject-referent, whereas in
OU;(: the adjectival cases there is not. For example, [48iJ means much the same as They are
marrying (each other), and Let's get started much the same as Let's start.

Differences between get-passives and be-passives

Be is much more commonly used in expanded passives than get, especially the long
variety, i.e. those with an internalised complement. The main differences between the
two types of expanded passive are summarised in [49):
[49] i Get-passives tend to be avoided in formal style.
ii Get-passives are found only with dynamic verbs.
IIIGet-passives are more conducive to an agentive interpretation of the subject.
iv Get-passives are characteristically used in clauses involving adversity or benefit
Nothing further need be said abont [iJ, but the other points merit brief discussion.
The restriction to dynamic verbs
Point l49ii] reflects the fact that other uses of get are all dynamic -compare I got at-shirt
for my birthday, We had to get some more milk, etc. [t follows that be is not replaceable by
get in such examples as:
[50] i It was/'w believed that the/etter was a forgery.
ii Obvio,,,Iy, the mallager i>/'grufeared by most of the staff.
Note similarly that the dynamic-stative ambiguity of the be-passive [38iij, The village
was surrounded by troops from the First Battalion., is lost when we substitute get: The
village got surrounded by troops from the First Battalion describes the event wherein they
took tip position around the village.
Agentivity
Other things being equal, get tends to be preferred over be when the subject-referent is
seen as having an agentive role in the situation, or at least as having some responsibility
for it. Take for example the pair fill was/got arrested. Either conld be used to report au
event where jill simply had a patient role, but if I believe she set out to provoke the
police into arresting her or was careless in letting it happen I will be more likely to use
the get version. Get is thus the natural choice in fill deliberately got arrested, and such
constructions as:
[51] i She managed to W transferred to the finance departme",.
ii Go and gn checked out at the medical centre.
iii Getting elected president of the student uni011 took a lot oftime and effort.
iv He did a silly thing: he W caught downloading pornography on their computer.
Advetsity and benefit
Get occurs predominantly in passives representing situations that have an adverse or
a beneficial effect on the subject-referent, or on someone associated with it, rather
than in passives representing purely neutral situations. Typical examples are shown
in [52]:
[521 i a. Kim got sarked. b. Kim got promoted.
ii a. My watch got stolen. b. My letter got published.
The situations described in [i) are normally thought of as respectively bad and good for
Kim, those in [ii] as bad and good for me, the owner ofthe watch and writer of the letter.
Such examples are much more natural than, say, The milk got bought at the store down
the road or The door got opened by a shabbily dressed old man, where be is preferred.
10.2 Prag=lticl
There are some instances where be and get are not interchangeable:
[531 i Kim wasl'got seen to leave the laboratory with Dr Smith.
ii He saw Kim get/obe mauled by my brother's dog.
otbe: Tlr·
.,.,/ .~.

Both of these involve sense verbs with non-finite complements. In [i] it is see itself that
is passivised, and here be is required. In [iil it is the complement of see that is passivised,
and this time be is excluded - but an alternative to the get construction is a bare passive:
He saw Kim mauled by my brother's dog.

Get in the complex catenative construction

The get-passive is a simple catenative construction, one with no intervening NP be-
tween get and the non-finite complement. Get is also found (unlike be) in the complex
construction where there is an intervening NP;
[54] a. I get my hair cut once a month. b. J got mY5elfexempted from guard duties.
Where the intervening NP is a reflexive, as in [b], the construction is explicitly agentive,
with the subject-referent taking the initiative or being responsible (cf. Watch out! You're
going to get yourself nm over). This construction thus provides an alternative to get-
passives with agentive subject interpretations. Compare, for example, [Slij with She
managed to get herself transferred to the finance department.

Status ofthe catenative verb in be- and get-passives

In the light of the above examination of get, consider again the analysis of such clauses as:
[55] i The hospital board reprimanded both doctors. [active]
ii Both dodors were reprimanded by the hospital board. Ibe-passivel
iii Both dodors got reprimanded by the hospital board. [get-passive I
All three have the same prepositional meaning, and on this basis we are treating {ii] and [ill]
as alternative passive counterparts to active [i]. Be and get are catenative verbs taking a bare
passive clause as complement: the be and get clauses are expanded passives in the sense that
they include be and get in addition to the bare passive. The implication is that be and get are
dummy verbs with no identifiable meaning of their own - comparable in this respect to the
do of do-support constructions. That is, they have a purely syntactic role: they serve to mark
the passive voice and to carry the preterite tense inflection that appears on reprimand in the
active, as explained in §1O.1.1.
As far as be-passives are concerned, this treatment seems amply justified, but get passives
8

are more problematic. It is clear that in the complexcatenative construction illustrated in {54]
get is not a dummy verb, nor a passive marker: the get clauses here are not themselves pas~
sive, but merely contain passive clauses as complements. The get-passive analysis of clauses
like [S5iiij thus treats this get in a radically different way from that of the comple.x construc-
tion [54J in spite of the semantic affinity beh....een such pairs as She managed to get transferred
and She managed to get herselftransferred. An alternative treatment of l5Siii] would be to say
that here, as in [54], it is only the embedded complement that is passive, with the matrix get
clause being active. However, the get-passive analysis is to be preferred on the grounds that
the unembedded forms She got transferred and She got hmeif transferred do clearly differ,
with the agentive feature being merely a possible implicature in the former.

10.2 Pragmatic factors favouring actives or passives

This section deals with issues of information packaging: when both active and pas-
sive versions are formally permitted, what factors favour the choice of one over the
other? The long and short passive constructions will be considered separately because