Pseudo-Passives as Adjectival Passives
نویسنده
چکیده
The pseudo-passive is peculiar in that (i) the DP that appears to be the complement of a preposition undergoes passivization, and (ii) it is semantically characterized by the fact that it describes a resultant state or a characteristic of the Theme. The first peculiarity can be explained if the DP is not the complement of P but the complement of the V-P complex. However, the problem with this approach is that V and P cannot form a constituent in the corresponding active. In this paper, however, I propose that we can maintain the V-P complex approach if it is an adjectival passive. The adjectival passive describes a characteristic of the Theme, and it does not necessarily correspond to its active counterpart with regard to the internal argument structure. This suggests that the peculiarities of the pseudo-passive follow if it is an adjectival passive. This paper claims that it is indeed the case. In short, I claim that the passive morpheme in the pseudo-passive is the adjectival passive –en, which is empirically supported by the fact that they display the properties of adjectival passives.
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