The by-phrase in the Czech passive participle (one way toward the analysis of the passive) Cover Image

By-fráze v českém participiálním pasivu (cesta k analýze pasiva)
The by-phrase in the Czech passive participle (one way toward the analysis of the passive)

Author(s): Petr Karlík
Subject(s): Western Slavic Languages
Published by: AV ČR - Akademie věd České republiky - Ústav pro jazyk český
Keywords: by-phrase; Czech data; passive participle; passive structure

Summary/Abstract: This study discusses the three probably most influential theories of the passive in generative grammar: Chomsky (1957), Jaeggli (1986) and Collins (2005), aiming to evaluate their proposed analyses of the passive structure in terms of their adequacy with regard to the syntactic and semantic properties of the by-phrase in the Czech long passive, i.e. the structure “be – passive participle –DP with instrumental case (= by-phrase)”. It is shown that from this perspective, the most adequate theory of the verbal passive is the one by Collins (2005; 2018b), called “smuggling analysis”. This is because it naturally explains the thematic interpretation of the by-phrase and determines its distribution in the passive structure. The smuggling analysis predicts that the Czech by-phrase(= DP with instrumental case) is the external argument and has the same semantic/thematic interpretation as the [Spec, vP]-argument of the active clause. This theory is entirely consistent with other principles of generative grammar, especially with the UTAH hypothesis (Baker, 1988).

  • Issue Year: 103/2020
  • Issue No: 1-2
  • Page Range: 97-112
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Czech