be + past participle + preposition

Question

Hello everyone. I have a request for you.

Regarding the two pairs of sentences:

(A) I oppose this proposal.
(B) I am opposed to this proposal.

(C) John marries Alice.
(D) John is married to Alice.

I find it interesting to learn that these two sets of sentences are close in meaning to each other. The fact that the construction "be + past participle + preposition" holds the meaning of the original transitive verb interests me and drives me to search for some other examples like these. Could you please lend me your wisdom?

Fivejedjon · Accepted Answer

seagull(C) John marries Alice. (D) John is married to Alice.

These two are not close in meaning.

The first refers to the wedding ceremony, as in John marries Alice next Saturday

The second means that John is Mary's husband (and, of course, Mary is John's wife}.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Oppose and marry are dynamic verbs. They imply some action, such as active opposition and signing a legal contract with another person in a wedding ceremony.

Opposed and married are adjectives describing the state of being against, and the state of wedlock.

A person who opposes a proposal sometimes does so because the majority of their constituents are opposed to it, and they need these votes to get elected. There are politicians who proclaim, "I will oppose all laws that promote gay marriage" when they themselves are fine with the idea.

CalifJim · Answer

seagullhe fact that the construction "be + past participle + preposition" holds the meaning of the original transitive verb interests me and drives me to search for some other examples like these. Could you please lend me your wisdom?

I suspect you are dealing here with a coincidence, a curiosity. I doubt you'll be able to find many more such pairs of sentences.

CJ

CalifJim · Answer

Addendum

Coming at this phenomenon from a completely different direction, Beth Levin (English Verb Classes and Alternations, The University of Chicago Press, 1993) mentions a group of verbs which look like candidates for the sorts of pairs you are interested in.

Levin creates subgroups of verbs on the basis of the preposition they take: with, into, to, and from. She lists both 'marry' and 'oppose' in the to-group, along with, for example, connect. Here's an example, not necessarily exactly parallel with yours:

This wire connects the speakers. / This wire is connected to the speakers.

The problem is that there is no consistent semantic relationship that applies to all such pairs. Further, there are a great many restrictions regarding which words can occur in these patterns.
____________

I can't say that I would encourage you in continuing the study of such verbs in the grammatical patterns you showed in your initial post unless you want to do the research for an advanced degree in English linguistics. I suspect it would be a difficult and thankless task.

CJ

Seagull · Answer

Thank you very much for your answer, Fivejedjon.

fivejedjon These two are not close in meaning.

I'll be careful when I use these expressions.

Seagull · Answer

Thank you so much for your explanation, AlpheccaStars.

Regarding the difference between "oppose" and "be opposed to," I've never seen such an excellent example you showed in your last paragraph. I really appreciate it.

Seagull · Answer

Thank you so much for your informative answer, CalifJim.

CalifJimI can't say that I would encourage you in continuing the study of such verbs in the grammatical patterns you showed in your initial post unless you want to do the research for an advanced degree in English linguistics. I suspect it would be a difficult and thankless task.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. I was asked a question on this phenomenon by a friend and did some research on it. But I didn't see any clear pattern regarding this and couldn't find any other examples, either. I also think I should give up continuing this study, which seems too difficult for me.

be + past participle + preposition

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