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JungKim Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

The company is loved/beloved by investors.

I'm trying to figure out whether a 'be + past participle' construction is in the legitimate passive voice or not.

For example, I think that the following 'be + past participle' construction is not in the passive even though it is followed by the preposition 'by' (Please correct me if I'm wrong.):
Thanks to Facebook and Twitter, the generation gap has never felt so wide--and children are so embarrassed by their parents behavior online they're defriending them and blocking them in their droves.

Now, turning over to the following pair:
(1) The company is loved by investors.
(2) The company is beloved by investors.

I think that (1) is in the passive voice, whereas (2) is not, 'beloved' simply being an adjective.

Am I on the right track? I'd like to know what native speakers think about my analysis.
  

Top answer

JungKim children are so embarrassed by their parents behavior online Without the agent ('behaviour'), it can be called 'static passive', where the participle approaches the nature of an adjective. However, when the agent is present and significant, as in your sentence, it is normal passive voice: The children are embarrassed by their parents' behaviour. Their parents' behaviour embarrasses the children .

— Mister Micawber

  • JungKim children are so embarrassed by their parents behavior online Without the agent ('behaviour'), it can be called 'static passive', where the participle approaches the nature of an adjective.
  • However, when the agent is present and significant, as in your sentence, it is normal passive voice: The children are embarrassed by their parents' behaviour.
  • Their parents' behaviour embarrasses the children .
  • It approaches an adjective when there is no obvious agent: I turn red when I am embarrassed .
  • I think that (1) is in the passive voice, whereas (2) is not, 'beloved' simply being an adjective.
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10 Answers
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JungKimchildren are so embarrassed by their parents behavior online
Without the agent ('behaviour'), it can be called 'static passive', where the participle approaches the nature of an adjective. However, when the agent is present and significant, as in your sentence, it is normal passive voice:

The children are embarrassed by their parents' behav
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Thanks, MM.
But the original sentence had the modifier "so", which modifies "embarrassed".
Can you put the same modifier "so" in the active voice?

*Their parents' behavior so embarrasses the children.
*Their parents' behavior embarrasses the children so.

I guess you cannot.
Then, isn't "embarrassed" in the original sentence simply an ad
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I was so mauled by the dogs that I could not walk.
The papers were so badly written by the students that they all received Fs.

I see no reason why 'so' makes these passives adjectives. For more detail, you will have to wait for a linguist.
JungKimegarding the "beloved" example, you didn't say whether (2) is in the passive or not.
Yes,
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Mister MicawberI was so mauled by the dogs that I could not walk.
The papers were so badly written by the students that they all received Fs.
I'm not too familiar with the verb 'maul', but if 'maul' here means 'attack', is it possible to say this?:
I was so attacked by the dogs that I could not walk. (?)
Which doesn't sou
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This is what I said above:
Mister Micawber 'beloved' exists in modern English only as an adjective; its verb is extinct.
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So, does that mean that you agree with my analysis of (2) that (2) is not in the passive voice?
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#2 does not require analysis.
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Okay. Let me rephrase my question. Please give me a straight answer. Please.
Do you agree that (2) is not in the passive voice?
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While I don't think that I would ever use BE beloved by, there are dozens of examples in COCA like this: He has yet to win a game, but he's beloved by Gator fans.

It seems to me that this is a passive construction, even though there is no active equivalent: Gator fans belove him.

It seems to me, therefore, that we could
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Thanks, fivejedjon, for your answer.
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