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Paco2004 Posted 20 years ago
Grammar
Why put "to" in passive?
0 Hello 02 br
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00 I got a question from a learner in a Japanese site for English learning. It's a really simple question but I myself am puzzled at it. 02 br
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00 The question is: 02 br
00 You say, "He made her sing". When you passivize it, you say "She was made to sing" not "She was made sing". The question is why you do not put "to" before "sing" in active voice but you put "to" in passive voice. 02 br
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00 The questioner wants an explanation more than "Because it is an English grammar rule and we native speakers say so". 02 br
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00 paco 0-
02 br
00 I got a question from a learner in a Japanese site for English learning. It's a really simple question but I myself am puzzled at it. 02 br
02 br
00 The question is: 02 br
00 You say, "He made her sing". When you passivize it, you say "She was made to sing" not "She was made sing". The question is why you do not put "to" before "sing" in active voice but you put "to" in passive voice. 02 br
02 br
00 The questioner wants an explanation more than "Because it is an English grammar rule and we native speakers say so". 02 br
02 br
00 paco 0-
Top answer
) 02 br 02 br 01 i 00 Quirk, et al 02 i 00 merely comment that in this type of 01 i 00 Object + bare infinitive complementation 02 i 00 , some of the very limited number of verbs grouped there ( 01 i 00 have, let, make, feel, hear, overhear, see, watch, notice, observe, help, know 02 i 00 ) permit the passive, some do not, and for others the passive is doubtful or limited acceptability-- and some require the infinitive marker 01 i 00 to 02 i 00 in the passive voice. 0-
- ) 02 br 02 br 01 i 00 Quirk, et al 02 i 00 merely comment that in this type of 01 i 00 Object + bare infinitive complementation 02 i 00 , some of the very limited number of verbs grouped there ( 01 i 00 have, let, make, feel, hear, overhear, see, watch, notice, observe, help, know 02 i 00 ) permit the passive, some do not, and for others the passive is doubtful or limited acceptability-- and some require the infinitive marker 01 i 00 to 02 i 00 in the passive voice.
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16 Answers
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0 Hmm. 02 br
02 br
00 He made her sing -- She was made to sing. 02 br
00 He heard her sing -- She was heard to sing. 02 br
00 He helped her sing -- She was helped to sing. 02 br
00 He saw her sing -- She was seen to sing. 02 br
00 He let her sing -- She was let (to) sing (?) 02 br
00 He had her sing -- She was had (to) sing (?) 02 br
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00 He made her sing -- She was made to sing. 02 br
00 He heard her sing -- She was heard to sing. 02 br
00 He helped her sing -- She was helped to sing. 02 br
00 He saw her sing -- She was seen to sing. 02 br
00 He let her sing -- She was let (to) sing (?) 02 br
00 He had her sing -- She was had (to) sing (?) 02 br
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0 I think in Middle English, the to-infinitive version is possible (e.g. "he made her to sing"). 02 br
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00 Wild guess: the passive version is a later structure, or perhaps simply less common, and thus more regular. 02 br
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00 MrP 0-
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00 Wild guess: the passive version is a later structure, or perhaps simply less common, and thus more regular. 02 br
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00 MrP 0-
00
0 01 blockquote
01 cite 10 Paco2004 12 cite 10 Hello 12 br
12 br
10 I got a question from a learner in a Japanese site for English learning. It's a really simple question but I myself am puzzled at it. 12 br
12 br
10 The question is: 12 br
10 You say, "He made her sing". When you passivize it, you say "She was made to
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0 00 In Middle English, and even early modern English 02 br
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00 00 Shakespere certainly had "make" followed by the object and bare infinitive in 00 Love's Labour's Lost: Act 4, Scene 3 00 : O, 'tis the sun that maketh all things shine! published in 00 1598. However, the 00 KJV (published 1611) has 00 Psalms 23:2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures
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00 00 Shakespere certainly had "make" followed by the object and bare infinitive in 00 Love's Labour's Lost: Act 4, Scene 3 00 : O, 'tis the sun that maketh all things shine! published in 00 1598. However, the 00 KJV (published 1611) has 00 Psalms 23:2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures
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0 Hello guys 02 br
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00 Thank you for the replies. All of them are very helpful to me in thinking the problem. I think I had better explain the question more in detail. 02 br
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00 Actually the questioner asked at first the semantic difference between "He made her sing" and "He told her to sing". So, at first I explained to the questioner like as follows: 0
02 br
00 Thank you for the replies. All of them are very helpful to me in thinking the problem. I think I had better explain the question more in detail. 02 br
02 br
00 Actually the questioner asked at first the semantic difference between "He made her sing" and "He told her to sing". So, at first I explained to the questioner like as follows: 0
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0 Here's just one small data point to include in your cogitation on this subject. 02 br
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00 I don't personally, as a native speaker, sense anything different in meaning between 02 br
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00 He made her sing. 02 br
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00 and 02 br
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00 She was made to sing. 02 br
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00 except that the agent
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00 I don't personally, as a native speaker, sense anything different in meaning between 02 br
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00 He made her sing. 02 br
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00 and 02 br
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00 She was made to sing. 02 br
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00 except that the agent
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0 Thank you, CJ. Your explanation is very interesting and kind of a surprise to me. 02 br
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00 I rather think, if you have "He made her to sing" as a D-structure in your minds, a considerable portion of your folks, maybe some kids would utter it as a S-structure. But actually very few people do so. For example, "Someone made him run" hits some 670 pages on UK domain, but no
02 br
00 I rather think, if you have "He made her to sing" as a D-structure in your minds, a considerable portion of your folks, maybe some kids would utter it as a S-structure. But actually very few people do so. For example, "Someone made him run" hits some 670 pages on UK domain, but no
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0 Sorry guys, you've lost me with your S and D structure terms. What exactly is an S or D structure? 02 br
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00 The accusative idea seems feasable I'll understand better when I know what D and S are, though. Personally, I like to think of words like make, let, leave, help and the verbs of passive perception such as see, hear, etc as transitive modals when they are followed by
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00 The accusative idea seems feasable I'll understand better when I know what D and S are, though. Personally, I like to think of words like make, let, leave, help and the verbs of passive perception such as see, hear, etc as transitive modals when they are followed by
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0 S - surface 02 br
00 D - deep 02 br
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00 These are terms from transformational grammar, which has it that the 01 u 00 surface structure 02 u 00 of any sentence (the words we hear uttered in the particular order we hear them) is the result of transformations on a 01 u 00 deep structure 02 u 00 . These are theoretical constructs.
00 D - deep 02 br
02 br
00 These are terms from transformational grammar, which has it that the 01 u 00 surface structure 02 u 00 of any sentence (the words we hear uttered in the particular order we hear them) is the result of transformations on a 01 u 00 deep structure 02 u 00 . These are theoretical constructs.
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00 MrP 0-
01 cite 10 Paco2004 12 cite 10 Do you think it is because English education is so excellent in UK? 12 br10 I'm afraid there is no conceivable question to which the answer could be: "because English education is so excellent in the UK". 02 br
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00 MrP 0-
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