How to parse a sentence in the passive voice?

[Mohammed Abu Risha]

Hello All

This is my first thread. I am very happy to see such forums to discuss matters related to English.

I am facing a big problem with parsing the passive voice sentences. Consider the following:

The computer has been purchansed by the group.

Logically:
the computer = Subject
has been purchased = Verb

In case the above is the correct parsing, how can we parse: by the group???

But, can we look at the sentence from another angle???

The Computer = Subject
Has been= Verb
purchased by the group= complement

Thank you

[Tdol]

How about agent?

[Mohammed Abu Risha]

Tdol

Thank you for your answer. An agent is a semantic description not a syntactic one.

From a syntactic point of view, any English sentence, whatever long it may be, can be divided to the following categories:

Subject
Verb
Subject Complement
Object Complement
Adverbial


A professor once told me that the "by..."clause is an adverbial. But I am not convinced at all! As you have correctly noted, it is an agent (thematically) so how can it be an adverbial?

For this reason I suggested that the passive sentence is simply a construction where we have a Subject connected to the Predicate with a linking verb (be).

[whitemoon]

How about predicate?
The computer has been purchased by the group.
the computer = subject
has been purchased by the group = predicate
Passive voice is a kind of sentence patterns we use to emphasize the object, on the other hand, a sentence we have changed active voice to passive voice. I think we can't parse it because it has the original sentence:"The group has purchased the computer".

[Mohammed Abu Risha]

Whitemoon

In fact as I explained above, a sentence, syntactically, can be divided into:

Subject
and
Verb

and/or Object, Complement, Adverbial

A predicate is not a function and therefore cannot be used.

There is still another surprising point :) According to syntax, there is no one to one correspondence between the passive and the active. In other words, we cannot say at all that the active is the origin of the passive!

[whitemoon]

Originally Posted by Mohammed Abu Risha

Whitemoon

In fact as I explained above, a sentence, syntactically, can be divided into:

Subject
and
Verb

and/or Object, Compliment, Adverbial

A predicate is not a function (Why? Cose of syntactically? Actually I don't know the meaning of syntactically.) and therefore cannot be used.

There is still another surprising point :) According to syntax, there is no one to one correspondence between the passive and the active. In other words, we cannot say at all that the active is the origin of the passive!(Maybe!)

Have a good time!
WM

[susiedqq]

A professor once told me that the "by..."clause is an adverbial. But I am not convinced at all! As you have correctly noted, it is an agent (thematically) so how can it be an adverbial?

HOW was the computer purchased? By credit card? by the group?

Adverbs answer "how"

[Wuisi]

[quote=Mohammed Abu Risha;254916]Tdol


From a syntactic point of view, any English sentence, whatever long it may be, can be divided to the following categories:

Subject
Verb
Subject Compliment
Object Compliment
Adverbial



Hi,
Didn't your teacher divide these categories any further into different kinds of subjects, verbs, objects, complEments and adverbials? What did he do with sentences such as 'We are having our house redecorated'?.

[Buddhaheart]

‘By the group’ is a prepositional phrase with the substantive ‘group’ functioning as the object of the preposition 'by' and direct object of the sentence. It may also be considered as an adverbial modifier of the verb phrase ‘has been purchased’.

[Mohammed Abu Risha]

Originally Posted by Wuisi

Hi,
Didn't your teacher divide these categories any further into different kinds of subjects, verbs, objects, complEments and adverbials? What did he do with sentences such as 'We are having our house redecorated'?.

We are having our house decorated.

We= Subject
are having = Verb
our house = Object
decorated = Object Complement

The reference adopted for our syntax courses was:

A Comprehensive Grammar of English

by Quirk et al.

The authors of that book did mention all possible consturcitons of sentences (as far as obligatory constituents are concerned) and they pointed out that a sentence can have up to the following categories:

Subject, Verb, Direct Object, Indirect Object, Subject Complement, Object Complement, and Adverbial.

Now back to our passive voiced sentence:

The computer has been purchased by a group.

The above sentence must be and can only be parsed in terms of the categories given above in bold.

My point, which I not at all sure of, is from a semantic point of view, we understand that:

We have a something: (A computer)
and something happened to this 'something': (has been purchased)

So can we say that:

has been= Verb (The perfect form of the verb to be)
purchased= Subject Complement
????

Another example that might be clearer:

The table is broken.

Here we are describing a state of the table. Since "The table" is the subject of the sentence, I can see that "broken" describes what state the table is in. Therefore, for me, it is logical to claim that "is" is a copula or a linking verb and "broken" is a subject complement.

I will tru to check Quirk et al and see if it says anything about it.