英、汉被动句式的历史衍生

The Historical Development of English and Chinese Passives

克罗夫特认为,被动语态产生于把过程性事件表达成状态性事件的过程。然而,对被动语态历史产生过程的研究并不支持克罗夫特的观点。在语言最初期,是没有被动语态的,主动和被动的概念都用主动形式表示;后来随着表达的需要,被动语态才逐渐发展起来,但至今被动语态的形式还是不如主动形式那样完备。

Croft claims that passives are functionally generated by expressing a causative event into a stative event.However,the diachronic study of the generation of passives does not support Croft’s argument.Passives appeared much later than the actives.Before the generation of passives,active and passive conceptions were both expressed in active forms.Passives were developed from the necessity of expressing more delicate ideas.The forms of passives are not matched to the forms of actives even at present.