THE SEMANTICS OF INTRANSITIVE VERBS EXPRESSING PASSIVITY

Abstract

The interaction between passivity and transitivity has long been a point of interest among linguists. The traditional view of the relationship between the two is based on the idea that participial passive forms are most commonly formed by transitive verbs. Nevertheless, spoken language demonstrates a different linguistic phenomenon. In recent years there has been a tendency for verbs to shift from the class of intransitive verbs to the class of transitive, leading to a reconsideration of the ability of the newly-coined verb forms to form the passive voice. This paper studies passive forms that are comprised of non-reflexive intransitive verbs with the verb “to be”.