Chappell, Hilary (1986). Formal and colloquial adversity passives in Standard Chinese. Linguistics, 24(6), 1025-1052. DOI: 10.1515/ling.1986.24.6.1025
A semantic analysis of the polysemy of analytic passive constructions in standard Chinese (Mandarin) that belong to both formal and colloquial levels of language is undertaken here. The three passive constructions in question all have the basic syntactic form of NP(undergoer)-BEI/RANG/JIAO-NP(agent)-VP.
The view of the formal bèi passive as an adversity passive in its continuing traditional usage in the spoken language is upheld and supported principally by the evidence of the semantic analysis. Its treatment as a polysemous structure results in division into two main types — the formal bei passive and the bèi passive of ‘translatese’ in written language. For the second type, it will be shown that the influence of European languages in translation has led to the loss of the adversity feature, the requirement of an overt agent, and a perfective predicate.
Finally, an argument in favour of considering the colloquial adversity passives formed by ràng and jiào to contain certain semantic features,
distinct both from one another and from the bèi passive, is presented. It is contended that ràng forms passives of ‘avoidable’ events whereas jiào forms passives expressing the unexpected nature of the event. Both contrast to bèi, where the serious nature of the adversity is encoded.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
