Double passives (was Re: "long" and "short" vowels)

[Arnold Zwicky]

coming in a bit late on this one ...

On Jun 20, 2009, at 9:55 AM, Neal Whitman wrote:

> On Jun 20, 2009, at 9:44 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> wrote:
>
>>> [quoting]
>>>
>>> [1] Are any of these projects still going on, or has all the funding
>>> finally dried up for them?
>>>
>>> [2] I can't think up an elegant passive construction for this.
>>> Weird.
>>>
>> Maybe Arnold can direct us to something on Language Log on this.
>> I've noticed the same gap, largely through attempts by students to
>> fill it ("The chimpanzees were tried to teach/taught/be taught
>> American Sign Language") without striking success.

nothing in LLog about "double passives", under that name at least.
but there's a MWDEU entry, with references to Fowler 1926 (a treatment
carried over wholesale to Gowers's Fowler 1965) and Bernstein 1965
(The Careful Writer), and mentions of shorter discussions in Copperud
1970, 1980 and Janis 1984.

>> I've blogged a lot about these "double passives". They occur in
> Turkish and some Scandinavian languages, too.
>
> http://literalminded.wordpress.com/category/syntax/passive-voice/double-passives/

arnold

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