English indirect passives: Strong evidence for a sharply bifurcated lexicon

Abstract

Previous studies of the English passive have not recognized a distinct subtype where the auxiliary is not simply be or get, but a transitive grammatical verb, in particular have, get, want, need, see or hear. These "indirect passives," as I name them, are shown here to be verbal and not adjectival, and to NOT consist of embedded passive clauses containing traditionally analyzed simple passives, such as reduced relatives or other types of "small clauses." Rather, indirect passives are structurally parallel to the traditional ("direct") passives, except that their auxiliaries are transitive rather than intransitive verbs that select adjective phrase complements. The limitation of indirect passive auxiliaries to grammatical rather than open class verbs provides crucial evidence for dividing lexicons into two components, the members of which enter syntactic derivations differently. Open class items, including the -en of passive adjectives, enter trees only when derivational "phases" begin, while closed class items, including auxiliaries and the inflectional passive -en can also enter derivations "late," after a phase has been interpreted.