pseudopassive meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

pseudopassive

noun

Etymology From pseudo- + passive.

Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences A construction where the object of a preposition has been promoted to the role of subject, as in The problem was talked about.

Consider the English pseudo-passive in (4). (4) This bed has not been slept in for many years1991, Reineke Bok-Bennema, Case and Agreement in Inuit, Berlin: Foris, →ISBN, page 97:

Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences A construction that removes the subject from an intransitive verb, as in the Dutch sentence Er wordt gefloten ("[Someone] whistled").

Consider now the pseudo-passive, Er werd gefloten "There was whistling." Here, just as in the true passive, the morphology asserts high participant not focussed.1976, Robert Kirsner, “On the subjectless 'pseudo-passive' in Standard Dutch and the semantics of background agents”, in Charles N. Li, editor, Subject and Topic, New York: Academic Press, →OCLC, page 391:

pseudopassive

adj

Etymology From pseudo- + passive.

Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences Of or related to the pseudopassive.

A kind of ‘pseudo-passive’ construction is possible, though, with intransitive verbs having a prepositional phrase complement.1971, Manindra K. Verma, The Structure of the Noun Phrase in English and Hindi, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, →OCLC, page 157:

Nearly passive; relatively passive.

The magnitude of the current density within the region is, of course, too high to be regarded as passive in the conventional sense, and we coin the term "pseudopassive" to describe it.1996, G.T. Burstein, V.C. Salter, “The growth of pits during the electrograining of aluminum”, in Madhav Datta, B.R. MacDougall, James Fenton, editors, Proceedings of the Symposium on High Rate Metal Dissolution Processes, Pennington, NJ: Electrochemical Society, →ISBN, page 133:

Resembling (something) passive.

Some patients who look passive-aggressive are still pseudopassive-aggressive because though they are difficult, covertly hostile people [...] they are suffering from another emotional disorder.2002, Martin Kantor, Passive-aggression: A Guide for the Therapist, the Patient, and the Victim, Westport, CT: Praeger, →ISBN, page 85: