LINGUIST List 12.843

Mon Mar 26 2001

Qs: Implicit Agent/Passive, Source/Grice Article

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Anja Wanner, Implicit Agent in Passives
2. Regina Musselman-Perez, Source for article on Grice

Dear Linguists,
I am looking for ungrammatical passives that are construed deliberately 
and that illustrate the "implicit agent" in an otherwise agentless passive
construction, preferably in English. This is an example: 
Question: When did this happen to you?
Answer: It didn't happen to me - IT WAS HAPPENED UPON ME!
For obvious reasons examples like this one are difficult to find in writing.
(So far, I have only collected a handful.) Any information on this subject, 
any data would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
anja wanner

******************************************************************
Anja Wanner
Assistant Professor, Dept. of English
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Helen C. White Hall
600 North Park Street
Madison, WI 53706

phone: + (608) 263-3807, fax: + (608) 263-3709
http://mendota.english.wisc.edu/~awanner/
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This is a request for help with a reference on an article that I
downloaded from linguist list a while back, and I didn't write
down the complete source. The name of the article is
"Grice's Cooperative Principle: Getting the Meaning
Across", by Bethan Davies. The only information that I wrote down
was that it was part of the "Leeds Working Papers". I am
currently writing my dissertation, and I'm working on
Grice's Cooperative Principle in relation to turn-taking, so I
would like to quote this article, but I need to have the full
source. Does anyone have the information, that you could help me? I
would really appreciate it.

Regina Musselman Shank
El Colegio de Mexico
(currently living in Puerto Rico)