LINGUIST List 11.730

Fri Mar 31 2000

Qs: Passive Status, Spanish Intro Ling Textbook

Editor for this issue: James Yuells <jameslinguistlist.org>



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  • zmaalej, Passive status
  • Johanna Rubba, Spanish intro ling textbook

    Message 1: Passive status

     Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 17:23:04 +0200
    From: zmaalej <zmaalejgnet.tn>
    Subject: Passive status


    Dear colleagues, I have a query concerning the pragmatic status of the passive. I have always believed that using the passive in English (putting aside questions of frequency counts and markedness) is a matter of modality, i.e. in many respects a question of speaker's attitude, whose syntactic correlate can be exemplified by Comrie's "demotion" (1977) and Shibatani's "agent defocusing" (1985). What I am tentatively calling "the modal dimension" of the passive has consequences for orality and literacy (Biber, 1986, 1995; Tannen, 1982, etc.). My claim is that if the passive is to be seen as a modality, it has to be affiliated to orality (involvement) rather than to literacy (detachment). Does this make sense to some on this List, or am I off track? Is it the case that the passive is associated with objectivity owing to its occurrence in scientific texts? Isn't the passive most often a matter of choice, purposeful use, and manipulation (i.e. mainly a subjective operation), or is it only required to satisfy syntactic constraints? Any pointers or studies (mostly recent) contradicting or confirming this claim are most welcome. A summary will be posted to the List if enough is received to justify one.

    Thanks for your collaboration in advance.

    Dr Zouhair Maalej, Department of English, Chair, Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Tunis-Manouba, 2010, TUNISIA. Home Tel/Fax: (+216) 1 362 871 Office phone: [+216] 1 600 700 Office fax: [+216] 1 520 910 E-mail: zmaalejgnet.tn URL: http://simsim.rug.ac.be/ZMaalej

    Message 2: Spanish intro ling textbook

     Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 15:58:12 -0800
    From: Johanna Rubba <jrubbacalpoly.edu>
    Subject: Spanish intro ling textbook


    I posted a query a while ago asking for recommendations for a basic (usable by non-majors) introduction to linguistics in Spanish. Sadly, I seem to have lost the replies I got. Now I have a student who would benefit greatly from being able to read about basic linguistics concepts in Spanish. Can anyone direct me to a good book? One that would be available in the USA?

    Thanks -- Johanna

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Johanna Rubba Assistant Professor, Linguistics English Department, California Polytechnic State University One Grand Avenue o San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 Tel. (805)-756-2184 o Fax: (805)-756-6374 o Dept. Phone. 756-259 o E-mail: jrubbacalpoly.edu o Home page: http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba ** "Understanding is a lot like sex; it's got a practical purpose, but that's not why people do it normally" - Frank Oppenheimer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~