The Contrastive Study Of Chinese And English Passives

Chinese passive sentences can be divided into two different kinds: one is‘Marked Passive’ and the other is ‘Unmarked Passive’, depending on whether thereare sign words such as ‘被’.‘Unmarked Passive’ can be divided into the passivesentence which can be added with a passive sign and the passive sentence whichcannot be added with a passive sign, depending on whether the passive sign wordscan be added to the sentence. However, the typical structure of passive sentences is‘be/get+Vpp’ in English. If this kind of the structure can be defined as the sign ofpassive sentences, it can be divided into ‘Marked Passive’ and ‘Unmarked Passive’.Among them, the passive sentence can be manifested by six different modes:1) theprogressive tense of intransitive verbs;2) the perceptual verb use of predicate;3) theintransitive use of transitive verbs;4) the verbs for psychological meaning followinggerund;5) some prepositional phrases used as predicate;6) the forms in active voiceof infinitive.The contrastive study of Chinese and English passive sentences can be analyzedfrom three dimensions including syntax, semantics and pragmatics.Syntax can be analyzed by sectioning method, which means that the passivesentence with a sign in both Chinese and English can be divided into three sectionssuch as A, B and C. A stands for subject in the sentence; B represents Chinesephrases of ‘被’ and English phrases of ‘by’. C stands for the predicate includingadverbial modifier, the center word of predicate and the incidental component. Thesame method will be used for the passive sentence without a sign which can bedivided into A and C.The analysis of semantics should focus on not only the comparison of verticalsemantic structure but also the comparison of horizontal semantic feature. Thesemantic features both show the applied force and the consequence. Theircomparison is the subject of Chinese passive could be separated into two parts: oneis in the front of the sentence, and the other is behind predicate. Subject in thesentence is the object of the action on the surface and the real object of action whichis related to subject is behind predicate. This conforms to the feature that Chinesestress on hypotaxis and English stress on parataxis. The semantic features ofcomponent are definite subjects, transitive predicates，dynamic verbs and the varietyof the incidental component. Their differences lie in Chinese verbs’ dynamic and theincidental component’s superiority to that in English. Besides, in Chinese, the subject of ‘Unmarked Passive’ is usually lifeless. If the subject is human or animal,the subject could be used as the actor of the verb, and there will be ambiguity.The analysis of pragmatics is ellipsis, pragmatic significance, frequency of uesand style distribution. The subject of Chinese passive sentences can be omitted andthe omission of the phrases with ‘被’ has three manifestation modes. It can omit oneof the doer or sign words such as ‘被’ alone, and even omit both. However, thesubject of English passive sentences can not be omitted. The phrases with ‘by’ canonly be omitted with the omission of the doer of action. This is because of Chineseand western’s different thinking mode. In the one hand, most of Chinese passivesentences with ‘被’ are usually used to describe unhappiness and the bad things. Inthe other hand, the proportion of English passive sentences equals no matter whetherit shows good things or bad things. The use of Chinese passive sentences has a lowfrequency and ‘Marked Passive’ is used less frequently ‘Unmarked Passive’. The useof English passive sentences has a high frequency; and ‘Marked Passive’ is usedmore frequently than ‘Unmarked Passive’. As for the style distribution, both of thepassive sentences without a sign are mostly used in spoken English. Chinese passivewith marked ‘被’ is similar with English typical passive ‘be+Vpp’, both of themcould be used in spoken or written language. But Chinese passive with marked ‘被’is used more common in written language. Chinese passive sentences with ‘叫’,’让’,’给’ and English passive sentences with ‘get’ are used usually in spokenlanguage. This is related to the development of the two languages and the feature ofstyles.