| 词组 | double passive |
| 释义 | double passive The construction known as the double passive looks like this: • The mystery was assiduously, though vainly, endeavoured to be discovered —in Fowler 1926, 1965 It is, you can see, awkward. The subject is examined in some detail in Bernstein 1965 and Fowler 1926, 1965; it •gets shorter treatment in Copperud 1970, 1980 and Janis 1984. We cannot tell how much of a problem the double passive presents in current use; Gowers appears to have added nothing in 1965 to Fowler's original treatment. Janis 1984 does show how it might occur in business writing and how it might create a problem: • The seminars were asked to be given by top management itself. (Is the meaning that top management asked for the seminars to be given or that top management was asked to give the seminars?) The double passive construction is the sort of thing that is easily passed over when dictionary editors collect examples of individual words, and so we have no examples to quote for you. If you would like to see more examples, you can find them in Fowler and in Bernstein; no sources are given, however. See also passive voice. |
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