Re: Passive voice

That still leaves 'Brücke' and 'Buch' as objects of the sentence - since
both still go with the preposition 'über'. I was especially pointing to
those languages which make the patient the subject of the sentence (many
people [subject and agent] walk over the bridge [object and patient]- the
bridge [subject and patient] is being walked over {by many people [object
and agent]}).

It has moreover occurred to me that there is a restriction to this usage -
at least in English. For example, I can say:

He is looking at the boy - the boy is being looked at.

But I cannot say:

They hit the boy at the schoolyard - the schoolyard was being hit at; since
the last sentence is inferring something completely different.

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