Re: Passive voice

Larry Sulky wrote:
> Here's another sample where the indirect object is truly indirect,
> taking no governing preposition.
>
> She teaches him the lesson.
>
> Note what happens when we want to passivise one of the two objects:
>
> [A]"The lesson is taught to him" or [A-1]"The lesson is taught him"
Passivization with DO > Subj.
>
> [B] "He is taught the lesson"...
Passivization with IO > Subj.

> or [A-2] "To him is taught the lesson"
This is another variant of [A], not of [B]. Both A-1 and A-2 are possible
because Engl. has two methods of indicating the indirect object in an
_active_ sentence:  (They, someone, John) taught him the lesson ~ (They
etc.) taught the lesson to him.  Since "to him" is a prep.phrase, it can be
moved around, just as an adverbial phrase (e.g. "at school") can be.
Whereas "him" cannot (normally) be moved around; it must follow the verb.

My impression is that the ability to passivize on the Ind.Obj. is rare in
other languages.

Not, to my knowledge, in Spanish:

--Le dieron un libro 'they gave him a book'
--Le dieron un libro a Juan 'they gave Juan a book'
passivizes to:
--Un libro fue dado a él/Juan (por ellos) 'a book was given to him/Juan (by
them)'

but not:
*Él fue dado un libro, lit. He was given a book, not permitted
*Juan fue dado un libro  ...ditto...

and I'm pretty sure also *un libro le fue dado (a él/Juan) (IIRC you don't
use the IO clitic _le_ with the passive).

OTOH, just as in Engl., when the IO is a prep.phrase, it can be moved
around--

"A Juan fue dado un libro" 'to Juan was given a book' (moving the IO phrase,
and subj/verb inversion, just like Engl.)

"A Juan un libro fue dado" 'to Juan a book was given' also possible.

Similarly in the active: A Juan le dieron un libro -- only difference from
Engl. is that Spanish keeps (requires) the dative clitic-- as if we had to
say in Engl. "To John they give him a book"

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