Re: USAGE: 'born'

From: "Nik Taylor" <fortytwo@...>
> >     That bed of nails was slept in (by John).
>
> Hmmm ... you have a point there.  Still, it's not the same as
> passivizing "sleep", as that's actually passivizing "sleep in", not
> "sleep" alone.
But 'sleep in' as a phrase doesn't mean the same as 'sleep + in'.  You could
[albeit clunkily] have something like

    "the Tuesday morning that was slept in on"

...maybe.

I would say it's passivizing "sleep" by introducing the 'in': that is, that the
extra noun being added that makes the verb passivizeable requires the
preposition (to stay intransitive), not the verb itself.  It's what makes sense
to me, anyway--this way one can have as a passive for "John slept"--

    The hot coals were slept on.
    The table was slept under.
    The cardboard box was slept in.

    ?The parents were slept between (by the child)...
    ?The trees were slept among...

Hmm.  Or, for a maybe minimal pair:

    The banana peel was 'slipped on.  (by someone who slipped on it)
    The banana peel was slipped 'on.  (secretly slipped on board)

The second passivizes "slip on", and the first passivizes "slip" with added "on"
?

      *Muke!