Recipient passive
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In German linguistics, the term recipient passive is used for a kind of passive construction in which it is not the patient/direct object that becomes the subject, but the recipient/indirect object. The recipient passive uses the auxiliary bekommen 'get', or equivalently kriegen 'get'.
Example
From the active sentence Das Kind brachte der Mutter das Geschenk 'The child brought the mother the gift', two passives can be formed:
- the ordinary direct-object passive: Das Geschenk wurde der Mutter (von dem Kind) gebracht 'The gift was given to the mother (by the child);
- the recipient passive: Die Mutter bekam das Geschenk (von dem Kind) gebracht 'The mother was brought the gift (by the child).'
Synonyms
- bekommen-passive (e.g. Leirbukt 1997)
- dative passive (e.g. Wegener 1985)
References
- Askedal, John Ole. 2005. "Grammatikalisierung und Persistenz im deutschen "Rezipienten-Passiv"." In: Leuschner, Thorsten et al. (eds.) Grammatikalisierung im Deutschen. Berlin: de Gruyter, 211-227.
- Leirbukt, O. 1997. Untersuchungen zum 'bekommen'-Passiv im heutigen Deutsch. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
- Wegener, Heide. 1985. "Er bekommt widersprochen: Argumente für die Existenz eines Dativpassivs im Deutschen." Linguistische Berichte 96:127-139.
other languages
German Rezipientenpassiv
