French passives resemble English passives. Formally, the passive verb in (84b) differs from the active in (84a) in being the combination of auxiliary être ‘to be’ and the past participle of the transitive verb:34
(84) a. Jean a copié le tableau. b. Le tableau a été copié (par Jean). J. has copied the painting the painting has been copied by J. ‘J. copied the painting.’ ‘The painting was copied (by J.).’
Semantically, passivisation modifies aspectual structure, turning an activity into a (change-of-)state, whereby the Agent è role is dethematised, to use Baker et al.’s (1989) term. Consequently, the Agent doesn’t merge in SpecèP and isn’t realised as subject. Instead, the Theme/Patient is cognitively salient as the highest VP*- internal dependant and realised as subject (§4.3). Pragmatically, this prevents the Agent from being topical (§5). If the Agent isn’t expressed at all, it has no pragmatic status; if it appears within an optional adjunct Agent phrase (par Jean in (84b) ), it’s focal rather than topical. What’s topical instead is the Theme/Patient,35
which, as the highest VP*-internal dependant, is realised as syntactic subject: the active sentence in (84a) tells us something about Jean, the passive in (84b), something about le tableau ‘the painting’.
The pattern illustrated in (84b) isn’t the only possible result of the dethematisation effected by passivisation. In a construction known as impersonal passive, illustrated in (85b), while the Agent is dethematised, the Theme/Patient fails to be realised as the grammatical subject (cf. the regular passive in (85a)):
(85) a. Un four à micro-ondes a été acheté. an oven to microwaves has been bought
Case licensing via inherent case has consequences for nominal determination, and definite nominals are typically 36
excluded from postverbal position in impersonal constructions, as in (i): (i) *Il a été acheté le four à micro-ondes.
it has been bought the oven to microwaves
Belletti (1988) suggests that the relevant inherent case here is partitive case. However, Goosse (2000: 125) comments that authors increasingly use definite nominals in this position, especially if the nominal is heavy, as in (ii):
(ii) Il en est résulté la parution de l’Atlas linguistique de la France. it of.it is resulted that appearance of the-atlas linguistic of the France ‘This resulted in the appearance of the linguistic atlas of France.’
As with middle voice (§2.2.2.3) (but unlike regular passives), the dethematised Agent in impersonal passives can’t 37
resurface within an Agent phrase:
(i) *Il a été acheté un four à micro ondes par plusieurs clients. it has been bought an oven to micowaves by several customers
See Bouvier (2000) for an account in terms of the semantics of the impersonal construction.
Complex ‘verb–noun’ verbs like mettre fin à quelquechose ‘to put a stop to something’ offer flexible passivisation 38
patterns. Consider (i):
(i) Le gouvernement a mis fin à ces pratiques illégales. the government has put end to these practices illegal ‘The government has put a stop to these illegal practices.’
The passive in (ii) is ungrammatical because fin doesn’t head a regular nominal: (ii) *[Fin à ces pratiques illégales] a été mis(e) (par le gouvernement).
end to these practices illegal has been put by the government
However, the bare nominal on its own can be realised as the subject of the passivised verb (even triggering past-participle agreement; §5.8.2):
(iii) Fin a été mise à ces pratiques illégales (par le gouvernement). end has been put to these practices illegal by the government ‘A stop has been put to these illegal practices (by the government).’ Alternatively, the impersonal passive is possible (but not with an Agent phrase): (iv) Il a été mis fin à ces pratiques illégales (*par le gouvernement).
it has been put end to these practices illegal by the government ‘A stop has been put to these illegal practices (*by the government).’
Impersonal passives based on monadic verbs are possible provided the verb can select a Theme cognate object (Cornips 39
and Hulk 1996: 7 fn. 6), hence the ungrammaticality of the impersonal passives in (i): b. Il a été acheté un four à micro-ondes.
it has been bought an oven to microwaves. a, b: ‘A microwave oven was bought.’
Instead, the Theme/Patient remains VP* internal syntactically and part of the focus pragmatically. This is possible because, by virtue of the è role assigned to it, the Theme/Patient can be licensed by inherent case, and so remain in situ. Given that the passive morphology dethematises the Agent, the fact that the Theme/Patient36
remains in VP* means that the syntactic subject position isn’t filled by a nominal dependant of the verb, and is instead occupied by impersonal il.37
The motivation for the impersonal passive in (85b) (as opposed to the regular passive in (85a)) is pragmatic: it allows the Theme/Patient to remain focal. The motivation for those in (86) is slightly different: unlike (85b), (86a) doesn’t have a regular passive alternative because the underlying verb isn’t transitive; the impersonal passive in (86b) is preferred because of the heaviness of the clausal direct object:38
(86) a. Il a été procédé au décompte des votes.
it has been proceeded to.the counting of.the votes ‘The votes were counted.’
(cf. *Au décompte des votes a été procédé.)
b. Il a été décidé que la prochaine réunion se tiendra demain.
it has been decided that the next meeting self will.take.place tomorrow ‘It has been decided that the next meeting will take place tomorrow.’
What these examples suggest is that passivisation crucially is an operation of dethematisation. The realisation of the Theme/Patient as syntactic subject in (84b) and (85a) is a (common but not universal) secondary property of (regular) passives rather than an essential property of passivisation per se. This conclusion is further supported by the existence of impersonal passives based on intransitives, as in (87):39
(i) a. *Il a été brillé. b. *Il a été parti. it has been shone it has been left The examples in (i) are similar to those discussed in footnote 38: 40
(i) a. Il vaut mieux que tu partes. b. Il importe peu qu’il pleuve. it is.worth better that you leave it matters little that-it rains ‘You’d better leave.’ ‘It matters little that it’s raining.’
While the postverbal subordinate clause can’t replace impersonal il in preverbal position, as shown in (ii), the bare adverbials mieux and peu can, as in (iii):
(ii) a. *Que tu partes vaut mieux. b. *Qu’il pleuve importe peu. that you leave is.worth better that-it rains matters little (iii) a. Mieux vaut que tu partes. b. Peu importe qu’il pleuve.
better is.worth that you leave little matters that-it rains
= (ia) = (ib)
In ConF impersonal il can be replaced by ce (where the verb is être ‘to be’) (§4.4.4) or cela/ça (where the verb isn’t 41
être) (§3.8):
(i) a. Ça/Cela me plaît qu’elle soit venue. b. C’est possible aussi de rester. (87) Il a été dansé.
it has been danced ‘People danced.’
Similar to (86b) above is the use of impersonal il in (88a, c):40
(88) a. Il me plaît qu’elle soit venue. 6 b. Qu’elle soit venue me plaît. it to.me pleases that-she be come that-she be come to.me pleases a, b: ‘I’m pleased she came.’
c. Il est possible aussi de rester 6 d. (De) rester est possible aussi. it is possible also to stay of stay is possible also c, d: ‘It’s also possible to stay.’
Here, an (underlined) thematic finite/infinitival clause, which would normally be expected to appear in subject position, appears postverbally, while the subject position is occupied by impersonal il. Examples (88a, c)41
differ from (88b, d) pragmatically: in (88a, c) the subordinate clause is focal, in (88b, d), topical. Syntactically, as we see in §5.1.1, finite clauses aren’t nominal and don’t need case, and so there’s no case-licensing
motivation for realisation as subject (or indeed any case-licensing problem with remaining VP* internal). In contrast, infinitives are nominal (§5.2.2), and the inherent-case marker de is needed when the infinitive remains VP* internal, but is optional when the infinitive is realised as syntactic subject, since structural case is available in this position.
Finally, a number of intransitive verbs allow alternation of a similar kind: (89) a. Une fille est arrivée. b. Il est arrivé une fille.
a girl is arrived it is arrived a girl a, b: ‘A girl has arrived.’
c. Deux hommes sont morts hier d. Il est mort deux hommes hier. two men are died yesterday it is died two men yesterday c, d: ‘Two men died yesterday.’
This pattern of alternation is possible with intransitive verbs which typically (but not exclusively) use the perfective auxiliary être (rather than avoir) (§2.2.1.2). Again, the difference between the two members of each alternation is pragmatic. And as we saw in footnote 36 the VP*-internal position of the postverbal nominal means that it bears inherent case.