Syntactic Analysis of Reflex Passive Sentences
The main defining characteristic of passive sentences is that the verb is in the passive voice; namely, the subject is not the one who performs the verbal action but the one who experiences it or suffer. This type of subject is called patient subject (in front of the active sentence, whose subject is known by the name of agent subject). Passive sentences are used when you want to emphasize not so much the protagonist of the action but the final result of it; that is, the subject that suffers action, hence its name.
In this lesson from a TEACHER we will explain and detail how the parsing of reflex passive sentences in Spanish.
In the introduction we saw briefly what is the difference between an active sentence and an active sentence. Now we are going to focus on a specific type of passive sentence: the passive sentence reflects.
The passive reflex sentence is a form of passive sentence that is formed from the unstressed personal pronoun of the third person singular ("se") + the verb form, which always has to be in the third person, either singular or plural.
One of the best known examples is the prayer Flats for sale, in which the subject ("floors") is a patient subject, and the verb, in this case is in the passive voice, is constructed together with the particle "se".
If we analyze this sentence from the semantic point of view, we will see how "floors" is a subject that does not perform any action but rather, the experience, since we imply that there is someone (a real estate agent, for example) in charge of carrying out the action of "selling" described by the verb.
In this video of a PROFESSOR we discover youwhat is passive voice reflex.
Next, we propose a series of examples of parsing of reflex passive sentences in Spanish:
Sentence 1: Gold is bought
In the previous sentence, the patient subject is "gold", the verb follows the structure "se" + active verb in the third person singular. It is understood that someone buys the gold, but since it is not relevant information, it is omitted and a reflex passive structure is used to highlight the importance of "buying gold".
Sentence 2:Math classes are given
"Math classes" is the patient subject in the previous example. The advertiser, probably in charge of giving the classes, uses the passive reflex structure to enhance the patient subject, the "math classes."
Sentence 3: Birthday cakes are made to order
Reading the previous sentence, we can imagine who is in charge of making the cakes. However, the agent subject is not present. This is due to the fact that through the passive reflex, the role of the patient subject is highlighted, the one who experiences verbal action. The important thing about this sentence is the "birthday cakes".
Sentence 4: Waiter Wanted
"Waiter" is the patient subject, the one who experiences verbal action. One of the syntactic tests that we can do in case of doubting which is the subject is to agree with the verb. For example, if the subject, instead of being singular, were plural, "waiters", the verb would also have to be plural for the sentence to be correct: Waiters wanted.
