Craig,
I think the examples you have flagged as passive are only ambiguously
so. That is, in this case you can read "excited" as either a passive
participle or as a past-participial adjective and there's no definitive
way to distinguish them.
Notice that you can substitute "become" in for "am" in these sentences,
meaning that adjectival "excited" can definitely co-occur with the
by-phrase:
I became excited by your presence.
I became excited by being near you.
Karl
On 2/27/2013 5:47 AM, Hancock, Craig G wrote:
>
> I would consider a sentence with "be" plus "excited" passive if it
> includes explicit agency.
>
> "I am excited by your presence." Passive
>
> "I am excited by being near you." Passive
>
> "I am excited to be near you." Excited as stative adjective. (More the
> reasons for the state of excitement than the cause.)
>
> Some of the dictionaries I looked at give "arouse" or "rouse" as
> synonym, but I think "arouse" seems to hold onto its verb status a
> little more.
>
> "I am aroused by your presence." (Very natural)
>
> "I am aroused to be near you." (seems awkward to me.)
>
> It's interesting that "excite" has a technical sense in physics that
> applies to non-sentient entities. If we "excite" something, we
> increase its chemical activity. For the most part, though, the
> infinitive can't be direct object complement because it doesn't fit
> either of those cognitive categories. We can excite a person or thing
> (in the increased activity sense), but I can't think of ways in which
> the receiver of the excitement might be expressed in infinitive form.
>
> Craig
>
> *From:*Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] *On Behalf Of *Stahlke, Herbert
> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 26, 2013 11:03 PM
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* Re: Excited to
>
> Why not complicate things a bit more? Dick, your first, second, and
> fourth sentences strike me as right dislocation, but I think this is
> because of the vagueness of "this." The third sentence doesn't sound
> like right dislocation because there is an expressed referent for "this."
>
> Herb
>
> Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
> Emeritus Professor of English
> Ball State University
> Muncie, IN 47306
> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:*Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Dick Veit [[log in to unmask]]
> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 26, 2013 10:02 PM
> *To:* [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> *Subject:* Re: Excited to
>
> Craig,
>
> There has been a semantic shift with "excites ... to." In earlier
> examples, "excites" is used as a synonym for "causes," with no
> necessary sense of pleasurable stimulation:
>
> * A grateful mind excites me to reveal His sov'reign bounty, and
> attempt a tale Of dear remembrance. [William Wilkie, /Epigoniad/,
> 1792]
> * I should think it time lost to translate any of them; and only a
> sense of duty excites me to read them. [George Smith, /The Life of
> William Carey, D.D: Shoemaker and Missionary/, 1802]
> * But the cause which excites me to write is this --- My greatest
> pleasure, through life, has been the perusal of any extraordinary
> narratives of fact. [from /Blackwood's Magazine/, 1827]
>
> Examples from contemporary writing demonstrate the shift, with
> "excites to" necessarily implying joyful arousal:
>
> * Seeing all that the Lord has done in my life over these years only
> excites me to see what he does seven years from now. [from the
> McLean Bible Church web site]
> * Blog entry shall be about what excites you, a participant, to come
> to Iligan or what others should be excited about to come to Iligan
> City. [from rules for a contest]
> * Your hair, skin, lips, skin touch / Everything about you just /
> Invites me, excites me / To wanna see you happy, girl. [lyric from
> B5's "How You Not Gonna"]
>
> Dick
>
> On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 1:13 PM, Hancock, Craig G <[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> Dick,
>
> These are interesting examples, all complex transitive, with the
> infinitive acting as 'object complement" in traditional terminology.
> The subject acts upon (excites) an excitable entity to the point of
> taking action.
>
> There's a difference in grammar between "I am excited to be here"
> and "Your invitation excited me to be here."
>
> The idea of an arousal to action seems to be the earliest meanings.
> That feels a little archaic to me. "Excited" seems to me to be used
> quite often as stative adjective. "How excited was she?" "Very excited."
>
> I'm still curious about what Martha is objecting to.
>
> Craig
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:*Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>] on behalf
> of Dick Veit [[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>]
>
> *Sent:*Tuesday, February 26, 2013 12:40 PM
>
>
> *To:* [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> *Subject:* Re: Excited to
>
> Good point, Craig. I did an advanced search for "this excites me to"
> excluding "to no end." Here are some examples of the infinitive as a
> complement:
>
> * this excites me to go to office everyday
> * All of this excites me to paint, print, and draw.
> * I am nearing 51 years of age and this excites me to want to learn
> more.
> * This excites me to see what the obedience and passion of one
> person can do.
>
> and many, many more.
>
> Dick
>
> On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 12:13 PM, Hancock, Craig G
> <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> Dick,
>
> I think in all three of your examples, the infinitive is an
> extraposed subject.
>
> "To work with clients on a one on one basis really excites me."
>
> I wonder if we can find an example where the infinitive is a verb
> complement and not a subject. i couldn't find one.
>
> The passive version would be "I am really excited to work with
> clients...." The fact that we can put "very" in front of excited would
> make an argument that it is shading into adjective or is at least
> acting ambiguously. And in this case it feels to me like an adjective
> complement. "I am happy to work with clients" feels very similar to me.
>
> Craig
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:*Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>] on behalf
> of Dick Veit [[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>]
> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 26, 2013 12:03 PM
> *To:* [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> *Subject:* Re: Excited to
>
> I'd say "be excited (to)" is a passive verb, since there are plenty of
> equivalent actives. Here are some taken from Google (I searched
> "excites me to"):
>
> * It really excites me to work with clients on a one on one basis...
> * It excites me to announce that I am officially teaming up with
> Chad to kickoff our first, fully collaborative music project!
> * It excites me to be close to him, to think over and over, I can
> kill him and I will kill him but not now. (Anne Rice, /Interview
> with the Vampire/)
>
> and many others, an impressively large number of which are explicitly
> sexual.
>
> Dick
>
> On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 11:20 AM, Lynn Searfoss
> <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> It seems like an adjectival participial phrase, doesn't it?
>
> Lynn
>
>
> Hancock, Craig G wrote:
>
> Martha,
> Can you give us an example?
> A quick google search of "excite to" brought no examples, but I
> found a huge number for "excited to..." with most of those using
> "excited" as past participle adjective. John Lackey is"very excited"
> to be back on the baseball field, for example.
>
> /I am pleased to meet you/. /I am excited to be here/. These seem
> common to me and perhaps equally ambiguous as to whether "pleased" and
> "excited" are verbs (passive verb phrase) or adjectives. the
> infinitive would work as adjective complement, as in "I am happy to be
> here."
>
> Craig
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>] on behalf
> of Martha Galphin [[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>]
> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 26, 2013 10:03 AM
> *To:* [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> *Subject:* Excited to
>
>
> /What are your thoughts about the usage of the transitive verb
> _excite_ followed by an infinitive? I come upon it somewhere almost
> every day now and am discomfited by it.
> Thank you,/
>
> /Martha Galphin
>
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