On Mon, 5 Feb 1996, Michael Kischner wrote: > Would people agree that this sentence is in the passive voice? > > I get paid a large sum each month. > > So "get" is a permissible alternative to "be" in passive constructions? "permissible" is a difficult word here. Of course, it's permissible; who'd want to or could forbid it. But I don't think it's part of the prestige dialect. 'get'+past participle will probably be felt to be non-standard by many speakers. A very informal style might tolerate it. OTOH, in response to grammar checker's flagging passives, students often use the 'get' + past participle construction, because grammar checkers will ignore it. > And would people agree that in the following sentence "much" is the > object of the verb (here a retained object, if the construction is indeed > passive): > > I get paid very much for my work. > > So "very" is here an adjective modifying the noun "much"? I'd assume an understood noun 'money,' 'salary,' 'fringe benefits'--whatever. The understood part of the sentence would probably come clear in context. > Do other people find that their dream life tends to invade the sentences > they make up for examples? Yes, and my sob-conscious wishes-- I mean, like--you know, Freud would have a heyday with me. I'd probably have a ubiquity of yonic and phallic allusions if I'm not immensely on guard. <grin> [No, don't notify the Ethics Committee, please . . . I'm kidding; really, I'm kidding.] ==Cheerio, Reinhold ============================================================================ Dr. Reinhold Schlieper Humanities Department 500 Shadow Lakes Boulevard Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Apartment 139 Daytona Beach FL 32114 Ormond Beach FL 32174 Phone: 904-226-6664 Phone: 904-676-9392 Visit my home page at: http://erau.db.erau.edu/~schliepr ============================================================================