It makes sense to think that being born is something that happens to
us, but we can't do to someone else.
   A number of behavioural verbs are routinely intransitive: fainting and
dying come to mind.  It may be that the form is passive, but the sense
intransitive. (involuntary).  We say that the child "was brought into
the world" or "came into the world" and both seem reasonable ways to
look at it. (Was it Cosby (Huxtable) who said to Theo "I brought you
into the world and I can take you out of it?") Interesting. It
certainly reveals something about the complex way in which we
understand the process of "borning".

Craig

>


That is an interesting insight, Edith.
>
> It seems that the two uses of the verb 'bear' refer to different points in
> the time period of the event denoted by the verb 'bear'.  That is, when we
> speak of a mother bearing children, we are usually referring to the period
> of
> pregnancy. When we speak about being born, we are referring to the end
> state
> that the act of bearing results in.
>
> So really, we seem to be talking about two different verbs: "Bear 1"
> refers
> to the act of carrying a baby, and "Bear 2" can only really be used to
> refer
> to the point in time in which the mother's bearing event has  culminated
> in
> the passage of the baby out of her body.
>
> Bear 1 seems to behave like a normal (irregular) verb (though the passive
> is
> a little odd for me. Maybe it's the time reference.):
>
> A. My mother bore me for nine months in Egypt.
> B. ? I was borne by my mother for nine months in Egypt.
>
> Bear 2 seems to refer only to the time at which the baby passes out of
> the
> mother's body; that is, it only refers to the end of the act of  bearing,
> BUT
> it does not act like a passive because  you cannot add the  agent
> 'mother.' And
> there seems to be no other active form of this verb.   So is this just a
> unique use of the past participle of Bear  1?
>
> C. He was born on Nov 17 at 11:20 pm.
> D. *He was born at 11:20 pm by his mother.
>
> I wonder what other verbs behave this way.
>
> Linda Di
>
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