Bill,
    I'm reminded of David Milroy's point in the opening of his book that 
many adults can't find the subject in the opening sentence of the 
Declaration of Independence and, as a result, have difficulty with the 
meaning. The complexity of the sentence may be a factor.
   Even coming from the usage-based side, I would be surprised to find 
out that the passive isn't part of the basic toolkit. Of course, most 
students don't understand the concept of passive, and  many English 
teachers seem confused about it as well. Typically, my students coming 
to college will tell me a passive sentence is a sentence in which not 
much happens. If you give them pairs like "We were robbed at gunpoint" 
and "His clothes were dusty", they will choose the second as the passive 
sentence. Grammar checks also confuse the issue by signaling well formed 
passives as possible errors.
    If students don't read well, is that at least partly because of 
grammar? I think so, but we haven't looked closely at that because the 
prevailing view has been that the grammar is already there or will 
arrive on its own.

Craig

Spruiell, William C wrote:
> I ran across the following in ScienceDaily today. It's the kind of research result for which I'd really, really want to see multiple followup studies. The researchers found that a proportion of their (adult) test subjects couldn't understand passive sentences; I can't help suspecting that the journalist hyped the results in some way or there are other factors involved. Population variation in comprehension of particular constructions is something I think is highly likely (absolute phrases, anyone?), but.... the passive? That's always struck me as part of the basic toolkit. 
>
> At any rate, I thought it might be of interest to the list, even if I want to take it with a bucket of salt. -- Bill Spruiell
>
> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100706082156.htm
>
>
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