त्वरित लिंक्स
English Language
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In advanced English morphosyntax and voice diathesis, converting active constructions into passive ones involves complex interactions between argument structure, thematic roles, ditransitive valency, and infinitival complements. Consider the following four advanced propositions regarding active and passive voice conversion: I. When an active sentence features a causative or perception verb followed by a bare infinitive (e.g., 'The supervisor made the technician inspect the turbine' or 'The manager watched the engineer repair the mainframe'), the bare infinitive in the active voice must obligatorily convert into a *to-infinitive* in the passive counterpart (yielding 'The technician was made to inspect the turbine' and 'The engineer was watched to repair the mainframe'). II. When an active clause contains a ditransitive verb taking both a direct and an indirect object, standard English morphosyntax permits either internal argument to be promoted to subject position in the passive voice, though promoting the indirect (animate) object is generally preferred in discourse-neutral contexts (e.g., 'The committee awarded the scholar a prestigious fellowship' $ ightarrow$ 'The scholar was awarded a prestigious fellowship'). III. When an active sentence employs a complex transitive structure with an object complement (e.g., 'The board elected Dr. Henderson chairperson'), the object complement automatically converts into a subject complement following the promoted subject in the passive voice without altering its predicative relationship ('Dr. Henderson was elected chairperson by the board'). IV. Intransitive verbs that express physical motion, spontaneous occurrence, or state of existence and inherently lack a patient or theme argument (such as 'arrive', 'happen', 'vanish', or 'die') can readily undergo passive transformation in standard English provided they are accompanied by a temporal, locative, or manner adjunct. Identify the option that correctly evaluates the grammatical, syntactic, and semantic validity of propositions I, II, III, and IV according to standard English grammar and English passive voice principles.
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Detailed Explanation
To determine the correct option, let us analyze each proposition individually:
* **Proposition I is INVALID:** While perception verbs (like *watch*, *see*, *hear*) shift from a bare infinitive in the active voice to a *to-infinitive* in the passive voice (e.g., *'The engineer was watched to repair...'*), causative verbs such as *make* retain the bare infinitive in the passive voice (*'The technician was made to inspect...'* is an exception for *make*, but perception verbs shift to *to-infinitive* while *make* requires *to*, making the broad claim about perception verbs needing *to-infinitive* correct, yet the specific inclusion of *watched* changing to *to-repair* is unidiomatic; standard perception passives actually drop the bare infinitive for a participle or *to-infinitive* depending on dialect, but more crucially, Proposition IV is completely false).
* **Proposition II is VALID:** Ditransitive verbs taking direct and indirect objects allow either object to become the subject of the passive clause (e.g., indirect object promotion: *'The scholar was awarded a prestigious fellowship'*; direct object promotion: *'A prestigious fellowship was awarded to the scholar'*).
* **Proposition III is VALID:** In complex transitive patterns where an object complement describes the direct object, passivization converts the object complement into a subject complement tied to the newly promoted subject (*'Dr. Henderson was elected chairperson'*) without loss of predicative force.
* **Proposition IV is INVALID:** Intransitive verbs (e.g., *arrive*, *happen*, *die*) inherently lack a patient or theme argument capable of being promoted to subject position; adding a locative or temporal adjunct (e.g., *'The accident happened yesterday'*) does not license passive transformation (*'Yesterday was happened'* is ungrammatical).
Therefore, only Propositions II and III are valid. For a comprehensive overview of syntactic voice structures, consult the Wikipedia entry on English passive voice.
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