The Contrastive Study Of English And Chinese Passives

The passive is a very important and very common linguistic phenomenon in both English and Chinese. In some styles, using passives seems to be an expressive habit. And it is one of the difficult points for the English and Chinese learners. We note that there are many similarities between them, and at the same time, there are differences. For many years, as the development and further research of the contrastive linguistics, many linguists at home and abroad contrast the English and Chinese passives from different angles, and deeply analyze the reasons of their differences. Professor Xiong Xueliang of Fudan University further analyzed the differences of the passives in English and Chinese from cognitive perspective.The conceptualization and the schematization are two basic ways for the people to recognize the world and form their ideas. During the recognition of the passives, the people have found the different forms of passives: the prototypical passives, which consist of the agentful passives and the agentless passives; the non-prototypical passives, which include the stative passives and the medio-passives.This thesis belongs to the category of contrastive study. According to the conceptualization and the schematization, the thesis points out the differences of the English and Chinese passives from three aspects, namely prototypical passives, non-prototypical passives and the restrictive conditions. And according to the differences and the features of the passives, the thesis discusses some problems about the generations, the choice of voice, the discourse functions, the common mistakes and the translation of passives, and analyzes them respectively.This thesis explores the differences and similarities of the English and Chinese passives from different perspectives based on the former researches of the scholars at home and abroad, and points out some relevant problems that should be emphasized. The views of the thesis give some suggestions on correct understanding, using and translating the passives. At last, the thesis explains its limitations, and proposes accordingly the efforts for further research.