A Study on the Interaction between Figure/Ground Distinction and the Realization or Ellipsis of By-Agent Phrases in English Passive Constructions

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interaction between figure/ground distinction in cognitive linguistics and the passive constructions in English. The figure argument tends to be more mobile, more salient, and more recent in awareness than the ground argument. The figure/ground distinction has been argued to influence many aspects of sentence constructions such as locative alternation constructions and the clause alignments in subordinating constructions in English, in which the figure/ground perspective of the constructions are discussed with reference to verbal classes and semantic clausal relations, respectively. This study especially focuses on the realization or ellipsis of by-phrases in English passive constructions based on the figure/ground distinction. The ellipsis of by-phrases in passives is argued to have the effect of keeping a figure element on the subject. The dynamics of the state of affairs and the realization and salience of the arguments of the by-phrases in English passives are argued to play a role in determining the figure role assignments for by-phrases.