An important discussion in theories of argument structure concerns the explanatory division of labor between thematic properties and event structure. English get-passives, analyzed in much previous work as differing thematically from be-passives, provide an interesting test case. We present an analysis of get-passives centered on the proposal that they contain additional event structure (realized as get) relative to their be counterparts. We employ by-adjuncts to identify the different event structures in passive types, and use other diagnostics to support our analysis. Further discussion considers the prominent proposal from previous studies that get-passives differ thematically from be-passives in (sometimes) assigning an Agent role to their surface subjects. We show that contrasts between get and be on this dimension are a consequence of event-structural differences between the two. The result is a unified analysis of the get-passive that has implications for the role of event structure in understanding the syntax and interpretation of arguments.

论点结构理论中的一个重要讨论涉及主题属性和事件结构之间的解释性分工。英语get -passives，在以前的许多工作中分析为在主题上与be -passives 不同，提供了一个有趣的测试用例。我们对get -passives 的分析集中在它们包含相对于它们的对应物的额外事件结构（实现为 get ）的提议上。我们使用by -adjuncts 来识别被动类型中的不同事件结构，并使用其他诊断来支持我们的分析。进一步的讨论考虑了先前研究中的突出建议被动者在主题上与被动者在（有时）将代理角色分配给他们的表面主题方面有所不同。我们表明，get和be在这个维度上的对比是两者之间事件结构差异的结果。结果是对get -passive 的统一分析，这对事件结构在理解参数的语法和解释方面的作用有影响。