240 Chapter 15 Information packaging in the clause[4] EXISTENTIAL NON-EXISTENTIAL
a. There weren't many members present. b. Many members weren't present.Suppose we are talking about the annual general meeting of a large organisation. It's
perfectly possible for [b] to be true while [a] is false: thousands of members were
not present, so [b] is true, yet thousands of others were present, making [a] false.
These sentences are not saying the same thing in different ways: they're saying dif
ferent things.
The reason has to do with the fact that the clauses contain a quantifier (many) and a
negative word (weren't). The negative comes first in [a] but the quantifier is first in [b].
The relative order affects the scope of the negative, as explained in Ch. 8, §5. This isn't
a fact about existential clauses: any clause in which a negative word precedes a quanti
fier tends to be interpreted with the negative including the quantifier in its scope.
Setting aside the special factor of scope, corresponding existential and non-exis
tential clauses do have the same truth conditions, as illustrated in [3i]. And that is
also true for the other constructions considered. In the remainder of this chapter we
will set aside such special factors as scope.
2 Passive clauses
The first information-packaging construction we consider is the passive
clause. Passive clauses contrast with active clauses in a system called voice, so we
consider that first.2.1 The system of voice
A system of voice is one where the terms differ as to how the SYNTACTIC
FUNCTIONS are aligned with SEMANTIC ROLES. Usually there are also formal
differences either associated with the verb (e.g. special inflection or auxiliaries) or
associated with the NPs (e.g. special case marking or prepositions).
The general terms active and passive are based on the semantic role of the sub
ject in clauses expressing actions:
[5] In clauses describing some deliberate action, the subject is normally aligned
with the active participant (the actor) in the active voice, but with the passive
participant (the patient) in the passive voice.
In [lib], for example, the police refers to the actor and is subject; her son refers
to the patient, yet is subject in [lia].
There are also differences associated with the verb and one of the NPs: [lia] con
tains the passive auxiliary verb be, and the second NP is complement of the
preposition by.
Many clauses, of course, do not describe actions, but they can be assigned to the
active and passive categories on the basis of their syntactic likeness to clauses like
those in [li]: