Now, a friend over the internet wanted me to explain the passive voice to him. He began by providing his story's "readability statistics" of Microsoft Word, which said that 7% of his sentences were passive. Luckily, this story was at my disposal, so I investigated whether the statistic was correct or not. Then I came to this sentence:
There was something placed on the table...
First off, existential sentences are "newish" to me, but I believe that to be one. I also believe it's passive, but I'm unsure. I made several google searches, with only one outside of google books (the book was probably too advanced for me) talking about it. Now the reason that I think that is passive is the same reason why the person made that post (but in reverse). When turned into a nonexistential sentence it is passive (EDIT: I've been notified that the nonexistential sentence doesn't correspond to was placed but rather had been placed):
Something had been placed on the table [by X]...
Although, another reading could be that it isn't passive. Placed on the table may be seen as a (past) participial phrase modifying something. This interpretation seems untenable to me.
So am I right to think that this is a passive existential sentence?
Answer
This is an example of Whiz deletion. The sentence is short for:
- There was something which had been placed on the table...
The relative pronoun which and the past perfect form of BE (had been) have been omitted. This is a type of reduced relative clause. For more info on Whiz deletion see this post of John Lawler's on Whiz deletion, and also visit the link therein.
The upshot of this is that your sentence is not a passive 'existential' sentence. It is a case of an 'existential' sentence containing a relative clause. The relative clause is modifying the noun something, and this clause does indeed contain a passive.
Hope this helps!
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