{"id":469344,"date":"2010-03-24T14:15:09","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T18:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=2206"},"modified":"2010-03-24T14:15:09","modified_gmt":"2010-03-24T18:15:09","slug":"suicided-the-adversative-passive-as-a-form-of-active-resistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/469344","title":{"rendered":"Suicided: the Adversative Passive as a Form of Active Resistance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Language is changing at a torrid pace in China, and it’s not just a massive infusion of English words<\/a> that is to blame.\u00a0 Nor can we simply ascribe the dramatic changes in language usage to rampant, wild punning<\/a> for the purpose of confusing the ubiquitous censors.<\/p>\n

Creative manipulation of lexical and grammatical constructions is another way to express ideas that are not permitted under the harsh social controls imposed by the government.\u00a0 This is evident from the fact that the “character of the year” in China for 2009 is b\u00e8i<\/em> \u88ab.
\n<\/span>
\nWhat is so great and powerful about this unprepossessing character b\u00e8i<\/em> \u88ab?\u00a0 As a noun b\u00e8i<\/em> can mean “quilt” or “cover.”\u00a0 As a ji\u00e8c\u00ed<\/em> \u4ecb\u8a5e (“preposition”), b\u00e8i<\/em> is used in a passive sentence to introduce the doer of the action:\u00a0 t\u0101 b\u00e8i qu\u00e1nt\u01d0 d\u01cengyu\u00e1n p\u00edngx\u01d4an w\u00e9i zh\u01d4x\u00ed<\/em> \u4ed6\u88ab\u5168\u9ad4\u9ee8\u54e1\u8a55\u9078\u70ba\u4e3b\u5e2d (“He was elected by all of the party members as chairman.”)\u00a0 Before verbs, b\u00e8i<\/em> is used to indicate passive voice:\u00a0 b\u00e8i y\u0101p\u00f2<\/em> \u88ab\u58d3\u8feb (“be oppressed”).<\/p>\n

Lately, it has become fashionable to use the passive voice with verbs that don’t normally allow it and in situations that seem ludicrous.\u00a0 One of the most celebrated examples is b\u00e8i z\u00ecsh\u0101<\/em> \u88ab\u81ea\u6bba (“be suicided”), with the implication that someone was beaten to death, but the authorities made it look as though he had committed suicide.\u00a0 Once coined, b\u00e8i z\u00ecsh\u0101<\/em> spread like wildfire, so that it wasn’t long before it merited its own entry in online dictionaries and encyclopedias.<\/p>\n

This novel application of the adversative passive is quite versatile.\u00a0 Here are some other common, but telling, examples (English translations only):<\/p>\n

1. employmented:\u00a0 turned into a false employment statistic<\/p>\n

2. represented:\u00a0 misrepresented without consent<\/p>\n

3. invited to tea:\u00a0 questioned by police, usually on political matters<\/p>\n

4. high-speed railroaded:\u00a0 forced to buy expensive high-speed rail tickets because ordinary train tickets are not available<\/p>\n

5. harmonized:\u00a0 censored (this must be particularly galling to the party elders, since h\u00e9xi\u00e9<\/em> \u548c\u8ae7 [“harmoniousness”], with all of its clarion Confucian resonances, is President-Chairman-General Secretary Hu Jintao’s pet platitude)<\/p>\n

6. volunteered:\u00a0 forced to volunteer<\/p>\n

Some specific examples of the application of these clever usages may be found here<\/a> and here.<\/a><\/p>\n

The adversative passive is a prominent areal feature of Southeast Asian languages, but I wonder whether it has been used anywhere else in the world in such a systematic manner to express resistance against government policies as it has come to be in present-day China.<\/p>\n

In closing, it is worth noting that the English word of the year for 2009<\/a> is “unfriend<\/a>.”\u00a0 Like the ironic adversative passive in Chinese, it was generated by powerful Internet forces, just as were the other runners-up for English word of the year:\u00a0 “netbook” and “sexting.”<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Chinese netizens cannot experience the thrill of “unfriending” someone, since Facebook and other similar social networking services are blocked in the PRC.\u00a0 Still, with Google moving to a freer Hong Kong, and with the abundant linguistic capabilities of Chinese netizens themselves, we can be sure that there will be new ways to circumvent the Great Chinese Firewall, which, after all, is only a paper tiger.<\/p>\n

A tip of the hat to Richard Cook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Language is changing at a torrid pace in China, and it’s not just a massive infusion of English words that is to blame.\u00a0 Nor can we simply ascribe the dramatic changes in language usage to rampant, wild punning for the purpose of confusing the ubiquitous censors. Creative manipulation of lexical and grammatical constructions is another […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}