Agentless constructions in English. A Contrastive study with Spanish.

Abstract

In the present work we have described and classified agentless constructions in English with side views to similar constructions in Spanish, Russian and German. Since reflexives account for the major part of agentless constructions in these languages, we have considered them in detail. In the practical part we have studied, which English verbs are used most often in agentless constructions in literary works. We have also looked at their translations into Spanish: whether the translations are agentless constructions and if yes, whether the semantic or / and syntactical properties of the verbs are retained in the translations.