pseudopassive
A construction where the object of a preposition has been promoted to the role of…A construction where the object of a preposition has been promoted to the role of subject, as in The problem was talked about.
Meaning
2 sensesA construction where the object of a preposition has been promoted to the role of subject, as in The problem was talked about.
A construction that removes the subject from an intransitive verb, as in the Dutch sentence Er wordt gefloten ("[Someone] whistled").
Origin
From pseudo- + passive.From pseudo- + passive.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.