A Non-Uniform Analysis of English Get-Passives

This paper is concerned with the get-passive construction of English. I examine conflicting data regarding the presence or absence of an implicit external argument, and focus on the variation of readings in the construction. By reintroducing and reviewing the data in the previous literature, the paper identifies three different readings of the so-called get-passive construction, namely, anticausative reading, intentional subject responsibility reading, and non-intentional subject responsibility reading, and analyze them as either an anticausative or a reflexive causative. The paper also presents the structures for these readings in terms of recent theories of verb structures and Voice.