The use of inanimate subjects with the get-passive

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics grade: 10 University of Paderborn course: The Web as a Linguistic Corpus language: English abstract: This paper is concerned with the use of the internet in linguistic research. The phenomenon under investigation is the get-passive. In a first step I will outline reasons for and problems with using the web as a linguistic corpus. After this I will explain the linguistic phenomenon get-passive taking into account the debate on the term itself typical characteristics of the get-passive and its diachronic development. The next step will be the description and analysis of the WebCorp study on get-passives as opposed to be-passives. In this way I hope to be able to show whether the constraints traditionally attributed to get-passives in particular animacy of the subject are still in force or in how far they are lessening possibly making the get-passive an equivalent contestant to the be-passive. Differences between British and American English will be examined in order to find out whether either variant is more advanced.