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The purpose of this research is to develop and motivate a theory of passive constructions under Minimalism. This theory includes three proposals: firstly, accusative Case is available in passives; secondly, nominative Case takes priority over accusative; finally, a Passive Phrase exists between TP/VP and vP. English passives and Chinese bei-constructions are analyzed based on the Agree and Phase system in Chomsky´s recent framework, Minimalist Inquiries. In conclusion, a unitary syntactic structure and derivational process of English passives and Chinese bei-constructions are developed. The passive functional category is phonologically covert in English while overtly realized as bei in Chinese. They both head a strong Phase and have an EPP-feature and a specifier. They also have the same selectional properties: they can be selected by T or V and take a vP without a specifier as their complement.

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Wei Yan is a Research Assistant and Project Coordinator at Queen´s University, Canada. He earned his MEd from Queen´s and he also holds an MA from Yonsei University, South Korea. He was a language teacher and have taught English, Korean, and Chinese to various age groups. He is actively involved in research on language assessment and achievement.

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