我已学过 He gave his wife a camera. 改为被动句时, 可以有两种形式:
(a) His wife was given a camera.
(b) The camera was given (to) his wife.
但是我至今仍搞不清楚句(a)与句(b)有什么区别。我查了许多英语语法书，也没有查到对这个问题的解释。请讲一讲在什么情况下使用句(a)，在什么情况下使用句(b)。
句(a)和句(b)所表达的意思是相同的。如果说它们有什么区别的话，那只是表现在信息切分上(即哪个成分是已知信息，哪个成分是新信息)。一般而论，位于句首充当被动句主语的应当是已知信息：可能是谈话双方已明确具体所指，也可能是前面刚刚谈到的事物，因而可以作为谈话的出发点或讨论的话题，而位于句末的成分则是信息的重心。请看下面的托福题中的对话：
“Where did you get that handsome picture?” “It was given to us by my father.” (TOEFL)
“那幅漂亮的画你们是在哪儿买的？”“它是我父亲送给我们的。”
很容易看出,这里只能用 it (that handsome picture) 作主语,而不能用 we 来作主语(We were given...),就是因为 it 是已知信息(话题),后面的内容是对这个话题的陈述。请比较下列各句(主语为话题,句尾成分为信息重心):
1 George was given the money. 乔治已拿到了钱。
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{The money was given(to) George.(Leech) 钱已给了乔治。
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Her sister was given the car. 她姐姐被赠予了那辆汽车。
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{The car was given to her sister. 那辆汽车给了她姐姐。
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As automation increases, the problems of unemployment will become progressively more A
serious unless more men and women would be given the training necessary for white-collar positions. (TOEFL) (应将 would be given 改为 are given)
(the training 为句子的信息重心)
- The words are borrowed English from Scandinavian, and French has given us the words nice and cruel. (TOEFL)
本题中的 French has given us the words nice and cruel 应改为 the words nice and cruel aregiven to us by French。为什么要作这种修改呢？是否前一说法不合语法呢？实际上前一说法也是合乎语法的，但是它违反了句子结构平行原则（与前面的 The words old and ugly 不平行对称），进一步说，就是违背了信息分布原则：the words nice and cruel 应作为话题，充当主语，而 by French 是后一分句的信息重心，应搁在句末。
对 send 等动词的两种被动句型也可以作同样的解释：
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She was sent full details last week. (PEU) 上周给她送去了关于全部细节的资料。
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“What happened to the contract?” “It was sent the union last week.” (PEU) (it 显然是已知信息) “合同怎么样了?” “它在上周已送交工会。”