Can you explain the difference between to be surprised at something / someone and to be surprised by something or someone? I don't see any difference at all.
Example:
a) President Bush was surprised at the question.
b) President Bush was surprised by the question
They differ semantically, but ever so slightly which gives the appearance that speakers are using them synonymously:
surprised by X
- Bush was surprised by the question
surprised at (the Y of) X
- Bush was surprised at (the audacity of) the question
But the real question is not what they mean, but whether or not they differ structurally. Let's see.
Looking now at the structure, the conventional way of treating
ANNOYING verbs (e.g., pleased, terrified, satisfied, interested, impressed) is to assume that "by" signals a passive construct (Verbal Passive) and that all other prepositions (e.g., at, with) signal a copular + past participle construct (Adjectival Passive). The problem with that assumption, however, is that not all "by" phrases introduce an agent, as we have already seen (i.e., the vase is filled by/with flowers; the seat remained occupied by/with another student), and for a construct to be a true passive, it requires an agent, a doer. We do not find that, here, in "Bush was surprised by the question." The subject "Bush" is not acted upon (Cf. The cat was hit by the car--the cat is acted upon); rather the person "Bush" experiences a state (of being):
- Bush was surprised by the question.
- Bush = surprised
- copular + past participle construct
But, let's ignore theta-roles and true passive, as they are not really all that of an issue in determining whether an -
ed word functions as a Verbal Passive or as an Adjectival Passive.
One test used to determine whether or not an ANNOYING types, like "surprised by" is a passive participle (Verbal Passive) or a past participle (Adjectival Passive) is to insert the word "very", as only adjectives can be modified by that word:
- Bush was very surprised by the question :tick:
- "surprised" = past participle <Adjectival>
- The question very surprised Bush :cross:
- "surprised" = past tense verb <Verbal>
Now, if the sentence, "Bush was very surprised by the question" were a passive construct (housed a passive participle), then its active form would be "The question *very surprised Bush", which is ungrammatical. This tells us that those two constructs do not share the same underlying meaning, or underlying structure.
Compare:
- The window was very broken. :cross:
- "broken" = passive participle <Verbal>
- Vandals very broke the window. :cross:
- "broke" = past tense verb
- The seat remained very occupied by/with another student. :tick:
In short, "very" cannot modify a passive participle (Verbal Passive).
- Bush was surprised by/at the news <adjective>
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Further Reading Pages 166 - 169