The development of the full passive

ABSTRACT Spontaneous full passives and related constructions from 234 children aged 2; 0 to 13; 11 and elicited passives from 262 college students were analysed. Full passives were classified as REVERSIBLE ( The dog was chased by the girl ), INSTRUMENTAL NON-REVERSIBLE ( The lamp was broken by (or with ) the ball ), or AGENTIVE NON-REVERSIBLE ( The lamp was broken by the girl ). The Agentive non-reversible did not appear until after age 9; and until age 11 no child produced both Reversible and Non-reversible passives. All the children used the passive in a semantically restricted way (but not in the same way). The possible developmental course of the full passive was traced for children who initially used only Reversible passives versus those who initially used only Instrumental non-reversible passives.