he had it checked by the manager

1

He had it [checked by the manager]. [passive]

In the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language is on page 1174 written in connection with this sentence this: "The past participle form of the verb has two uses, perfect and passive. Clauses with a perfect past participle as head occur as complement to auxiliary have, and accept progressive and passive be, while those with a passive past as head accept no auxiliaries".

Is the above sentence really example of a passive past perfect? I consider it more likely as the causative, i.e. the structure "have sth done".

bart-leby

Posted 2015-09-01T19:59:31.080

Reputation: 8 713

shouldn't the passive past perfect be it had been checked by the manager? – laureapresa – 2015-09-01T20:05:43.963

Answers

3

This is not a perfect construction: the had here is not an auxiliary but the lexical verb in the sentence, with a causative sense:

He caused it to be checked by the manager.

It is the infinitive to be checked which is passive; the infinitival clause can be cast into the active voice without involving had.

He had the manager check it = He caused the manager to check it

StoneyB on hiatus

Posted 2015-09-01T19:59:31.080

Reputation: 176 469

Asked: 2015-09-01T19:59:31.080

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Active: 2015-10-09T22:55:21.023