As you so rightly point out, "I was yelled at" is the only non-cumbersome way of forming the passive voice,
Here's the rub: while in other cases using "with which" or "whence" or whatnot may feel cumbersome, I can't even think of a cumbersome way of forming the passive voice. "I was yelled at" is really the only option which is truly passive (or quasi-passive). The only other choice is to just not use the passive voice at all.
But after thinking about it for a couple I now feel I understand better why/how the construction works and why it creates these problems and whatnot, which is what I was searching for in the beginning. Now I understand my language that much better.
And you're absolutely right--it has to be "Who was shot at?" Although it might be the case that the popularity of these passive-prepositional constructions (which at this point I'd probably advise be avoided completely in formal writing) does add a little to the murder of "whom": I can see the difference between "Who was shot at (by you)?", "Who was shot (by you)?", "At whom did you shoot?", and "Whom did you shoot?", but I wouldn't want to have to explain it to an undereducated sixteen year old.
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Date: 2006-01-02 08:05 pm (UTC)Here's the rub: while in other cases using "with which" or "whence" or whatnot may feel cumbersome, I can't even think of a cumbersome way of forming the passive voice. "I was yelled at" is really the only option which is truly passive (or quasi-passive). The only other choice is to just not use the passive voice at all.
But after thinking about it for a couple I now feel I understand better why/how the construction works and why it creates these problems and whatnot, which is what I was searching for in the beginning. Now I understand my language that much better.
And you're absolutely right--it has to be "Who was shot at?" Although it might be the case that the popularity of these passive-prepositional constructions (which at this point I'd probably advise be avoided completely in formal writing) does add a little to the murder of "whom": I can see the difference between "Who was shot at (by you)?", "Who was shot (by you)?", "At whom did you shoot?", and "Whom did you shoot?", but I wouldn't want to have to explain it to an undereducated sixteen year old.