On the passive existential construction

Presenting a cluster of facts regarding extraction, the distribution of adv erbs and binding, this paper argues that the passive existential constructi on is not a matrix passive sentence but an existential construction in whic h the copula verb be takes a DP complement adjoined by a reduced relative c lause, instead of a small clause complement. It accounts for the event inte rpretation of the construction, a reading that is shared by a matrix passiv e sentence, by binding of the event-variable.