Zur Wiedergabe deutscher Vorgangs- und Zustandspassivkonstruktionen im Bulgarischen

The paper contrasts German ‘process’ and ‘state’ passive constructions with their Bulgarian counterparts. Having established the categorial meaning of the passive voice and a definition of passive constructions, some possible uses of German passive constructions are presented and an attempt is made to describe them by metalinguistic means. The established characteristics serve as a basis of reference for finding their Bulgarian equivalents, which may be classified as: a) translated by passive constructions; b) translated by active constructions, i. e. there is a change in the voice of the verb; and c) some other ways of translation. As a result both the regularities and the restrictions in using each of the Bulgarian translation equivalents are presented.