In investigating variation on a lexical or syntactic level, it is often difficult to know what forms are actually in competition with one another. If we consider be-passives like I was tackled, and get-passives like I got tackled, can we take them to be in direct competition with each other, or are a number of other candidates potentially in play at the point where a speaker chooses to utter I was tackled or I got tackled?

To answer this question, we can look at ways in which the exact same event is described by various different people. Where one person uses a be- or get-passive, we can see how others describe the event. Do they all use passives, or are other structures used?

Sports commentary offers us this type of data. Big sporting events will often be broadcast by a range of networks all providing their own commentary describing the play. YouTube user ALs Highlights has even created videos which are very convenient for our purposes, which consist of the same section of an AFL game played eight times over, each accompanied with a different network’s commentary.

In the three such videos I looked at, we find no get-passives, but a number of be-passives. It was found that the be-passives seem to be in competition mainly not with get-passives but with other structures. Where one commentator describes a scene with the be-passive in (1), others describe it with other structures such as a zero-copula passive as in (2) or a nominal as in (2) and (3).

(1) And Franklin was run down

(2) Franklin run down, great tackle by Morris

(3) What a brilliant run down and tackle Morris

This therefore provides good evidence that be- and get-passives cannot be taken to be in direct competition to the exclusion of other forms. At the very least, a number of other structures also need to be considered.