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１． 頭が真っ白になる。何も考えられなくなる。意識が断線する。彼女は自由を奪われた。「檻の鍵は、どこ？」 息を吹きかけるように、囁くように耳元へ声を添えられる。

２．学生は先生に名前を聞かれました。

How do I interpret this? Are they suffering passives?

Thanks!

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Some verbs can take both a direct and an indirect object. For those verbs in passive form, the indirect object is (generally) marked with　が or は and the direct object is marked with を.

Passive:

私が先生に名前を聞かれました

Active:

先生が私の名前を聞きました
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  • I don't think this explanation is quite right. Normally passivization goes like が→に + を→が. Your sentences are of course correct, but what is going on is が→に + の→が. In particular, 先生が（私の）名前を聞きました→（私が）先生に名前を聞かれました. And usually, when you raise の→が it has the negative connotation. (私に->私が is also another possibility for this sentence.)
    – Darius Jahandarie
    Oct 18, 2015 at 17:53
  • I think that is what I wrote? Maybe I didn't do it clearly enough. I don't think the の changing to が has anything to do with why the direct object is marked with を though.
    – Aurast
    Oct 18, 2015 at 18:35
  • I guess I'm confused by what you mean by "the direct object of the action is marked with を in both cases". Isn't the direct object by definition what is marked by を? But anyways, I think what I was trying to point out as an inaccuracy (as opposed to unclarity) is "If there is no indirect object, then the direct object is what's marked with が in passive sentences." -- you can raise whatever you want in the active sentence to が in the passive sentence (aside from the original thing marked by が, of course), with variations in meaning.
    – Darius Jahandarie
    Oct 18, 2015 at 18:40
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    I rewrote my answer to hopefully make it clearer and more precise.
    – Aurast
    Oct 18, 2015 at 19:21
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    Thanks! I see what you're saying now. It does seem like higher-valency verbs tend to not raise the を-marked argument, but there are times which they do too... for example, "The teacher sent an email to his students" 先生が生徒にメールを送った → "The email was sent to the students from the teacher" メールは先生から生徒に送られた. I wonder what is ultimately dictating the tendency... maybe it's that patients of higher-valency verbs tend to be the least important piece of information in the sentence, making it weird to subjectify them?
    – Darius Jahandarie
    Oct 18, 2015 at 21:16

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