The Nuisance Passive in Japanese and English

English only has passives for transitive verbs, with direct objects and indirect objects, not intransitive verbs.

Hamlet's father made Hamlet heir. -> Hamlet was made heir by his father.
Hamlet's father died. -> ??

Japanese has a nuisance passive with intransitive verbs.

Hamlet's father died -> Hamlet was died by his father.

That’s ungrammatical, I think. But maybe it’s understandable.

In English you can say,

I had my father die (on me.) Or, my father died on me.

But how productive is it?

I had my company fail on me. ??
I had it rain on me ?? I was rained on. ??

The Japanese nuisance passive also can be used with transitive verbs.

At the age of three, King Arthur was killed his parents by the king of the neighboring country.

It sounds like the 3-year-old Arthur had the king of the neighboring country kill his parents.

Or perhaps not.

In English, you would say,

At the age of 3, King Arthur's parents were killed by the king of the neighboring country.

Perhaps.

Japanese version:

Hamlet was killed his father by Claudius.

Sounds like Hamlet instigated his father’s murder. Or perhaps it’s understandable.

English version:

?? Hamlet had his father killed on him.

If ‘have someone die on you’ is OK, this is OK too?

There’s no way to say, ‘Hamlet was killed his father by Claudius’ in one sentence in English?

“Hamlet’s father was killed by Claudius” in Japanese would be, ‘Hamlet’s father was killed by Claudius’, not ‘Hamlet was killed his father by Claudius’ It makes Hamlet’s father the topic, rather than Hamlet.

In Japanese, “Hamlet’s father was killed by Claudius”, using google translate is:

ハムレットの父親はクラウディウスによって殺されました。

How to express the nuisance passive in English. Perhaps it needs to be included in a longer sentence. Like,

Hamlet was made an heir by his father, but then his father was killed by Claudius, his uncle.

The nuisance passive form in Japanese is

ハムレットは父親をクラウディウスに殺されました。

Google translates that as,

Hamlet had his father killed by Claudius.

Google translate has, ‘Hamlet had his father die on him’ as

ハムレットは彼の父親を彼の上で死なせました。

Literally, ‘Hamlet made/let his father die on top of him.’

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