Difference and/or similarity (syntactic relation)

Hi,
can someone tell me the difference and/or similarity between each paired examples (their syntactic relations):

1a) June is cooking dinner.
1 b)Dinner is cooking.

2a)Bill opened the door.
2b)The door opened.

3a)Ann is eating too much cake.
3b)Ann is overeating.

4a)Kate is running away from her family.
4b)Kate ran away yesterday.

5a)Mike talks all night long.
5b)Mike talked the night away.
Help please,.. ;^)

I have the feeling you are asking us to do your homework for you!

It's not clear to me what the focus of your task is, but you might get a start from the following interpretations.

1a. June is causing the dinner to cook.
1a. June is causing (dinner is cooking).
1b. Dinner is cooking. (not passive)
1b. Someone (we don't know who) is causing (dinner is cooking).

2a. Bill caused the door to open.
2a. Bill caused (the door opened).
2b. The door opened.
2b. Someone (we don't know who) caused (the door opened).

3a. Ann is eating too much cake.
3b. Ann is eating too much (food).
3b. Ann is eating too much (of everything).

4a. Kate is running away from her family.
4a. Kate plans to run away from her family.
4b. Kate ran away (from somewhere) yesterday.
4b. Kate kept running until she was no longer present (somewhere) yesterday.

5a. Mike talks all night long.
5a. Mike has this habit: (He talks all night long.) (usually, often, sometimes)
5a. Mike has this habit: (He talks the night away.) (usually, often, sometimes)
5b. (One night in the past) Mike talked all night long.
5b. (One night in the past) Mike talked during the entire length of the night.
5b. (One night in the past) Mike talked the night away.
5b. (One night in the past) Mike talked during the night until it was no longer night.

Hello, Lupa

You are right about the first two pairs of sentences. Sentences "b" in both pairs have ergative verbs.
You posted that "dinner is cooking" is a passive sentence. The sentence has passive meaning (because dinner cannot be cooking itself) but it is not a passive construction. The same applies to "the door opened".

What you said about the third pair is also true. There is a difference between both sentences, though: 3.b. doesn't have a direct object. Even though "eating too much" and "overeating" seem to be identical in meaning, "overeat" is an intransitive verb while "eat" can be used transitively or intransitively.

Pair #4 is correct.

Pair#5: in the first sentence, "talk" is used intransitively; in the second, transitively.

Regards,

Miriam

You're welcome, Lupa.
I'm glad to have been of help.

Miriam