彼は年金を与えられなかった。

The “suffering passive”, I gather. The 例文 was “He was not granted a pension”, so I tried 彼には年金が与えられなかった。But, This is not about just the fact, but how he felt about the fact, which feeling presumably was negative. を + what would otherwise be passive, ie, that the pension wasn’t granted, to him—the lack of actor sort of highlighted. I’ve seen it understood as “he suffered that” (someone unspecified) didn’t grant the pension.

茂は春子に年金を与えなかった。

春子には年金が与えられなかった。

春子は誰かが年金を与えなかったので本当に怒った。

春子は年金を与えられなかった。

But who is the が? (I still can’t figure out when to use a particle after か—誰かがりんごを食べたの？誰かりんごを買ったの？) Is there a が, or is the sufferer acting on the object? Is its being not granted something he’s doing to it? Haven’t dealt with this tense, or mood, or whatever, since a mention of it in, I think, Genki I. Or II. Reminds me of the passé simple in French, which my teachers swore I would never need because it’s “a literary tense”, and which I did need, it turned out, when I 専門ed in French literature. 専門、専修、専攻。。。 

Fortunately, Genki II is right here, so I’ll check the chapter in burglary; I recall a lot of suffering in that.

泥棒に入られました。”I had my room broken into.”

Hmm. (1) This seems standard passive; in Eng, at least, you can name he actor. (“It was said, by some, that…”) (2) Why does Genki’s xlation omit the burglar, who clearly is included in the J? 

But maybe に helps. 春子は(財布に、会社に 、雇主 に)年金を与えられなかった？

Is it just that the suffering passive is the English passive that names the actor? But then which に?

His house was broken into. His house was broken into by a burglar. He was broken into by a burglar. He had his house broken into. As for him, entering happened by a burglar. A pension was not granted to him by the cat. 彼には猫に年金が与えられなかった。But を+られ.

Perplexing. “He was not granted” is an anomalous construction in Eng, anyway.

—

OK. Genki doesn’t address を at all, and although it says the sufferer can take は or が it doesn’t give examples of が. But that helps; I’ll think of it as, I was acted upon by a certain person, and the action was this on that. Like being allowed or forced to do something. 母にりんごを食べさせた。りんごは食べられた。母は僕にりんごを食べられた。My mother made/let me eat an apple. The apple was eaten. The apple was eaten upon my mother by me. 母にりんごを食べられなかった。My mother did (someone) the disservice of not eating the apple. 彼は誰かに年金を与えられなかった。Someone unspecified dismayed him by not awarding a pension.