Passive object position in 是...的 structure?

Question

I came across the following sentences:

1. 电话是谁打来的?

   Diànhuà shì shuí dǎlái de?

   Who was calling?

2. 晚饭是妈妈做的。

   Wǎnfàn shì māma zuò de.

   Mom made dinner.

Which literally is something like:

1. The phone call was by who done?
2. Dinner is by mama done.

This looks quite passive to me as the object appears first in the sentence.

Question 1: I don't understand the word order. Is it because the structure 是...的 allows for passive sentences? I couldn't find any resources explaining this such as in The "shi... de" construction for emphasizing details in resources.allsetlearning. Could you provide some?

Instead, I would have expected the object to be positioned before or after the 的 (as explained in the section Position of 的 from the previous link)：

1. 是谁打来电话的? or 是谁打来的电话?
2. 是妈妈做晚饭的. or 是妈妈做的晚饭.

Question 2: Just to clarify, would this form be correct too?

Answer 1

question 1

I don't understand how is it allowed this order structure. Is it because the structure 是...的 allows for passive sentences?

是 ～ 的 is typically used for emphasis.

The position of the object in your two example sentences is given by the topic-comment construction, which is typical in Chinese.

If we break it down:

晚饭 topic

(是)妈妈做(的) comment, with additional emphasis given by 是 ～ 的

It appears passive only if you go out of your way to keep the same word order in English.

question 2

Just to clarify, would this form be correct too?

I would say that 是谁打来电话的? and 是妈妈做晚饭的 don't feel right to me.

Whereas 是谁打来的电话 and 是妈妈做的晚饭 do, even though they shift the focus of the sentence on "who" and "mum" respectively: "who is it who called" and "it's mum who made dinner".

Answer 2

In "是谁打来的电话" , the object is '电话'

[电话]是谁打来的 (places the object before the verb emphasize the object, makes it a more important part in the sentence - The phone call is the topic)

~

In "是妈妈做的晚饭" , the object is '晚饭'

[晚饭] 是妈妈做的 (place the object before the verb emphasize the object, makes it a more important part in the sentence - The dinner is the topic)

[的] marks 是谁打来[的] as an 'adjectival phrase' that describes the object to follow. In this case, it describes the object 电话 (phone call? What phone call? The phone call that was made by who)

[的] marks 是妈妈做[的] as an 'adjectival phrase' that describes the object to follow. In this case, it describes the object 晚饭 (dinner? What dinner? The dinner that was made by mother)

是 = (it) is/ (it) was

Answer 3

In fact, the meaning of the two sentences is similar, which is related to the habit of speaking and tone of voice.

Q: 是谁做的晚饭? Answer: 是妈妈做的晚饭. Q: 晚饭是谁做的? Answer: 晚饭是妈妈做的.

Here have three words and different orders can be used to express the level of eating chili: 不怕辣；辣不怕；怕不辣. Your choice is...