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Voice. Lecture 9. Forms and Meanings. Voice is a grammatical category of the verb, which reflects the semantic role of the verbal subject . This category is based on the functional opposition of two sets of forms: active ↔ passive. The choice of Subject.
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Voice Lecture 9
Forms and Meanings • Voice is a grammatical category of the verb, which reflects the semantic role of the verbal subject. • This category is based on the functional opposition of two sets of forms: active ↔ passive.
The choice of Subject • It depends on the information content of the sentence. • The choice of verb form depends on the semantic role of the verbal subject: • if the Subject denotes the agent of the verbal situation, the verb form is in the active voice; Tom shot the tiger.
The choice of Subject • if the Subject denotes the semantic role of the Patient in the verbal situation, the verb form is in the passive voice. The tiger was shot (by Tom).
The passive voice form • The passive voice form is the marked member of the opposition. It is formed by means of the auxiliary be and the past participle of the full verb. The tiger was shot.
the Subject function in the passive voice sentence is performed by a noun phrase, which functions as Object in the corresponding active voice sentence. Tom shot the tiger. The tiger was shot (by Tom).
Three types of Object can be distinguished: direct, indirect, prepositional. • Accordingly, three types of passive structures should be distinguished: primary, secondary, tertiary.
Primary passive • a passive voice structure in which the Subjectfunction is performed by the noun phrase that functions as Direct Object in the corresponding active voice structure: • They built ‘Leeds Castle’ in the 9th century. → Leeds Castle was built in the 9th century.
Secondary passive • a passive voice structure in which the Subject function is performed by the noun phrase that functions as Indirect Object in the corresponding active voice structure: The shop assistant showed me some very beautiful skirts. →I was shown some very beautiful skirts.
Tertiary passive • a passive voice structure in which the Subject function is performed by the noun phrase that functions as Prepositional Object in the corresponding active voice structure: They always take good care of her dog. →Her dog is always taken good care of.
Another distinction can be made by passives: a. 'Central' or ‘true' passives can be placed in direct correspondence with a unique active counterpart. This violin was made by my father. My father made this violin. b. 'Semi-passives' do not have a clear correspondence with an active verb phrase or active clause. We are encouraged to go on with the project. (The results) encourage us to go on with the project. c. In 'pseudo-passives' it is chiefly only their superficial form of verb + -ed participle that recommends them for consideration as passives. The building is already demolished. (Someone) has already demolished the building.
TheAgent isn’t introduced if it is: - unknown: John Brown was mugged last night. • irrelevant: What would a student do if he were deprived of his books? • redundant: France played Wales at Rugby last night and was beaten. - irrecoverable: Trains have been replaced by buses.
- connecting two sentences • He rose to speak, and was listened to with enthusiasm by the great crowd present. • Rodney Huddleston points several restrictions to active and passive constructions: a. if an object is obligatory reflexive: Max drank himself under the table. b. clauses like: Ed likes bananas. *Bananas are liked by Ed. c. 'symmetrical‘ verbs: marry in X married Yentails and is entailed by Y married X
Huddleston • not all transitive actives have a passive counterpart • there are passives with no active counterpart • for the most part they involve other kinds of passive constructions than the central • the verb rumour, for instance, is wholly restricted to passive constructions
Huddleston • Passives with a stranded preposition - deal with, rely on, depend on, approve of, etc. He was laughed at. • Agentless passives The tiger was shot cannot be satisfactory derived from any actual active clause. It might be proposed that the corresponding active is Someone shot the tiger.
Huddleston • Adjectival passives The vase was broken by Tom (verbal passive) The vase was already broken (adjectival passive) In the adjectival interpretation be is not the passive auxiliary but a main verb and broken is an adjective derived from the past participle. The relationship with an active construction is less direct than with verbal passives.
Huddleston • -en form non-finite complements A small number of verbs can take as complement a passive non-finite construction: He saw United beaten by Spurs. In this construction the passive is not marked by the auxiliary be.
Passive get • Passive voice is regularly expressed by means of BE + a past participle form of the following verb (He was caught by the police). • It is possible to use GET + a past participle to form a passive construction (He got caught by the police). • The GET-passive focuses more on the actual action, whereas the BE-passive tends to focus on the result of the action, especially if no agent is expressed (The church was demolished).
Passive voice forms are frequently used in the context of mass media and in scientific texts. • Active voice forms are used predominantly in creative writing-poetry, fiction as well as in colloquial speech.
