Lecture 14

1. Lecture 14 Passive Voice (I)

2. Teaching Contents • 14.1 Active sentence and passive sentence • 14.2 Passive voice of phrasal verbs • 14.3 Passive voice of non-finite verbs

3. 14.1 Active sentence and passive sentence • A sentence/clause whose predicator (predicate verb) is active is called an “active sentence”, and a sentence/clause whose predicator is passive is called a “passive sentence”. The subject in the active sentence is the agent or doer of an action, and in the passive the recipient of the action. • Rules of changing into the passive • Most of the SVO/SVOO/SVOC patterns can be made passive, following the rules below:

4. a) In the first pattern, the active object becomes the passive subject, the active verb phrase becomes the passive verb phrase, the active subject becomes the passive agent and a prepositional by is introduced before the agent. The by-phrase is not necessary. • b) If there is a modal or semi-auxiliary in the active verb phrase, it is the infinitive that follows that is made passive

5. c) In the SVOO , there are two possible passive forms: either the indirect object or the direct object becomes the subject of the passive sentence. The former is preferred. • d) In the SVOC, the object complement becomes the subject complement of the passive sentence apart from the other changes. • e.g. We have painted the windows white.  The windows have been painted white.

6. 2) Voice constraints • Not all the active sentences can be made passive. Some transitive or stative verbs, for example, do not occur in the passive • e.g. This plane holds about 150 people. • a) Transitive verbs with reflexive or reciprocal objects do not passivize. • We should help each other. • b) Some “verb + noun” combinations, which have the force of an intransitive verb, can never take the passive.

7. c) There is no active transformation for the following seemingly passive sentences • e.g. He is gone = He has gone. • They are finished. = They have finished. be finished可用于被动语态，亦可用系表结构。 • 1)当主语是表事物的名词或代词时，finished具有被动意义。 • e.g. The war was nearly finished. • The house will soon be finished. • 2)当主语是表人的名词或代词时，finished常具有主动意义，be finished表动作的结果或状态。 • e.g. At last I was finished on time. 按时完工了。

8. 14.2 Passive voice of phrasal verbs • 1) Passive voice of basic phrasal verb • Phrasal verbs have three basic forms: verb + preposition, verb + adverb particle and verb + adverb particle + preposition. In the passive transformation, these forms are mostly treated as single-word verbs, and both the adverb particle and the preposition should remain immediately after the verb.

9. 2) Passive voice of “verb + noun + preposition” • This structure may have two passive possibilities. The first is treat the combination as a single transitive verb; the second is to treat it as “verb + object + preposition”, and put the whole prepositional phrase after the passive verb. • e.g. He took great care of his books. •  His books were taken great care of. • Great care was taken of his books.

10. 14.3 Passive voice of non-finite verbs • English verbs have three non-finite forms: the infinitive, the –ing participle, and the –ed participle, of which the first two may occur in the passive. • 1) Passive infinitive • When the logical subject of the infinitive is the recipient of an action, the infinitive should take the passive form. The logical subject of the passive infinitive need not be expressed if the infinitive shares the subject with the main clause

11. e.g. I’m proud to be thus chosen. • If the infinitive does not share the subject with the main clause, the logical subject of the passive infinitive must be expressed. • e.g. It’s impossible for lost time to be made up. • 2) Passive –ing participle • When the logical subject of the –ing participle is the recipient of an action, the –ing participle should take the passive form. • e.g. I object to being kept waiting.

12. If the –ing participle does not share the subject with the main clause, the logical subject must be expressed. • e.g. The workers were proud of their products being praised highly by the buying public. • When a passive –ing participle with a personal pronoun as its own subject functions as the object or prepositional complementation, the personal pronoun can occur either in the objective or in the genitive case. • e.g. I insisted on him/his being invited.

13. 3) Contrast between passive infinitive and passive –ing participle • Both function as the object of transitive verbs. Some verbs can only collocate with the infinitive or with the –ing participle, some or with both of them without change of meaning except for a few cases where there is difference semantically. • e.g. He wants to be invited. • He enjoys being flattered. • He forgot to be photographed. • He forgot being photographed. • If a passive non-finite verb functions as prepositional complementation or as object of a phrasal verb, it can only be an –ing form.