tense, aspect, voice & modality - voice

VOICEVOICEACTIVE and PASSIVEACTIVE and PASSIVE

Active and Passive Active and Passive VoiceVoice

• Most transitive verbs can occur in two voices: active voice and passive voice.

Active VoiceActive Voice

• It is the most common, unmarked voice.

ActiveActive

VoiceVoice

Subject Verb Object

>

The lumberjack cut the tree.

Passive VoicePassive Voice

• Passive verb phrases are less common and used for special discourse functions.

PassivePassive

VoiceVoice

Subject Verb Object

>

The tree is cut by the lumberjack.

Now, compare:Now, compare:

• The lumberjack cut the tree.

• The tree is cut by the lumberjack.

The passive is possible with The passive is possible with most transitive verbs:most transitive verbs:

• Everyone drinks water.

• John brought the black cat.

• Marylin mailed the letter.

• The scientists rescued the sea turtles.

• Thousands of teenagers read Harry Potter.

Short passives vs. Long passivesShort passives vs. Long passives

• Short passives The agent is not specified. (agentless passive)

“From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition.” (The Black Cat, Edgar Allan Poe).

“Those that are found are called meteorites.” (www.infoplease.com)

Short passives vs. Long passivesShort passives vs. Long passives

• Long Passives contain a by-phrase The agent of the action is specified.

“Many accidents are caused by dangerous driving.”(MURPHY, Raymond. English Grammar in Use)

“This house was built by my grandfather.”(MURPHY, Raymond. English Grammar in Use)

Short Passives across registersShort Passives across registers

• Most common in academic prose:

“Following this methodology, three strains were selected, with which three sparkling wines were produced by the Champenoise method. Industrial sparkling wines were

also produced with the commercial strain EC-1118, used as a control in this study, and with strain J, from the

collection of the winery where the sparkling wines were prepared. The wines thus obtained were aged for 12 months in presence of the yeast. The findings of the

sensory analysis indicated that all of the sparkling wines were good quality.”

(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740002000903903)

Short Passives across registersShort Passives across registers

• Also common in news:

Short Passives across registersShort Passives across registers

• Passives are rare in conversation. However, there are some that are more common in conversation than in the written registers:

“I can’t be bothered with my cosplay today, too tired.” “It’s gotta be done.”

“She’s a lady and ladies shouldn’t be messed with.”

Long Passive across registersLong Passive across registers

• In principle, the long passive can be replaced by an active clause with the same meaning.

• Passive:“In principle, the long passive can be replaced by an active clause with

the same meaning.”

• Active:“In principle, an active clause with the same meaning can replace the

passive.”

Long Passive across registersLong Passive across registers

However, this active clause would have been less appropriate then

the passive clause, because there are three motivations for choosing

the long passive.

Long Passive across registersLong Passive across registers

• Principle 1: The long passive is chosen to accord with the information-flow principle: the preference for presenting new information at the end of a clause. This means that given information is placed before new information.

Long Passive across registersLong Passive across registers

• Principle 2: The long passive is chosen to accord with the end-weight principle. This means the “heavier” (or more lengthy) element of the clause, in this case the agent, is placed at the end, where it does not hold up the processing of the rest of the clause.

Long Passive across registersLong Passive across registers

• Principle 3: The long passive is chosen to place initial emphasis on an element of the clause which is the topic, or the theme, of the current discourse.

Verbs that are common in the Verbs that are common in the passive voicepassive voice

• 90% of the time in the passive voice:

Aligned (with), based (on), born, coupled (with), deemed, effected, entitled (to), flattened, inclined, obliged, positioned, situated, stained, subjected (to)

Verbs that are common in the Verbs that are common in the passive voicepassive voice

• 70% of the time in the passive voice:

Approved, associated (with), attributed (to), classified (as), composed (of), confined (to), designed, diagnosed (as), distributed, estimated, grouped (with), intended, labelled, linked (to/with), located (at/in), plotted, recruited, stored, viewed.

Verbs that almost always occur Verbs that almost always occur in the passivein the passive

• Verbs that almost always occur in the passive:

Be born:

Susan was born in Chicago.

Be reputed:

The deal is reputed to be worth $1m.

Verbs that almost always occur Verbs that almost always occur in the passivein the passive

• Verbs like be based on, be deemed, be positioned, and be subjected to, are grammatical in both the active and passive voice, but they are used 90% of the time in the passive voice

“The material was deemed faulty.”

“Anyone found guilty of drinking alcohol may be subjected to 80 lashes of a cane.”

Get-PassiveGet-Passive

It’s rare in all registers, but is occasionally used in conversation.

Get-PassiveGet-Passive

• Only 5 verbs have notable frequency in this case:

Get married Get left

Get hit Get stuck

Get involved

Get-PassiveGet-Passive

• Many of these verbs have a different emphasis when used with be-passive:

I was married for a couple of years. (state)

She got married when she was eighteen. (process of getting into a state)

Uncommon verbs in the Uncommon verbs in the passivepassive..

• There are many verbs that rarely occur in the passive voice:

- Single Word Transitive Verbs: agree, exclaim, guess, hate, have, joke, try, etc..

- Single-object prepositional verbs: agree to/with, belong to, bet on, etc...

Uncommon verbs in the Uncommon verbs in the passivepassive..

• As we could see, many single-object prepositional verbs rarely occur in the passive voice.

They’re all waiting for me.

Uncommon verbs in the Uncommon verbs in the passive.passive.

• The passive voice is awkward, if not impossible, with these verbs, because there would be a stranded preposition after the verb.

* I’m being waited for by them.

Uncommon verbs in the Uncommon verbs in the passive.passive.

• However, a few single-object prepositional verbs do easily occur in the passive voice. The subject correspond to the prepositional object of the active version.

- Active: You can rely on your sister to remember when your birthday is.

- Passive: Your sister com be relied on to remember when your birthday is.

Uncommon verbs in the Uncommon verbs in the passive.passive.

• In contrast, two-object prepositional verbs usually allow (normally occur in) the passive voice. The subject is the direct object of the active form.

The style have been based on this assumption.

(active: Someone based the style on this assumption).

Voice and aspect Voice and aspect combinationscombinations

•Passive can combine with perfect and/or progressive aspect. •In actual use the perfect passive is moderately common.•The progressive passive is rare.•The perfect passive with present tense is preferred in academic prose and news.•The past perfect passive is moderately common in fiction.

Voice and aspect Voice and aspect combinationscombinations

• Perfect passive verb phrases with present tense typically retain the meaning of both the perfect and the passive. They show past time with present relevance (perfect aspect) and they reduce the importance of the agent (passive voice):

• “He has been jailed for explosives offenses in Ulster and has previously been denied a visa.” (Grammar)

• Perfect passives in the past tense are moderately common in fiction:

“Most of the lights had been turned off.”

• The passive with progressive aspect is rare, but occurs occasionally in news and academy writing:

• “A police spokesman said nobody else was being sought in connection with the incident.” (grammar)

Voice and aspect Voice and aspect combinationscombinations