The Category of Voice. The number of voices in Eng. Types of passive constructions. Reasons for the frequent occurrence of the Passive Voice.

Voice — is the category which characterizes the relations btw the doer of the action and the object of the action expressed by the form of the predicate verb

1. Sometimes the subject of the active construction can't be regarded as the doer of the action due to the lexical character : e/g He lost his father in the war.

There's a disagreement btw the grammatical form of the predicate verb and the lex meaning.

The meaning is passive.The subj of the sentence isn't the doer but the sufferer. Yet, such examples are treated among the active voice b/c of the form of the verb.

2. The verb in the Active Voice denotes an action/process that is going on in the subject itself middle passive.

e.g The concert began The door opened The book sells well

3. The Subject denotes the doer and the object of the action (they are the SAME) - reflexive passive

e.g The boy washed John shaved

4. The subject is plural and the doer and the abject are DIFFERENT persons - reciprocal passive(взаимный)

e/g They kissed

     John and Nelly met in the street

We can see that the classification is based on the MEANING. BUT! The Soviet Linguistsput forward their own argumentsagainst this theory:

۷ A Gr cat — a unity of form and meaning. In all the cases the form is active. Gr-ly the subject is represented as the doer

۷Such examples aren't numerous. In majority of the sentences w/an active Voice form, the subject denotes the doer proper .

 Barhudarov suggested to define the M of the Active Voice as NON-PASSIVE!

PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS:

Passive Voiceis a form of the verb which shows that the subj is the obj of the action expr-ed by the predicate verbs.

1. Direct Passive- the subj corresponds to the direct object of the predicate verb. e/g Coal is used for making fire.

Several restrictions:

۷Passive isn't used when the obj denotes the same person as the subj in an active sentence.

e.g He hurt himself

۷The Passive isn't used either if the obj in an active sentence is modified by the possessive

pronoun referring to the same person as the subj

e/g He cut his finger

۷ Passive isn't used when the obj is part of the set expression

e/g to take courage; to keep one's word

But still some set expr-s build Passive : to take care, to pay attention, to take measures

 ۷Passive can't be built with intransitive verbs

2.Indirect Passive— we employ the Indirect object. e/g He was told an interesting story.

In such Ss we keep the direct obj and this obj is specially termed "a retained object".

It's freely used w/the verb "to tell" only. Often w/ "to give" when it's part of the set expression

"to give a chance/choice/orders". Sometimes it's used with "to offer, to show, to prompt"

3. Prepositional Passive- the prepositional obj can also become the subj.

It can be built w/ any verb taking a prep obj. BUT: it's found w/a few Vs of everyday use: to

speak, to talk, to laugh, to set for...

The use has one restriction:

=> It's not used with verbs taking 2 objs: direct and prepositional.

The only passive costruction w/ "explain" is e/g The rule was explained to us

4.Adverbial Passive- when an Adv modifier becomes a subj of a Pass Sentence. However the number of such Ss is limited in Eng.

2 of them:

        e/g The house wasn 't lived in

        The bed wasn't slept in

The Reasons for frequent use of Passive Voice 

Main - it makes possible to change word order in a sentence.

It's been discovered that the end position is connected w/new info, end position is the most strongly stressed in a Sentence: e/g The boy wrote a letter

A litter was written by the boy

1^st Sent: the center of communication is a letter, the info is new

2^nd Sent: centre is "by the boy"

These Ss are parallel, can be used in different communicative situation.

In majority of Eng passive Ss the doer of the action isn't mentioned.It happens b/c the doer isn't known or can't be easily stated.

e/g The house was broken into and a few things were stolen. Sometimes the doer isn't mentioned cuz it's self-evident e/g He was elected an MP

When the "by-phrase" is absent, the listener's attention is shifted to other parts of the Sentence. e.g Roger was invited to dinner.

Other reasons:

ð There are several passive constructions in Eng

ð  Many Vs in Ene take a direct obj and the direct Constr is widely used.