The Verb. The Category of Voice

1. The definition of the voice

2. The passive voice

a) The voice of auxiliaries

b) The linguistic status of the passive voice

c) The types of passive constructions

d) The use of the passive voice

e) The meaning of the passive voice

1. The definition of the voice

The voice is a morphological category which manifests itself in the forms of verb. The category of voice was a number of syntactic characteristics because it is realized in such a syntactic unit as a sentence. Voice is the category of verb which indicates the relations between the subject and predicate verb of the sentence. The active voice shows that the subject of the sentence is the doer of the action expressed by the predicate,

E.g. The woman opened the door.

The passive voice shows that the subject does not act, but it is acted upon,

E.g. The door was opened by a Chinese girl.

Professor Smirnitsky thinks that the category of voice expresses the director of the action. In the active voice the process denoted by the verb issues from its subject and is directed outside.

S Active

S Passive

Barkhudarov is of opinion that in the case of the passive voice the process indicated by the verb does characterize the grammatical subject from without. As to the active voice it is not always that the process denoted by the verb issues from the subject is directed outside.

He analyses the following cases:

1) The door opened.

The subject here denotes neither the doer, nor the object of the action. It indicates the thing inside which the action is going on.

2) He dressed.

The subject in sentence like this indicates both the doer and the object of the action. The action issues from the subject and then returns to it.

3) They dressed again.

In such cases the subject also expresses both the doer and the object of the action, but as opposed to sentence of the type ‘He dressed’, the subject here indicates a number of persons or things and every member of the group performs the action not on himself, but on another member of the same group.

Taking all this into consideration, Barkhudarov finds it necessary to modify the conception of Smirnitsky. He also represents the active and passive voice in the form of the opposition, but this opposition is privative not only in form, but also in meaning.

Recently the privative character of voice opposition has been called in question by Bondarko. The privative opposition is recognized through neutralization. Since the voice opposition is never neutralized, it is doubtful that it can be regarded as privative, but what kind of opposition is it then? The question is still open to discuss.

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a) Voice auxiliaries

The existence of voice auxiliary 'be' is universally recognized. Some linguists refer to voice auxiliaries, also the verbs 'get', 'become' and the combinations 'come to' and 'get to',

E.g. John and Mary got married last year.

She became more and more influenced by his arguments.

He came/got to be respected by everybody in the community.

However, these verbs retain their lexical meaning which prevents us from referring them to voice auxiliaries.

b) The linguistic status of the passive voice

Henry Poutsma does not recognize the existence of the independent passive voice. He looks upon it as the reverse of the active, but a passive construction can't be treated as a converted active construction. Henry Poutsma himself enumerates a member of reasons making such a transformation impossible:

1) The restriction may be due to the nature of the direct object. The passive construction is impossible when the direct object is expressed by the infinitive (I told him to go), by a subordinate clause (I told him that I knew about it), by a reflexive pronoun (He hurt himself), or by a noun with a possessive pronoun referring to the same person as the subject of the sentence (John cut his finger);

2) sometimes the impossibility of the transformation is due to the semantic character of the verb, thus, the passive can't be used with verbs denoting state (to resemble, to suit, to possess, etc.),

E.g. He resembled his father.

The hat suits you.

3) Sometimes there is no passive construction, because the verb and the direct object are so closely connected that they form a set-phrase and can't be separated,

E.g. He lost courage.

c) Types of the passive constructions

In Russian it is only transitive verbs that admit of the passive construction. In English M. Joos singles out three types of passive constructions:

1) Primary passive (the subject of a primary passive construction corresponds to the direct object of a parallel active construction),

E.g. The door was opened by a girl. A girl opened the door.

2) Secondary passive (the subject of a secondary passive construction corresponds to the indirect object of a parallel active construction),

E.g. We were shown a room. He showed us a room.

The presence of a prepositional object expressing the agent is optional both in the primary and in the secondary passive constructions.

3) Tertiary passive (the subject of a tertiary passive construction corresponds to a prepositional object or an adverbial modifier of a parallel active construction),

E.g. They were never heard of again. Nobody ever heard of them again.

The bed hadn't been slept in. Nobody have slept in the bed.

Tertiary passive embraces constructions with fixed prepositions attached to the verb,

E.g. The child shall be taken care of somehow.

I have been laughed at as a crank.

d) Use of the passive voice

We use the passive in the following cases:

1) When the doer is unknown or can't easily be stated,

E.g. The two sons were killed in the Great War.

2) When the doer is self-evident from the context,

E.g. He was elected Member of Parliament for Leeds.

3) When there is a special reason for not mentioning the doer,

E.g. Вполне достаточно было сказано на тему, которая будет более подробно обсуждена в следующей главе - Enough has said here of a subject which will be treated more fully in the subsequent chapter.

4) When the doer is indicated, the reason why the passive voice is preferred is generally the greater interest taken in the object of the action than in its doer,

E.g. His son was run over by a motor car.

e) Meaning of the passive voice

According to Curme, Onions, Barkhudarov, Shteling and Vorontsova, the combination 'be + P2' should in all cases be treated as a passive voice form. Onions writes apropos of this 'the forms of the passive voice have two distinct meanings:

1) They may express continuous or habitual action,

E.g. I was annoyed by mosquitoes all night.

2) They may express the state resulting from an action,

E.g. His office is closed. Come back tomorrow.

The majority of linguists, however, think that we deal with two different constructions here. When the combination 'be + P2' indicates an action, it should be looked upon as the passive voice, when it renders the meaning of state, it should be qualified as a compound nominal predicate with the verb in the active voice.

We have the passive voice in the following cases:

1) When the doer of the action is indicated with the help of the prepositional combination 'with/by',

E.g. They were introduced by Paulie.

2) When the verb is in the continuous aspect, because it is generally action verbs that admit of the continuous aspect,

E.g. When Millie got to the stables, a horse was being saddled.

3) When the verb in the future tense, because it is generally action verbs that admit of the future tense,

E.g. Your luggage will be brought straight away.

4) When the verb is in the perfect phase, because it is generally action verbs that admit of the perfect phase,

E.g. You have been told three times this week that she is coming home for her health.

5) When the verb is qualified by an adverbial modifier of place, time, or frequency, because it is actions that we place in space and time,

E.g. Sir Percy and his lady were conducted to the platform.

I'll be dressed in a minute.

6) When there is another verb in the sentence in the active voice,

E.g. People passed him and were passed by him.

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