This is a brief summary of the theory in "A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language," by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik.
HELLO, EVERYBODY!
Welcome to a new lesson!
WHAT IS THE PASSIVE VOICE?
"VOICE" is a grammatical category that makes it possible to view the action of a sentence in either of two ways without change in the facts reported.
💥The butler murdered the detective. [ACTIVE]
💥The detective was murdered (by the butler) [PASSIVE]
The passive voice focuses on the action rather than on its doer. Therefore, the SUBJECT, of the passive sentence is the person or thing affected by the action (the verb).
HOW DO WE FORM THE PASSIVE VOICE IN PROGRESSIVE TENSES?
The active-passive relation involves two levels: the verb phrase and the clause.
👉AT THE PHRASE LEVEL:
The passive adds a form of the auxiliary "BE" followed by the past participle (-ed participle) of the main verb.
👉AT THE CLAUSE LEVEL:
Changing from active to passive involves the rearrangement of two clause elements and one addition:
a) The active OBJECT becomes the passive SUBJECT.
b) The active SUBJECT becomes he passive AGENT.
c) The preposition "BY" is introduced before the agent.
MORE EXAMPLES ABOUT PASSIVE VOICE AND TENSES
1) The TENSE in the ACTIVE VERB is the same tense we need to use for the verb "BE" in the passive sentence.
2) The main verb in the passive sentence is ALWAYS in its PAST PARTICIPLE form. It doesn't matter which the tense is, the main verb goes always in the -ED PARTICIPLE.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE HAVE TWO OBJECTS IN THE ACTIVE SENTENCE?
When there are TWO objects, there are TWO possible active sentences and TWO possible passive sentences:
ACTIVE SENTENCES
1) The professor gave [THE STUDENTS] [THE BOOKS]
2) The professor gave [THE BOOKS] [TO THE STUDENTS]
PASSIVE SENTENCES
1) THE STUDENTS were given THE BOOKS.
2) THE BOOKS were given TO THE STUDENTS.
😵A SIMPLE WAY TO RECOGNIZE THE PASSIVE VOICE:
Here's a little trick that never fails.
In case of doubt it never fails 👇
VOICE CONSTRAINTS
WHAT IS A "CONSTRAINT"?
When we talk about a "CONSTRAINT", we're talking about a LIMIT or RESTRICTION in the use of the passive voice.
By now, we already know how to move the elements and what to add in order to turn an active sentence into its passive form.
However we should always take this 👇 into acount:
Thus, since only TRANSITIVE sentences have a passive counterpart, we must always remember that INTRANSITIVE and COPULAR sentences can NEVER be turned into the passive (because they don't take objects).
WHICH ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONSTRAINTS?
There are a number of restrictions in the use of the passive voice when the ACTIVE (transitive) and the PASSIVE are NOT in SYSTEMATIC CORRESPONDANCE.
We will distinguish five types of constraints:
VERB CONSTRAINTS
a) ACTIVE ONLY:
Some transitive verbs called "middle" verbs do not occur in the passive voice.
👉HAVE 👉RESEMBLE
👉LACK 👉 LET
👉HOLD 👉SUIT
👉BECOME 👉FIT
b) PASSIVE ONLY:
👉BE SAID/REPUTED (in the sense of being considered something)
👉BE BORN
👉BE DROWNED (when there's no explicit agent)
ONLY PASSIVE:
He fell into the river and soon was drowned.
PASSIVE AND ACTIVE:
The police discovered that he was drowned by his own brother.
The police discovered that his brother drowned him.
c) PREPOSITIONAL VERBS:
The passive voice is only possible when the prepositional verbs have ABSTRACT passive subjects (i.e. IDIOMATIC MEANING).
OBJECT CONSTRAINTS
a) CLAUSES AS OBJECT:
I) FINITE:
John thought (that) she was atractive.
II) NON FINITE:
1) INFINITIVE:
John hoped to meet her.
2) -ING PARTICIPLE:
John enjoyed seeing her.
COREFERENCE between the subject and the objects blocks the passive.
b) REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS: himself, herself, myself, etc.
👎 He cut himself with a piece of paper.
c) RECIPROCAL PRONOUNS: each other, one another.
👎 They saw each other from a distance.
d) POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS (when coreferential to the subject):
👍 My head was shaken by the woman.
👎Her head was shaken by the woman.
AGENT CONSTRAINT
The agent by-phrase is generally optional. The omission occurs especially when the agent is:
a) IRRELEVANT/UNKNOWN:
When the agent is "them", "people", "the press", "the administration", etc.
b) REDUNDANT: Jack fought Michael last night, and Jack was beaten (by Michael).
MEANING CONSTRAINT
The difference of order brought about by changing the active sentence into the passive or vice versa, may well make a difference not only in EMPHASIS, but also in the scope of NEGATIVES and QUANTIFIERS:
👉Every school boy knows one joke at least. (Any joke)
👉~One joke at least is known by every school boy. (One particular joke)
👉John cannot do it. (Ability)
👉It cannot be done. (Possibility)
FREQUENCY CONSTRAINT
💥The PASSIVE voice is used in the INFORMATIVE PROSE mostly, such as SCIENTIFIC articles or NEWS reports.
💥The ACTIVE voice is generally used in the IMAGINATIVE prose.
WHAT IS THE CAUSATIVE?
"HAVE/GET SOMETHING DONE"
💥This typically describes a service performed for us by someone else:
👉I've just HAD/GOT my car serviced.
👉I HAVE/GET it done every winter.
💥It can also describe something unfortunate that happened to someone:
👉We HAD/GOT our car broken into last month.
GET is more likely to be used than HAVE when:
💥There is a feeling that something must be done:
👉I really must GET (HAVE) my hair cut.
💥There is a feeling of eventually managing to do something:
👉I eventually GOT (HAD) the car fixed at the Fast Service garage.
💥In orders and imperatives:
👉GET your hair cut!
WHAT ARE THE PSEUDO-PASSIVE AND THE SEMI-PASSIVE?
💥The sentences which have a direct ACTIVE-PASSIVE RELATION are called "CENTRAL PASSIVES" or "TRUE PASSIVES". We've seen many sentences which are examples of that.
💥SEMI-PASSIVES, also called "MIXED", are distinguished from the TRUE PASSIVES in that their members have both VERBAL and ADJECTIVAL PROPERTIES.
They are VERB-LIKE in having active analogues:
👉We are ENCOURAGED to go on with the project.
👉(The results) ENCOURAGE us to go on with the project.
However, their ADJECTIVAL PROPERTIES include the possibility of:
a) COORDINATING the participle with an ADJECTIVE;
b) MODIFYING the participle with QUITE, RATHER, or MORE, etc.
c) REPLACING "BE" by a lexical copular verb such as "FEEL", or "SEEM".
👉We are ENCOURAGED to go on with the project.
👉 We FEEL RATHER ENCOURAGED AND CONTENT to go on with the project.
💥PSEUDO-PASSIVES have neither an active counterpart nor the possibility of adding an agent.
👉The building is already demolished.
Here "IS DEMOLISHED" denotes a RESULTANT STATE: it refers to a state resulting from the demolition rather than to the act of demolition itself.
Perhaps right now you're feeling like this 👇
... but don't worry! It's easier than you think. Remember:
"Practice makes the master".
I hope you consider this lesson useful!
Or should I say "I hope this lesson is considered useful (by you)"?
Marce.
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