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U27, 5. THE PASSIVE IN SPANISH: CONSTRUCTION DIFFERENCES, 4. VOICE…
U27
0. INTRODUCTION
Voice
VOICE
is a
grammatical category
affecting Vbs (like tense, aspect & mood) which makes it possible to view the action of a sentence in two ways, without change in the facts reported: from the POV of the performer/agent or from the POV of the person/thing affected
5. THE PASSIVE IN SPANISH
: CONSTRUCTION DIFFERENCES
Concord
In Spanish, the participle
agrees in number & gender
with the Subj: "Las casas son terminad
as
"
In English & Spanish, the Aux agrees in person & number
Frequency of use
In Spanish, the P. is
rarer & less productive
for the following reasons:
Pronoun "se"
Agent deletion
: The sense of the passive is usually conveyed by a sentence type in which the Spanish pron "se" is used
with a passive function, though the form is active
: "Se llevaron los heridos al hospital"
passive function,
active form
Omitted Subj
Spanish makes use of the active more often than English does in sentences which
could be expressed in the passive too
(with unexpressed agent): "Mataron a su padre en la guerra" (+natural)
active sentence with ~
"Estar" + Adj
the Spanish construction
"estar" + adjective
(including past participles) is used/preferred if an event is over: "La estatua estaba destruida" > "The statue was destroyed"
Auxiliary Vbs
In Spanish
"ser" is the only auxiliary
of the passive. "Get" & "become" being equivalent to a construction in the active with a pers pron.
We became acquainted (=Nos conocimos)
You’ll get hurt (=Te harás daño)
in the passive
Two object sentences
When two Objs occur in the active, a typical transform in English like "John was given the book" or "The book was given to John" has no equivalent in Spanish.
Only the DO can become Subj of the passive
in Spanish
"Dieron a Juan un libro" > "Un libro fue dado a Juan" (*"Juan fue dado un libro")
The passive in English is generated in the same way as in Spanish, with
be + Past participle & transposition of Subj-Obj, with optional omission of the agent
(by-phrase): "El toreo es considerado como un verdadero arte"
4. VOICE CONSTRAINTS
Verb ~
Active only
Middle Vbs
some transitive Vbs, called
middle Vbs
, (when the Subj both performs & receives the action) do not occur at least in some senses in the passive (unnatural & ungrammatical). They can be
paraphrased by
the stative Vbs
BE & HAVE
"They
have
a nice house"
"Will this
suit
you?"
"He
lacks
confidence"
"John
resembles
his father"
"She
married
her cousin"
Rarely occur in the passive (we are not interested in the thing affected by the action):
escape, have, get, let, resemble, suit, survive
"have, lack, suit, resemble"
middle Vbs
& reflexive Vbs
Prepositional Vbs
Pp Vbs can often occur in the passive, but not freely as in the active. They accept it only in the
abstract, figurative sense/use
"They eventually arrived at the expected outcome / theatre"
"The expected outcome was eventually arrived at"
*"The theatre was eventually arrived at"
"go into, arrive at, look into"
Progressive aspect
Progressive forms are much
rarer & avoided
in the P,
especially in the perfect tenses
(modal) perfective progressive passive), perhaps to avoid the "
be being
" sequence
"The conservatives have not been winning sits lately" > "Seats have not been being won by the conservatives lately"
"been being"
Reflexive Vbs
Reflexive verbs
(whose Obj is the same as its Subj):
wash, enjoy, teach, dress yourself
"wash yourself"
Passive only
With "
be said / born / drowned
" only the passive is possible
"John was said/reported to be a good teacher"
"He was born in London"
"The boy fell into the water and was drowned"
In addition to copular & stative Vbs
Although transitive Vb sentences can be generally either A or P, there are
exceptions which do not permit the passive transformation of an active sentence
(no systematic correspondence / paraphrase relation)
Object ~
Transitive Vbs can be followed either
by phrasal or by clausal Objects
. With the latter, the passive transformation is restricted in use
NP as Object
"John loved Mary" = "Mary was loved by John"
Clause as Object
Finite clause
"John thought (that) she was unattractive" The P becomes acceptable only:
(1) If the clausal Obj is
extraposed & replaced by the anticipatory pron "it"
: "It was thought that she was unattractive"
(2) if
the Subj of the Obj clause is made the subj of the passive
clause: "She was thought to be attractive"
"It was believed that she..."
"She was believed to be..."
Non-finite clause
Infinitive: "John hoped to meet her" > *"To meet her was hoped by John "
Participle: "John enjoyed seeing her" > *"Seeing her was enjoyed (by John)"
Meaning ~
Matching A&P sentences do not always have the same
propositional meaning
Turning a sentence into P can make a differences not only in emphasis but also the scope of
negatives, modals, quantifiers or perfect aspect
Modals & Negative: "John cannot do it" (ability) ≈ "It cannot be done" (possibility)
Quantifiers: "Every one of them must be punished" - "You must punish every one of them"
Quantifiers: "Every schoolboy knows one joke at least" ≈ "One joke at least is known by every schoolboy"
Perfect aspect: "JFK has twice visited Oxford" ≈ "Oxford has twice been visited by JFK"
Frequency ~
Although the A voice is far more common in general,
in informative writing
/text-types (in contrast with imaginative ones) the P voice is more frequent due to the
objective, impersonal style
of scientific articles & news reporting
2. TYPES OF ENGLISH PASSIVES
Central/True ~
Expressed Agent
(1) Personal Agent
:
(2) Non-personal Agent
:
"This violin was made by my father"
"This conclusion is hardly justified by the results"
Unexpressed Agent
(3) Agentless
: Subj of the active counterpart undetermined (someone)
"This difficulty can be avoided in several ways"
Direct active-passive relation. Agent is always possible but not always expressed
Semi-/Quasi- ~
(4)
whose members have both
Verbal
(active counterpart)
& Adjectival properties
("be" can be replaced by copular Vbs "feel, seem"
They look like passives but they really consist of a
lexical Vb "to be"
not used as an Aux & a
Past Participle
functioning as an adjectival. Also, they can be modified by
intensifiers
(quite, rather, very)
"We are encouraged to go on with the project"
"The results encourage us to go on with the project" [V-like]
"We feel rather encouraged to go on..." [Adjectival]"
"Leonard was interested in linguistics"
"Linguistics interested Leonard" [V-like]
"Leonard seemed very interested in Linguistics" [Adjectival]
it is possible to coordinate the Participles with other Adjs & to insert an intensifier before the Past Participle
Several prepositions can introduce quasi-agents:
in, about, at, to, over, with...
("I was surprised at his behaviour"< His behaviour surprised me / I seemed very surprised at his behaviour)
have active analogues & no agent addition
Pseudo-/Non-agentive ~
the participle has
Adjectival properties
/value just as Semi-passives
Stative copular Vbs
(5)
feel, look, seem
"The building is already demolished"
Resultant copular Vbs
(6)
get, become, grow
"The modern world is getting [becoming] more highly industrialized"
No active counterpart & no agent addition
(8)
not a passive (copular Vb): "My uncle was very tired"
1. FORM & STRUCTURE
Form
Verb Phrase level
Simple present (is done)
Present progressive (is being done)
Present perfect (has been done)
Simple past (was done)
Past progressive (was being done)
Past perfect (had been done)
"will" future (will be done)
Future perfect (will have been done)
"going to" (is going to be done)
Modal passives (can be done)
"get" passive: (get done)
Aux Vb BE + past participle
of the main verb
Clause level
Active-Passive
syntactic transformation/rearrangement
:
Direct Object (NP) > Subject
VP > Auxiliary Be + Past Participle
Active Subj (NP) > Agent by-phrase (PP)
"with" can be used when it is a material: "Paint covered the wall" > "The wall was covered with paint"
involves rearrangement of 2 clause elements & the addition of "by"
Two grammatical levels
Construction types
SVOO (IO, DO)
Two possible transformations: "My father gave me this watch" >
"I was given this watch by my father" (
IO, +common
)
"This watch was given to me by my father" (
DO, -common
)
Ditransitive Vbs
(can be followed by 2 objects):
give, show, send, lend, pass, bring, pay, promise, offer, tell, sell...
SVOC
the Obj Compl (noun, adj, adv) becomes the Subject Compl
"Society elected him president" > "He was elected president"
SVO
SVOV (to-infinitive)
"I told her not to come back" > "She was told not to come back"
advise, allow, command, forbid, force, invite, order, persuade, remind, teach, tell
Except for a few cases, all active sentences
with a NP or Pronoun as Objects
can be made passive
Exceptions
Copular Vbs
SVC
: "My uncle was very tired" (copular)
SVA
: "He died in the morning" (intransitive)
Stative Vbs
Vbs of being & having (can be paraphrased by "be" or "have)
"They have a nice house"
"He lacks confidence" (has no)
"John resembles his father" (is like)
having no Obj cannot take the passive
(intransitive)
Types of structures
Passive Auxiliaries
apart from "
be
"
Get
It's
not an Aux
& tends to be limited to constructions
without an expressed agent
. It's
informal
: "James got caught (by the police)"
Much more common as a
resulting copula
, which superficially look like passives, but cannot be expanded by an Agent: "My mother is getting old" (becomes)
Means "getting into a self-inflicted state/situation": "I got confused", "It's getting late"
perfective (completion)
Become
Sometimes followed by a
past participle
denoting action, expressing
change from one condition to another
"We became acquainted with New Technologies" [=familiarize] "when we first became known to one another"
durative
(in process)
Have
very common in
colloquial
English to replace a passive construction
when someone has the action done by another person, instead of doing it himself. ("
I employed sb to do sth for me
") It can aslo be used with modal Vbs
"He always has his burglar alarm tested every year."
"He COULD have had their money stolen on the bus"
The need to have a service done may also be expressed by
need + ing
: "Your hair needs cutting"
have/get sth done
needs +ing
3. CHOICE OF THE PASSIVE
Agent is indicated
Action/receiver > Person
Passive gives the Object of a transitive Vb prominence by making it the Subj. We use A. when we want to emphasize the performer of the action & P. when we want to
emphasize the action or its receiver
"the mouse was caught by the cat"
"the cat caught the mouse"
When ~ seems more important than the ~ performing it
The P sentence
covers the same reality
as the corresponding A sentence
Stylistic factors
When the P. construction facilitates the connection of one sentence with another by rearranging the clause elements (
postponing the agent
)
"He rose to speak and was listened to with enthusiasm by the great crowd present" (the 2nd is put in the P because it has the same Subj as the 1st one)
Postponing the Agent to connect two sentences
The P voice allows us to talk about an event
from the point of view of the thing or person affected
(without any change in the facts reported)
English almost always has a reason to justify the use of one or other voice
Agent is omitted
Unknown, Unimportant or General
Unknown
:
"The lawyer was murdered in London"
"The wall was removed four years ago"
Unimportant
:
"We were told that it might rain tonight"
"The package was delivered this morning"
General/vague
: they, people, someone
"It is said that the new restaurant serves delicious food."
"The project will be completed on time"
The P is the normal construction (
+common
)
Self-evident or Mentioned
Agent needn't be mentioned (unnatural/ unnecessary) as it is either clear from the meaning of the sentence, or is not of interest to us
Self-evident
:
"He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1951"
"The school was evacuated during the fire drill"
Mentioned
already:
"The doctor came in and Tom was treated at once"
"The king responded quickly and new measures were passed"
from the context
Special reasons: Distance, Conceal
One may wish to use an impersonal style to
distance ourselves from our own action
(+common in writing) or to
conceal the agent's identity
Distance ourselves
:
"Mistakes were made", "The error was discovered"
"The decision was made without consulting the experts"
Conceal sb's identity
:
"The data was leaked to the press"
"The decision was influenced by external factors"
tact or delicacy of sentiment
Copular verbs
Stative verbs
Used to provide more info about a subject’s state of being
Opinions & beliefs
: believe, know, think, support, disagree
Emotions
: like, love, hate, need, want, wish, desire, fear
The senses
: look, see, appear, taste, sound, hear, feel, seem, smell
Possession
: have, own, possess, belong, control
Condition
: weigh, lack, involve, resemble, include
The senses (stative)
: be, appear, seem, look, sound, smell, taste, feel
Change of condition (resultant)
: become, get, grow, go, turn, stay, remain, keep
:no_entry:
when the object of the active construction is an infinitive or a clause introduced by that, whether or if, a sentence with introductory it is required, ie, the clause remains in post-verbal position in the passive sentence but is introduced by
anticipatory it as subject: "it could hardly be expected (that) Ruth would be on time"
P vs A Infinitive
Generally, the A form of an infinitive denotes
active content
& the P form denotes
passive content
: "I like to teach - I like to be taught". Exceptions:
Active Vbs with passive sense
Verbs (of senses) with Complement: "The stone feels rough"
Verbs without Complement: "the drums are beating"
Infinitive after Passive Vbs
With
general Subj
of the active (people, every-, one) &
factual Vbs
(say, tell, think, feel, find, imagine, know, consider) followed by a
that-phrase
have two possible passive forms:
"People believed that witches were bad" > "It was believed that witches were bad" / "Witches were believed to be bad"
"Everyone knows that he is unfaithful" > "It is known that he is unfaithful" / "He is known to be unfaithful"
1) Introductory "it" + VP + a that-phrase
2) Subj + VP + to-infinitive
assume, believe, claim, consider, estimate, feel, find,
know, presume, report, say, think, understand
Sentences like these cannot usually be made passive: "Everybody wanted Doris to be the manager" (*"Doris was wanted to be the manager") (only possible in passive with a preparatory subject: "It was said that...") There are a few exceptions
Verb with Obj + Infinitive
"Everybody wanted Anne to be the manager" cannot usually be made passive