the passive voice ed mccorduck english 402--grammar suny cortland

The Passive Voice

Ed McCorduckEnglish 402--GrammarSUNY Cortland http://mccorduck.cortland.edu

An important concept in modern grammatical analysis is the notion of the transformation. Taken from mathematics (as are many of the features of contemporary linguistics), a transformation performs some operation, often just simple reordering of elements, on one string (see slide 7 of the “Verbs and Verb Phrases” lecture) which results in another string, or in other words it “transforms” one string into another. The basic form of the representation of a grammatical transformation is illustrated below:

X Y Z ⇒ X Z Y

string string

slide 2: the theory of the transformation

English 402: Grammar

One of the earliest transformations to be recognized was the passive transformation. To understand this transformation, it is necessary to understand the distinction between the two main voices in English, namely the active voice and the passive voice. The active voice is the “default” voice for English sentences in which there is an “actor” or “agent,” realized as the subject of the sentence, who “performs” the action signified by the verb and the action of the verb is “acted on” or “performed on” another entity, often called the “patient,” who or that is realized as the direct object of the sentence. For example, in the active (voice) sentence Mrs. Janner the Hammer tames those juvenile delinquents, the noun phrase Mrs. Janner the Hammer is the agent or actor that does the action of teaching the recipient of the action, those juvenile delinquents.

slide 3: the active voice and the passive voice


In the passive voice, by contrast, what corresponds to the agent in the active voice is no longer realized as the subject of the sentence as in the active voice. Instead, the subject of a passive sentence is actually what corresponds to the patient in the active voice. That is, the passive equivalent of Mrs. Janner the Hammer tames those juvenile delinquents is Those juvenile delinquents are tamed by Mrs. Janner the Hammer in which the NP those juvenile delinquents, which is the direct object of the transitive verb tames, becomes the subject of the passive sentence.

slide 4: relative order of participants in a passive sentence


Notice also that what was the agent in the active voice sentence, the NP Mrs. Janner the Hammer, is still present in the passive equivalent but now is no longer the grammatical subject (again, the NP those juvenile delinquents is). Instead, Mrs. Janner the Hammer occurs in the passive as part of the prepositional phrase by Mrs. Janner the Hammer, i.e., this PP is headed by the preposition by which “governs” the NP Mrs. Janner the Hammer.

slide 5: position of the agent in a passive sentence


And finally, note that the verb phrase in the active consists only of the third person singular present tense verb tames but in the passive the VP consists of both the present tense of the auxiliary be for the third person plural (to agree with those juvenile delinquents), namely are, followed by the past participle of the verb tame, namely tamed.

slide 6: possibility for subject/verb agreement conflict between the active and the passive


We can therefore state the relation between the active voice and the passive voice in terms of a transformation that changes (“transforms”) an active sentence into a passive sentence. We can formulate this passive transformation like so:

active: subj MV(V-tr) dir obj

⇒

passive: dir obj be + -en MV (by subj)

slide 7: formulation of the passive transformation


Note that this formulation stipulates that the main verb of an active sentence that undergoes this transformation must be transitive (“V-tr”), that is, if the verb of an active sentence is not transitive, i.e., if the active sentence is not Patterns VII through X, the sentence cannot be put into the active voice.

slide 8: what kinds of verbs may undergo the passive transformation


Note also that the so-called “by-phrase” which indicates the active agent is in parentheses. As we have seen before (e.g., slide 8 of the “Verbs and Verb Phrases” lecture), this convention indicates that the prepositional phrase headed by by is actually not required to be in (most) passive sentences, in which case these passives are often termed “agentless passives” (see the lecture “Agentless Passives and Diagramming the Passive” below).

slide 9: possibility of omitting the by phrase


Recall from slide 7 of the “Verbs and Verb Phrases” lecture the verb-expansion rule that underlies the structure of the predicating verb for all sentences:

T (M) (have + -en) (be + -ing) MV

slide 10: review of the verb expansion rule


Therefore, if we apply the passive transformation described in slide 7 of this lecture, the resulting string, which will underlie the structure of the predicating verb for all passive sentences, will be

T (M) (have + -en) (be + -ing) be + -en MV

slide 11: the verb expansion formula for a passive sentence


This means that in the simplest type of verb phrase, i.e., one where we have only the two required elements T and MV, the application of the passive transformation will result in the string

T be + -en MV

slide 12: simplest passive-voice verb expansion rule


ex

active: Elves bake Keebler Cookies. (Pattern VII)

subj pres + MV (bake) dir obj

⇒

passive: Keebler Cookies are baked by elves.

dir obj pres + be + -en +MV (bake) subj

slide 13: passive of a Pattern VII sentence in the present tense


active: Oswald killed Kennedy in 1963. (Pattern VII)

subj past + MV (kill) dir obj

⇒

passive: Kennedy was killed by Oswald in 1963.

dir obj past + be + -en +MV (kill) subj

(Note: Because the PP in 1963 is not part of the subject NP not the object NP, it is unaffected by the transformation of the active sentence into the passive sentence.)

slide 14: passive of a Pattern VII sentence in the past tense


active:

The contractors Slip and Shod are renovating our house. (VII)

subj pres + be + -ing + MV(renovate) dir obj

⇒

passive:

Our house is being renovated by the contractors S & S.

dir obj pres + be + -ing + be + -en +MV (renovate) subj

slide 15: passive of a Pattern VII sentence in the present progressive


active:

The gators in my moat will consume any trespassers. (VII)

subj pres + will + MV (consume) dir obj

⇒

passive:

Any trespassers will be consumed by the gators in my moat.

subj pres + will + be + -en +MV (consume) subj

(Note: Because the PP in my moat is part of the subject NP the gators in my moat, it must also be part of the by phrase in the passive sentence.)

slide 16: passive of a Pattern VII sentence in the “future” tense


active: The slugger had taken shots of HGH. (VII)

subj past + have + -en + MV (take) dir obj

⇒

passive: Shots of HGH had been taken by the slugger.

dir obj past + have + -en + be + -en + MV (take) subj

(Note: Because the PP of HGH is part of the direct object NP shots of HGH, it must also be part of the NP subject in the passive sentence.)

slide 17: passive of a Pattern VII sentence in the past perfect


active:

Virgil showed Dante Hell and Purgatory. (Pattern VIII)

subj past + MV (show) indir obj dir obj

Virgil showed Hell and Purgatory to Dante. (Pattern VIII)

subj past + MV (show) dir obj indir obj

slide 18: two variations on a Pattern VIII sentence


passive:

Hell and Purgatory were shown to Dante by Virgil. dir obj past + be + -en + MV (show) indir obj subj

Dante was shown Hell and Purgatory by Virgil. indir obj past + be + -en + MV (show) dir obj subj

slide 19: the passives of the Pattern VIII sentences in slide 18


active:

Aviators call those things “gremlins.” (Pattern IX)

subj pres + MV (call) dir obj obj comp

⇒

passive:

Those things are called “gremlins” by aviators. dir obj pres + be + -en + MV (call) obj comp subj

slide 20: the passive of a Pattern IX sentence


active:

The blogger has dubbed them the Princes of Pork. (Pattern X)

subj pres + have + -en + MV (dub) dir obj obj comp

⇒

passive:

They have been dubbed the Princes of Pork by the blogger. dir obj pres + have + -en + be + -en + MV (dub) obj comp subj

slide 21: the passive of a Pattern X sentence


the passive voice ed mccorduck english 402--grammar suny cortland

Documents

passive voice english

active voice sentence

passive sentence english

passive transformation

grammar slide

passive equivalent of

default voice

juvenile delinquents