VOICE

THE ENGLISH VERB: VOICE
The grammatical category of voice expresses the relations between the Subject and the
Predicate showing whether the Subject is the doer or recipient of the action. Actually, it is a
morphological category, expressed by a set of transformations on syntactic level.
The members are Active Voice (unmarked) and Passive Voice (marked).
In Active Voice the Subject is the doer/agent or the source of the action.
 He opened the door (the doer/agent of the action)
 The wind opened the door (the source of the action).
The morphological marker of Passive Voice is the passive verb phrase consisting of
the auxiliary verb “be” in the required tense-aspect-modality form and the past participle of
the notional verb. The set of transformations on the syntactic level involves the following
steps:
 the object of the Active sentence becomes subject of the passive sentence.
 the verb phrase from the sentence in Active Voice is transformed into a passive verb
phrase.
 the actual doer/agent of the action may remain unexpressed if it is of secondary
significance or unknown, but when we want to specially name the doer/agent of the
action, it can be introduced with the preposition “by”. We should also remember that a
means of an action should be introduced with the preposition “with”.
 A young writer wrote the book. (Active)

 This book was written by a young writer. (Passive)
 Somebody covered the book with a newspaper. (Active)
 The book was covered with a newspaper. (Passive)
NB! Only transitive verbs occur in passive structures.
TYPES OF PASSIVE STRUCTURES:
 Primary Passive
The direct object from the active sentence becomes a subject in the passive sentence.
 The hunter killed the lion. (Active)
 The lion was killed by the hunter. (Passive)
 They have spent all the money on odds and ends. (Active)
 All the money has been spent on odds and ends. (Passive)
 John must have taken it. (Active)
 It must have been taken by John. (Passive)
Verb constraints: Some transitive verbs can’t be used in passive structures – have, possess,
become, resemble, owe, etc.
 They have a new car.
 She possesses great talent.
 Tom resembles his father.
 Bob owes me money.
 Secondary Passive
The indirect object of the active sentence becomes subject of the passive sentence.
 They asked her some questions.(Active)
 She was asked some questions. (Passive)
 They envied him his luck. (Active)
 He was envied his luck. (Passive)
NB! Secondary passive structures are possible only with ditransitive verbs- verbs
taking both direct and indirect objects.
 They allowed the prisoners no rest. (Active)
 The prisoners were allowed no rest (Secondary passive)
 No rest was allowed to the prisoners. (Primary passive)
 Tertiary Passive
The object introduced by prepositional verbs in the active sentence becomes the subject of
the passive sentence.
 They had to account for every penny. (Active)
 Every penny had to be accounted for. (Passive)
 All his classmates laughed at him. (Active)
 He was laughed at by all his classmates. (Passive)
USES OF PASSIVE
In linguistic contexts where there is a choice between the active and the passive, the active
is the norm. Speakers or writers use the passive for the following reasons:
 They do not know the identity of the agent of the action
 They want to avoid identifying the agent because they do not want to assign or accept
responsibility.
 They feel there is no reason for mention of the agent because the identification is
unimportant or obvious from the context
 In scientific and technical writing, writers often use the passive to avoid the constant
repetition of the pronouns I or we and to put the emphasis on processes and
experimental procedures.
 To put emphasis on the agent of the action
 To avoid what would otherwise be a long active subject
 To retain the same subject throughout a long sentence
In a number of cases the opposition between Active and Passive voice-forms can be
reduced. We may have verb-forms which are active on the plane of expression and passive on
the plane of content. In such cases the predicate verb usually denotes not an action but a kind
of property.
 This book sells well.
 This material wears well.
 The shop closes at 8 o’clock.
In spite of the fact that we differentiate two basic voice-forms, some grammarians speak of
some other voice-forms, like the Reflexive Voice, the Reciprocal Voice and the Middle
Voice. The bulk of the grammarians categorize the cases as subtypes of Active Voice that
cannot go under passive transformations. Being of a general character, the Active Voice
admits some variations in its principal meaning and that is reflected in the syntactic structure
of the sentence. The most typical of such variations are the so-called Reflexive, Reciprocal
and Middle Voice Forms.
The Reflexive Voice Forms
The structures consist of a verb in the active voice and an object to it, expressed by a reflexive
pronoun. Although the verbs are transitive no passive transformation is possible in such cases.
 He hurt himself.
 She found herself in the yard.
 They dressed themselves.
The Reciprocal Voice Forms
The structures consist of a verb in the active voice and an object to it, expressed by a
reciprocal pronoun. Although the verbs are transitive no passive transformation is possible in
such cases.
 They greeted each other

 They praised one another.
 They kissed each other.
The Middle Voice Forms

 I opened the door. (pure Active)
 The door opened. (the structure is Active, the meaning is passive as the subject – the
door is not the doer of the action)
Structures like the ones in the second sentence depend on the type of the verbs that
participate in them – transitive, intransitive or medial. The latter comprise a set of transitive
verbs used as intransitive – taking no objects and therefore cannot go under passive
transformations.
 He stepped and broke the ice (transitive verb, active voice).
 Many people broke in those conditions (intransitive verb, active voice).
 The ice broke easily (medial verb, active voice).

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VOICE

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THE ENGLISH VERB: VOICE

 A young writer wrote the book. (Active)

NB! Only transitive verbs occur in passive structures.

TYPES OF PASSIVE STRUCTURES:

The Reciprocal Voice Forms

 They greeted each other

The Middle Voice Forms

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