In the English Voice System

Languages differ greatly in their idiosyncrasies, i. e. in the forms which they have adopted, in the peculiarities of their usages in the combinative power of words and idiomatic forms of grammar peculiar to that language and not generally found in other languages.

From this point of view the category of voice presents a special linguistic interest. Passive constructions play an important part in the English verb-system. Modern English, especially in its later periods, has developed the use of passive formations to a very great extent.

As a grammatical category voice is the form of the verb which shows the relation between the action and its subject indicating whether the action is performed by the subject or passes on to it. Accordingly there are two voices in English: the active and the passive. The active voice shows that the action is performed by its subject, that the subject is the

doer of the action. The passive voice shows that the subject is acted upon, that it is the recipient of the action, e.g.:

I wrote a letter. A letter was written by me.

Transformational relations for voice may be symbolised as follows: N₁ + V_act + N₂ N₂ + V_pass + by + N₁

The choice of the passive construction is often due to the fact that the agent is unknown or the speaker prefers not to speak of him.

Sometimes the agent is dropped altogether when it is unknown, well knows orunimportant. Only the passive makes this economy possible.

The passive voice is known to be expressed by analytic combinations of the auxiliary verb be with the past participle of the notional verb.

Another passive, formed with get as auxiliary and the past participle, seems to be increasing in frequency, though grammarians are at present not agreed as to its status.

The verb get can function in a manner very similar with be, e. g.: My dress got caught on a nail. He got struck by a stone.

To get seems closer to the true passive auxiliary to be in patterns like the following: She got blamed for everything. She gets teased by the other children. He gets punished regularly. But with all the similarity of the two verbs used in such patterns get is unlike be in the primary paradigm. We can say, for instance, He gets punished regularly, but we shall hardly attest Gets he punished regularly?

It should be noted that to get is often used in preference to the verb to be because the true passive would not be clearly distinguishable from combinations of the full predicator be and participial adjective complements.

Compare to be married and to get married. As is known, to be married can have two meanings: «одружитися» and «бути одруженим» while to get married is unambiguous: it can mean only "to arrive at the married state".

The group to become + past participle expresses primarily state, e. g.: 1) The umbrella is not a possession lightly to be lost. Yet lost it becomes although it should not. 2) I have become very sunburnt.

Describing the "voice" system in English structural grammarians • often lay emphasis on the fact that voice, which theoretically indicates whether the subject acts (active voice), is acted on (passive voice), performs the action for itself (dynamic voice), or acts on itself (reflexive voice), is relatively unimportant in English. The passive voice is accordingly regarded as a word-order device for giving emphasis to what would normally be inner or outer complements. H. Whitehall, for instance, makes reference to words forming the inner and outer complements of the standard sentence by the use of passive constructions.

The words to be emphasised are moved to position 1, the verb is transformed into a word-group (be, become or get + V_en) and the original subject (position 1) is hooked onto the end of the sentence by means of the preposition by (occasionally through): ¹

¹ See: H. Whitehall. Structural Essentials of English. New York, 1956.

1 2 3 4

The reporter gave him books

1 2 3

He was given books by the reporter

1 2 3

Books were givenhim by the reporter

As a matter of fact, the communication is exactly the same in the two sentences given above. They represent merely two views of the facts, one from the side of the doer, the other from the side of the thing done. Except for the word order, the form of the verb, and the preposition by they are the same.

It seems practical to make distinction between a) direct or primary passive, b) indirect or secondary passive and c) tertiary or prepositional passive ¹.

The direct (primary) passive is formed in most cases from transitive verbs. The subject of the passive construction generally corresponds to the direct object of the verb.

I wrote a letter. A letter was written by me.

Further examples of such formations will be found in patterns known in traditional grammar as the Nominative with the Infinitive, e. g.:

They were not allowed to stay here.

He is said to be most diligent.

The direct passive is fairly common in sentence-patterns with the anticipatory it, e. g.:

It was agreed that we should make such experiments in the open air.

It was arranged that the expedition should start without delay.

Syntactic structures with the direct passive have a high frequency value but there are certain restrictions in their use conditioned by the grammatical organisation of the sentence:

a) the passive construction is impossible, for instance, when the direct object is expressed, a reflexive pronoun or a noun with a possessive pronoun referring to the same person as the subject of the sentence, as in: He hurt himself. Peter hurt his arm.

b) there are no passive forms in such phrasal verbs as, for instance, to take part, to take courage, to take flight, to take alarm, to lose heart, to take heart and still others.

Certain phrases of this sort, however, admit of a passive construction, e. g.: to lose sight of, to take care, to take responsibility, to pay attention and some others, e. g:

No responsibility is taken for the loss of personal property (hotel notice).

Attention must be paid to the results of the first experiment.

Such things should not be lost sight of.

On account of the infinite variety of lexical meanings inherent in verbs the structural relations between verbs and their objects are so flexible that to draw a rigid line of demarcation between the different types of objects is, indeed, not an easy thing to dp.

¹ See: E. Kruisinga. A Handbook of Present-Day English. V. 2, p. 2, p. 1; Martin Joos. The English Verb. The University of Wisconsin Press, 1964, pp. 94—95.

Relations between verbs and their objects vary according to the variant meanings of the verbs themselves as seen in the following instances given by H. Sweet: kill the calf, kill the time, run a risk, run a business, answer a letter, a question, a person, pay the bill, pay six shillings, pay the cabman, fill a pipe, fill an office, etc., etc.

A peculiarity of constitution hardly to be paralleled in other European languages will be found in sentence patterns with different kind of the indirect or secondary passive.

There are a number of verbs which take two objects — a direct and an indirect object. The following are most frequent among them: to allow, to ask, to award, to give, to grant, to leave, to offer, to promise, to send, to show, to teach, to tell.

These verbs admit of two passive constructions:

a) A book was given to him (the direct primary passive)

b) He was given a book (the indirect secondary passive)

The indirect (secondary) passive is not infrequent in verb-phrases with the verb to give, such as: to give credit, to give command, to give a chance, to give a choice, to give an explanation, to give an opportunity, to give orders, to give shelter, and the like.

He was given a good to chance to argue.

She is given an opportunity to go to the south in summer.

Suppose, you are given a choice. What would you prefer?

There are many verbs in English which take a direct and an indirect object in the active construction, but they admit only one passive construction — the direct passive, e. g.: to bring, to do, to play, to telegraph and many others. The list could be extended. Other verbs are not reversed in particular turns of meaning. Thus, have has no passive when it is statal, as in: She has gold hair.

Next come constructions with the so-called prepositional or tertiary-passive. What in the active is the object of a preposition connected with a verb or with a verb and its object may be made the subject of a passive construction. The subject of the passive construction corresponds to the prepositional object. This "detached" preposition retains its place after the verb. Familiar examples are:

He was sent for and taken care of.

She could not bear being read to any longer.

He is not to be relied upon.

The prepositional passive is not used with verbs which take two objects, direct and prepositional: to explain something to somebody, to point out, to announce, to dedicate, to devote, to say, to suggest, to propose, etc. They can have only a direct construction, e. g.: The difficulty was explained to them. The mistake to the rule was pointed out to the man. A new-plan was suggested to us.

The prepositional passive is not very frequent in occurrence. Its use is common with rather a limited number of verbs, such as:

1) verbs of saying: to speak about (of, to), to talk about (of), to comment on, etc., e. g.:

The new play was much spoken of.

2) verbs expressing scorn or contempt: to frown at, to laugh at, to mock at, to jeer at, to sneer at, etc., e. g.:

This idea was first jeered at.

He could not understand why his words were laughed at.

3) a miscellaneous group of verbs, such as: to look at, to look upon (on), to look after, to look for, to approve (disapprove) of, to account for, to send for, to rely on, to think of, e. g.:

He was sent for and taken care of.

Here is Irene to be thought of.

Observe, however, that the passive construction with the "retained" object (or "remaining accusative") has limits and is impossible with particular verbs or particular objects, e. g.: we can say "something was fetched me", but scarcely "I was fetched something". On the other hand, "The trouble was spared me" is not so natural as " I was spared the trouble". Possibilities are sometimes ever more limited; e. g.: we cannot say either "I was cost nothing" or "Nothing was cost me."

Certain verbs of removal and exclusion (such as: banish, expel, dischange, eject, exclude, exile, forbid) governing two objects are used chiefly in the passive, e. g.:

He was banished the realm. He was dismissed the service.

They have been expelled from the school.

The infinitive as a second object is found with a number of verbs, such as: allow, ask, beg, beseech, bid, command, compel, declare, entreat, feel, force, encourage, incline, induce, know, lead, make, order, observe, persuade, pray, prefer, perceive, presume, pronounce, see, teach, understand, wish, etc.

In terms of grammatical aspects of style, the usefulness of the passive merits special consideration.

The more formal referential character of passive verbal forms as compared to the active voice makes it possible to use them for stylistic purposes, as, for instance, J. Galsworthy masterly does in transferring to his pages the atmosphere of stiffness and cold restraint felt at June's treat dinner:

Dinner began in silence; the women facing one another, and the men. In silence the soup was finished — excellent, if a little thick; and fish was brought. In silence it was handed...

Bosinney ventured: "It's the first spring day".

Irene echoed softly: "Yes — the first spring day".

"Spring!" said June: "there isn't a breath of air!" No one replied.

The fish was taken away, a fine fresh sole from Dover. And Bilson brought champagne, a bottle swathed around the neck with white.

Soames said: "You'll find it dry".

Cutlets were handed, each pink frilled about the legs. They were refused bu June, and silence fell.

Soames said: "You'd better take a cutlet, June; there's nothing coming".

But June again refused, so they were borne away. And then Irene asked: "Phil, have you heard my blackbird?".

Bosinney answered: "Rather — he's got a hunting-song. As I came round I heard him in the square".

"He's such a darling!"

"Salad, sir?" Spring chicken was removed. But Soames was speaking: "The asparagus is very poor. Bosinney, glass of Sherry with your sweet? June, you're drinking nothing!"

Passive-voice forms are bulkier than common-voice forms and where there is no real reason to use passives active verb-forms are generally preferable. But passive forms are often quite effective. Sometimes what would be the subject of an active form seems unimportant or is only vaguely identifiable.

The old house has been torn down. We've been locked out again.

Sometimes what would be the subject of an active form is important, and is included in the clause, but for valid rhetorical reasons seems better as complement of agency than as subject.

The college was founded by the local committee. He'll always be dominated by his wife.

When the passive is an infinitive or gerund its use sometimes eliminates awkward subject constructions.

Everyone likes to be liked.

We resented being treated like that.

In impersonal written styles, the passive often serves as a way of keeping the writer out of sight. Examples are numerous. Here are some of them.

(a) The names of such musicians have been mentioned elsewhere.

(b) The importance of observations in this field has always been emphasised.

Passive constructions are often referred to as stilted, indirect and cold, impersonal and evasive. To give its critics their due, the passive, when in large doses, can indeed be ponderous stuffy and bulkier than the active. With all this it is used over and over by best stylists in prose open to none of the preceding objections. This is because it can be most important and useful to shift the centre of communication creating, according to circumstances, varied and effective sentences.

Students will find it helpful to remember that from the point of view of adequate translation into Ukrainian the English passive forms may be subdivided into three groups:

a) those translated by means of active verbal forms with indefinite personal or impersonal sentences, e. g.:

b) those translated by using the verb-forms of the middle voice, e. g.:

Cf. French: Cette qualité se rencontre rarement.

c) those translated by the corresponding passive form of the verb, e. g.:

Nothing was said. Нічого не було сказано.

d) patterns with the passive verb-forms which can be translated only by the corresponding active ones because of the lexical character of the verb and restrictions in the use of the past participle of some verbs in our mother tongue, e. g.:

when he had forfeited the ків, коли він втратив право right to be considered a For- називатись Форсайтом. syte. (Galsworthy)

To sum up in brief, the frequency value of passive constructions in English is due to a number of reasons. Emphasis will be laid on the following:

a) There are, in fact, no means in English to avoid the indication of the doer of the action in active constructions.

In other languages there are special uses of the active without indicating the agent. Such are, for instance, indefinite-personal sentences in Russian and Ukrainian with the predicate-verb in the 3rd person plural but without exact relevance to the doer of the action.

The indefinite pronoun one and occasionally the personal pronouns we, you and they, as well as the noun people, may be used in this meaning. But for some reason or other the use of such sentence-patterns seems to be restricted, and English instead often shows here a marked preference of passive constructions.

b) Variation in the use of different types of passive turns existing in English lends variety to speech. Although some of them are somewhat restricted in use, they still contribute to the frequency value of the passive in general.

Substitutes for Passive

As in other languages passive meaning can find its expression not only in the paradigmatic forms of the verb. There are other techniques in English which can serve this purpose. There is always a selective way in the distribution of various means adapted to this purpose in each case. The peripheral elements of the passive field in Modern English are:

1) "get-passive".

2) verb-phrases with the semi-copulative verbs become, stand, rest, and go, e. g.:

I have become sunburnt.

He stands prepared to dispute it.

We rest assured.

They go armed.

3) active verb-forms with reflexive pronouns, e. g.:

it sees itself; it manifests itself, it displays itself, etc. ¹ 4) syntactic patterns of causative meaning, e. g.: He had his photo taken. I went it done. See the letters delivered.

5) infinitival phrases: a thing to do = a thing to be done; the house to let, a book to read, etc.

6) gerundial phrases:

The house needs repairing.

¹ Pronominal patterns of this type are sometimes referred to as "semantic" or "syntactic passive". Cf. French: Cela se voit; cet air se chante partout; cette étoffe se lave bien.

My shoes want mending.

7) phrasal verbs of analytical structure.

8) prepositional noun-phrases.

Phrasal-verbs of analytical structure type VN function with rather a high frequency value as stylistic alternatives of bе-passive and get-passive. A few typical examples are given below. Others will readily occur to the student.

to find expression to be expressed

to find favour to be favoured

to find reflection to be reflected

to find support to be supported

to find solution to be solved

to win recognition to be recognised

to gain respect to be respected

to get publicity to be published

to receive a study to be studied

to receive criticism to be criticised

to receive recognition to be recognised

to receive punishment to get punished

In infinite cases such formations verge on the "quasi-grammatical" and serve, in fact, rather grammatical than lexical purposes. They carry grammatical information of voice distinction, moreover, this is often the dominant feature of their linguistic status revealed with sufficient evidence in regular Oppositional relations between simple and phrasal verbs and between phrasal verbs themselves. The relevance of many phrasal verbs to the voice-field is most obvious. Compare:

Active Passive

to attend to pay attention to receive attention

to help to give help to find help

to support to lend support to find support

to offend to give offence to suffer offence

to credit to give credence to find credence

to defeat to inflict a defeat to suffer a defeat

to publish to give publicity to get publicity

Phrasal verbs approach analytical forms: one of the components has lexical meaning, the second, a function verb, is semantically depleted and comes to function as a semi-copulative verb. In their linguistic status phrasal verbs remain, in fact, on the borderline between syntax and morphology. The process of converting notional words into lexico-grammatical morphemes is most active in this area.

Verbs which are part of such analytical structures differ semantically. Some of them are synonymically related in the English vocabulary irrespective of the context. Others are synonymous only in combination with certain nounal components.

to gain attention — to get attention — to receive attention; to win recognition — to get recognition — to receive recognition

— to gain recognition.

Most frequent are such verbs as: get, obtain, receive, find, gain, win, undergo.

We also find here such verbs as: achieve, attain, earn, escape, demand, claim, require, suffer, endure, deserve, merit.

Overlapping of Oppositional relations of voice and aspect is not infrequent. Consider the following for illustration:

Active Passive

Common Aspect Inchoative Aspect

to suspect to fall under suspicion

to despise to fall into contempt

to observe to fall under observation

Actions of Single Occurrence

Active Active Passive

to laugh to give a laugh to receive a laugh to eye to give the eye to get the eye

to hug to give a hug to receive a hug

In such lexico-grammatical oppositions one member (the "marked" member) signals the presence of the aspectual meaning, while the "unmarked" member may either signal "absence of marked meaning" or else be noncommittal as to its absence or presence.

These two volumes comprised all the short stories he had written, and which had received or were receiving serial publication. (London)

Not being as attractive as Doyle, it was not so easy for him to win the attention of girls. (Dreiser)

She was a cold, self-centred woman, with many a thought of her own which never found expression, not even by so much as the glint of an eye. (Dreiser)

There is a close parallel to this development in other languages. Such structural elements in the English verbal system merit consideration not only in terms of their synonymic correlation with a simple verb of similar meaning. Formations of this kind are most evidently relevant to the problem of covert grammar, implicit predication, in particular.

Synonymic correlation of simple and phrasal verbs of kindred meaning merits attention in different spheres of usage. Such linguistic units are organically related and constantly aiding to and supporting each other in communication. And this is fairly universal. The choice between simple and phrasal verbs predetermines to a great extent the structural pattern of the sentence ¹. Consituation and considerations of style in the nominal-verbal contrast will generally determine the selection of grammatical forms in the organisation of the message.

Examine the grammatical organisation of the text in the following sentences with nominality adapted to its purpose in each case:

¹ See: А. Д. Апресян. Экспериментальное исследование семантики русского глагола. М., 1967.

Everyone was out in their Slab Square, perambulating to either get or give the eye;perhaps in an odd moment stopping to hear a few words of admonition from Sally's Army... (Sillitoe)

Having given and received another hug, he mounted the window seat, and tucking his legs under him watched her unpack. (Galsworthy)

This last was the shock Jon receivedcoming thus on his mother. (Galsworthy)

The speed with which Joe worked wonMartin's admiration. (London)

The passive field includes also patterns with prepositional noun-phrases functioning as substitutes for ordinary passive forms of the verb.

Formations of this kind contribute significantly to the development of grammatical synonymy in sentence structure. In such syntactic patterns we find, for instance, nominal phrases with the prepositions above, at, beyond, in, on, out of, past, under, within, without. A few typical examples are:

beyond belief, beyond pardon, beyond (or past) cure, beyond doubt, beyond dispute, beyond expression, beyond expectation, beyond grasp, beyond help, beyond all measure, beyond praise, beyond price, beyond question, beyond repair, beyond recognition, beyond reach, beyond (above) suspicion, beyond words, in use, in print, out of use, in question, on sale, under consideration, under control, under discussion, under repair, under supervision, etc.

...June had twice been to tea there under the chaperonage of aunt.(Galsworthy)

Outside the river, and out of sighthe slackened his pace still more. (Galsworthy)

...She remained under the care of Doctor Thoroughgooduntil August the fifteenth. (Cronin)

...he ran his beaming eyes over Martin's second-best suit, which was also his worst suit, and which was ragged and past repair.(London)

Unconsciously he absorbed her philosophy. Under her guidance he waslearning to cultivate the superficialniceties and let the deeper things go hang. (Cronin)

The passive meaning of the phrase is generally signalled by the context, the lexical meaning of the subject in particular. Compare the following:

(a) children in charge of anurse → children are taken care of;

(b) a nurse in charge of children → a nurse takes care of children. Functional similarity of structures with nominal phrases and those

with passive forms of the verb is quite obvious.

above criticism too great to be criticised

beyond repair too old to be repaired

without hearing near enough to be heard

beyond all measure too large to be measured

out of use no longer used

under his guidance guided by him the house is under construe- the house isbeing built tion

Chapter VI

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