Transcript Monica PVx - Passive

Form
Phrase Structure: pass  be . . . –en
Long Passive: the agent is expressed in
the by-phrase
Short Passive: the agent is unexpressed
The Passive with Tense and Aspect
Simple present passive: The dog is bathed outside.
With Modals:
The dog should be bathed outside.
With Present Progressive:
The dog is being bathed outside.
With Present Perfect:
The dog has been bathed outside.
With Simple Past:
The dog was bathed outside.
With Past Progressive:
The dog was being bathed outside.
With be going to for future: The dog is going to be bathed
outside.
Be versus Get
1. Be and get don’t function the same in questions:
Was Henry arrested?
Did Henry get arrested?
and negatives:
Henry wasn’t arrested. Henry didn’t get arrested.
We must include operator addition when using GET
in questions and negatives.
2. Get-passive can occur more readily with the
perfect progressives:
His plans have been getting sidetracked for years. Vs.
His plans have been being sidetracked for years.
Have
Have . . . NP . . . –en.  Note the different form due
to the intervening noun phrase.
Mark had his appointment cancelled.
This sentence can have two meanings:
Passive (Experiential): Someone else cancelled the
appointment; it was beyond Mark’s control.
Causative: Mark arranged for his meeting to be
cancelled.
Passive Only
What’s the difference between transitive and
intransitive verbs?
Transitive: Take an object Intransitive: Don’t take an object
Only transitive verbs may be in the passive voice.
Some passive sentences have no active voice counterpart:
President Obama was born in 1961.
? His mother bore President Obama in 1961.
Other verbs that occur commonly in the passive voice include but are
not limited to:
be deemed, be fined, be hospitalized, be jailed, be scheduled, etc.
Headlines:
Death row inmate is deemed mentally ill.
Extra police scheduled for occupied Tucson.
Dad is jailed for putting son in oven.
Meaning
The passive has a grammatical meaning: it focuses on putting the receiver of the
action in the subject position and the subject is thus acted upon. As Shibitani (1985)
states, the agent is “defocused”.
The passive requires a transitive verb; however, not every passive sentence with a
transitive verb is acceptable.
1. The more definite the subject, the better
A. This car was made by Toyota.
B. Cars were made by Toyota.
2. With stative verbs, the more indefinite the object in the by-phrase, the better
A. Adele’s song, Rolling in the Deep has been heard by everyone who listens to
the radio.
B. Adele’s song, Rolling in the Deep has been heard by Mary.
3. The more the verb denotes a physical action, the better
A. The boy was given an award by the principal.
B. The award was desired by the boy.
Meaning difference between
Active and Passive
Everyone in the room speaks two languages. vs. Two
languages are spoken by everyone in the room.
Few people read many books. Vs. Many books are
read by few people.
Moles dig tunnels. Vs. Tunnels are dug by moles.
Be versus Get
Get-passive, like Japanese passive, tends to be used adversely.
Get slapped, hit, whacked, trapped, snatched, punished, etc.
Get-passive tends to be used with verbs semantically related to:
Physical assault – get hit
Hindrance – get trapped
Transference – get snatched
Emotional or Mental strain – get punished
Get has lack of expressed agent and cannot replace be-passives with
non-dynamic verbs.
This bed had not been slept in. vs. This bed had not got slept in.
Get is usually associated with verbs that emphasize actions or
processes and are more likely to occur with adverbs of frequency.
The man continually got wiped out.
Middle Voice
1. The middle voice allows the subject of a sentence to be
the recipient of the action, but the morphology of the
verb to be in the active voice.
A. Her high C shattered the glass. (active voice)
B. The glass was shattered by her high C. (passive voice)
C. The glass shattered. (middle voice)
2. English allows a representation of processes in terms of
actions (active or passive voice) and happenings (middle
voice).
3. English uses ergative, or change-of-state verbs
(shatter) to express spontaneous occurrences.
Ergative verbs can occur in the passive, active, or
middle voice.
Use (1/4)
The function of the passive is to defocus the agent.
The passive is most frequently used when it is not known or
not important to know exactly who performs an action.
Rice is grown in India.
Our house was built in 1980.
This olive oil was imported from Crete.
Sometimes, we use the passive with the agent because we
want to focus attention on the subject of the sentence.
This rug was made by my aunt.
That rug was made by my mother.
The focus of attention is on two rugs.
Use (2/4)
The passive is used when the agent is not to be
mentioned because:
• It is redundant or easy to supply –
Over 2,000 different varieties of potato are grown in Peru.
• It is unknown –
Julie’s car was stolen yesterday.
• The speaker/writer is being tactful –
Apparently, we were given the wrong information.
• The speaker is being evasive –
A huge error was made on the report, so our group
received a poor letter grade.
Use (3/4)
The passive is used when the nonagent
(recipient of the action) is:
- more closely related than the agent to the theme of the text
e.g. scientific writing
- a participant in the immediately preceding sentence
Lorenzo arrived in Paris as a down-at-heel political refugee
without friends or money; luckily for him, France at that
time was ruled by an Italian . . .
** The passive is used more in some genres than others.
Passives are more frequent with scientific or journalistic
writing than it is with fictional and conversational English.
Use (4/4)
Include the agent when:
It is new information –
Sam’s house was robbed by the man who escaped
from prison.
It is nonhuman –
The pool is cleaned throughout the day by the vacuum.
It is a well-known personage and should be included as
propositional information –
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by
Mark Twain.
Activity
With a partner, discuss why the agent is or is
not included in the following sentences.
• My shoes were made in Italy.
• The Mona Lisa was painted by de Vinci.
• While Marty was walking down the street, her
purse was snatched by a young man.
• The bank was robbed yesterday.
• Margaret was given some bad advice about
selecting courses.