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General notion of the problem of voice in English Grammar
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1.3 General notion of the problem of voice in English Grammar
The verbal category of voice shows the direction of the process as regards the participants of the situation reflected in the syntactic construction.
The voice of the English verb is expressed by the opposition of the passive form of the verb to the active form of is the combination of the auxiliary be with the past participle of the conjugated verb. The passive form as the strong member of the opposition expresses reception of the action by the subject of the syntactic construction; the active form as the weak member of opposition leaves this meaning unspecified, i.e. it expresses "non-passivity".
In colloquial speech the role of the passive auxiliary can occasionally be performed by the verb get and probably, become. Sam got licked for a good reason.
The category of voice has a much broader representation in the system of the English verb that in the system of the Russian verb, since in English not only transitive, but also intransitive objective verbs including prepositional ones can be used in the passive. Besides, verbs taking not one but two objects, as a rule, can feature both of them in the position of the passive subject. E.g.: I’ve just been rung up by the police. The diplomat was refused transit facilities through London. She was undistributed by the frown on his face. Have you ever been told that you’re very good looking? He was said to have been very wild in his youth. The dress has never been tried on. The child will be looked after all right. I won’t be talked to like this, etc.
Still, not all the capable of taking an object are actually used in the passive. In particular, the passive form is alien to many verbs of the statal subclass, such as have, belong, cost, resemble, fail, and misgive, etc. thus, in accord with their relation to the passive voice all the verbs can be divided into two large sets: the set of passivised verbs and the set of non-passivised verbs.
A question then should be posed whether; the category of voice is a full-representative verbal category, i.e. represented in the system of the verb as a whole, or a partial representative category, confined only to the passivised verbal set. Considerations of both form and function tend to interpret voice rather as a full-representative category, the same as person, number, tense and aspect. Three reasons can be given to back this appraisal.
First, the integral categorical presentation of non-passivised verbs fully coincides with that of passivised verbs used in the active voice; second, the active voice as the weak member of the categorical opposition is characterized in general not by the "active" meaning as such, but by the extensive non-passive meaning of a very wide range of actual significations, some of them approaching by their process-direction characteristics those of non-passivised verbs. Third, the demarcation line between the passivised and non-passivised set is by no means rigid, and the verbs of the non-passivised order may migrate into passivised order in various contextual conditions.
Thus, the category of voice should be interpreted as being reflected in the whole system of verbs, the active voice form if not directly, then indirectly.
As a regular categorical form of the verb the passive voice is combined in the same lexeme with other oppositionally strong forms of the verbal categories of the tense-aspect system, i.e. the past, the future, the continuous, the perfect. But it has a neutralizing effect on the category of development in the forms where the auxiliary be must be doubly employed as a verbid, so that the future continuous passive, as well as the prefect continuous passive are partically not used in speech. As a result, the future continuous active has as its regular counterpart by the voice opposition the future indefinite passive; the perfect continuous active in all the tense-forms has as its regular counterpart the perfect indefinite passive. Cf.: The police will be keeping an army of reports at bay. ® An army reporter will be kept at bay the police. We have been expecting the decision for a long time. ® The decision has been expected for a long time.
The category of voice differs radically from all the other hitherto considered categories from the point of view of its referential qualities. Indeed, all the previously described categories reflect various characteristics of process, both direct and oblique, as certain facts of reality existing irrespective of the speaker’s perception. For instance, the verbal category of person expresses the personal relation of the process. The category of prospect expresses the timing of the process from the point of view of its relation to the plane of posteriority. Finally, the analyzed aspects characterize the respective inner qualities of the process. So each these category does disclose some actual property of the process denoted by the verb, adding more and more particulars to the depicted processual situation. But we cannot say the same about the category of voice.
As a matter of fact, the situation reflected by the passive construction does not differ in the least from the situation reflected by the active construction – the nature of the process is preserved intact, the situational participants remain in their places unchanged quality. It is clearly seen when comparing any pour of constructions one of which is passive counterpart of the other. Cf.: The guards dispersed the crowd in font of the Presential Palace. – The crowd in font of the Presential Palace was dispersed by the guards.
In the two constructions, the guards as the doer of the action are the same; the same also is the place of action, i.e. the space in front of the Place. The Presentation planes, though are quite different with the respective constructions, they are in fact mutually reverse. Namely, the first sentence, by its functional destination, features the act of the guards, whereas the second sentence, in accord with its meaningful purpose, features the experience of the crowd.
All the functional distinctions of the passive, both categorical and contextual connotative are substained in its use with verbids.
The gerundial phrase that is given below conveying the principal categorical meaning of the passive, suppresses the exposition of the indefinite subject of the process: After being wrongly delivered, the letter found its address at last.
The following passive participial construction: when the enemy batteries had been put out of action, our troops continued to push on the offensive. Cf.: the clausal equivalent of the construction: When the enemy batteries had been put out of action, our troops continued to push on the offensive.
The past participle of the objective verb is passive in meaning and phrases built up by it display all the cited characteristics. E.g.: Seen from the valley, the castle on the cliff presented a fantastic sight. Cf.: the clausal equivalent of the past participle range of the unmarked member of the voice opposition. Let us consider the following examples: I will shave and wash and be ready for breakfast in half an hour. I’m afraid Mary hasn’t dressed up yet. Now I see your son is thoroughly preparing for the entrance examination.
The indicated verbs in the given sentences are objective transitive, used absolutely in the form of the active voice. This kind of verbal meanings of the action performed by the subject upon it is classed as "reflexive". The same meaning can be rendered explicit by comparing the verb with the reflexive "self-pronoun". Let us take examples of another type: The friends will be meeting tomorrow. Unfortunately, Nillie and Christopher divorced two years after their magnificent marriage. Are Phil and Glen quarreling again over their toy-cruiser?
The cited reflexive and reciprocal uses of verbs are open to consideration as special grammatical voices, called respectively, "reflexive" and "reciprocal". The reflexive and reciprocal pronouns within the framework of the hypothetical voice identification of the uses in question should be looked upon as the voice auxiliaries.
To distinguish between the two cases of the considered phrasal-derivative process the former can be classed as "organic", the latter as "inorganic" reflexivization.
The derivative, i.e. lexemic expressions of voice meanings may be likened, with due alteration of details, to the lexemic expression of aspective meaning. In the domain of aspectuality we also find derivative aspects, having a set of lexical markers and generalized as limitive and non-limitive.
Of course, the factor of semantics as the criterion of the dynamic force of the construction is quite in its place, since the dynamic force itself is a meaning factor of language.
But the "technically" grammatical quality of the construction is determined by the categorical and functional properties of its constituents, first and foremost, its participial part. Thus, if this part, in principle, expresses processual verbality, however statal it may be in its semantic core, then the whole construction should be understood as a case of the finite passive in the categorical sense. E.g.: The young practitioner was highly esteemed in his district.
Thus, with the construction in question the context may have both voice-suppressing "statalising" effect and voice-stimulating "processualising" effect. It is very interesting to note that the role of processualising stimulators of the passive can be performed alongside of action-modifying adverbials, also by some categorical forms of the verb itself, namely, by the future the continuous, and the perfect – i.e. by the forms of the time-aspect order other that the indefinite imperfect past and present.
The fence is painted. – The fence is painted light green. – The fence is to be painted. – The fence has just been painted. The fact that the indefinite to this graduation of dynamism in passive constructions.
Chapter II. Contextual and functional features of the Passive forms in English and Russian
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