XV. Verb. The category of voice.

The voice of the English verb 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. The sign marking the passive form is the combination of the auxiliary “be” with the past participle of the notional verb. It expresses reception of the action by the subject of the syntactic construction, the passive subject, denoting the object of the action. The active form as the weak member of the opposition expresses non-passivity.

In colloquial speech the role of the passive auxiliary can be performed by the verb “get” or “become”: Sam got liked for a good reason. The young violinist became admired by all.

The category of voice has a much broader representation in the system of the English verb than in the system of the Russian verb, since in English not only transitive, but also intransitive verbs including prepositional ones can be used in the passive. Besides, verbs taking two objects can feature both of them in the position of the passive subject: I’ve just been rung by the police. He was said to have been very wild in his youth. The child will be looked after all right. In Russian these are the cases of use of impersonal sentences, or reflexive forms of verbs.

Still, not all the verbs capable of taking an object are actually used in the passive. In particular, the passive form is not used with many verbs of the statal subclass (have in direct possessive meaning, belong, cost, resemble, fail, etc. It must be admitted that the category of voice is represented in all the verbs, not only those which can be used in the passive, because other verbs express this category by their non-passivity. Sometimes they use the active form with the passive meaning: The shop opens at 10. The magazine doesn’t sell well.

Both the active and the passive forms have the same tense and aspect categories, but the passive forms where the auxiliary “be” must be doubly used as a verbid, are neutralized. So, the future continuous and all the perfect continuous tenses are not used, and the corresponding simple forms are used: The police will be keeping an army of reporters at bay. – An army of reporters will be kept at bay by the police.

We have been expecting the decision for a long time. – The decision has been expected for a long time.

The typical cases of use of the passive is when the subject is unknown or when the attention of the speaker is centred on the action as such.

Sometimes it is difficult to tell a passive construction from a nominal predicate with the link-verb “be”. The door was closed by the butler as softly as it could be. – The door on the left was closed. The predicate of the first sentence expresses an action, the second – a state. So, we must consider it a nominal predicate with a link-verb “be” and a nominal part expressed by a past participle.

Glossary of Linguistic Terms

1. impersonal - безличный

2. reflexive - возвратный

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