Lecture 7 The Verb: the Category of Voice 1. Voice: Definition and Oppositional Morphological Features of the Category. 2. Types of Passive. 3. Meanings of Passive. 4. The Question of the “Medial” Voices: a) Reflexive Voice; b) Reciprocal Voice; c) Middle Voice.
Features of the Category of Voice O Meaning: indication of the direction of the action as regards the participants of the situation (A. I. Smirnitsky); O Opposition: be…-en vs ___; O AV: S The woman opened the door. O PV: S The door was opened by a Chinese girl.
Verbs Used in the Passive Voice O Not only transitive, but objective verbs O Passivized verbs vs nonpassivized verbs O No Future Continuous Passive Forms O No Perfect Continuous Passive Forms
2. Types of Passive O Primary Passive (subject of the passive construction corresponds to the direct object of the active construction); O Secondary Passive (subject of the passive construction corresponds to the indirect object of the active construction); O Tertiary Passive (subject of the passive construction corresponds to the prepositional object of the active construction).
Uses of the Passive Voice O the agent is unknown or cannot easily be O O stated; the agent is self-evident from the context; there is a special reason for not mentioning the agent; greater interest taken in the object of the action than in the agent; connection of one sentence with the other.
3. Meanings of Passive Point of View #1. G. Curme, C. T. Onions, L. S. Barkhudarov, G. N. Vorontsova: 1) a continuous or habitual action; 2) a state resulting from an action.
Point of View #2 R. Quirk et al. , M. Y. Blokh: Passive constructions are marked by the following features: 1) the agent is indicated with the help of a byphrase; 2) the verb is in the continuous aspect; 3) the verb is in the perfect form; 4) the verb has a future tense form; 5) the verb is qualified by an adverbial of place, time or frequency.
4. Medial Voices a) Reflexive Voice O Mentioned by H. Whitehall, V. N. Zhigadlo, I. P. Ivanova and L. L. Iofik O The subject acts on itself O Reflexive pronouns are used O He washed himself. (organic reciprocal verb) O He never trusted himself. (inorganic reciprocal verb) O He found himself in an empty room. (inorganic reciprocal verb)
b) Reciprocal Voice O The members of a group perform an action on each other O Reciprocal pronouns are used O We kissed each other. (organic reciprocal verb) O They knew one another very well indeed. (inorganic reciprocal verb)
c) Middle Voice O The subject indicates the thing inside which an action is going on O The form coincides with that of the Active Voice O The door opened. O Large cigarettes smoked easily and coolly. O The new paper-backs are selling very well.
