Б. С. Хаймович, Б. И. Роговская теоретическая грамматика английского языка

The Category of Voice

§ 203. The category of voice is the system of two-member opposetnes (loves — is loved, loving — being loved, to love — to be loved, has loved — has been loved, etc.) which show wheth­er the action is represented as issuing from its subject (the active voice) or as experienced by its object (the passive voice).

This may be shown graphically as follows:

t he subject of the action

Active voice Action


John loves.

t he object of the action

Passive voice Action

John is loved.

§ 204. Voice is one of those categories which show the close connection between language and speech (Cf. case, § 82). A voice opposeme is a unit of the language system, but the essential difference between its members is in their combinability in speech. The 'active voice' member has oblig­atory connections with subject words and optional ones with object words. The 'passive voice' member, on the con­trary, forms obligatory combinations with object words and optional ones with subject words.

Cf. He loves (her).
She is loved (by him).
I want John to read (the letter).
I want the letter to be read (by John).
The category of voice also shows the links between mor­phology and syntax. Being a morphological category, voice often manifests syntactical relations. The voice opposites of finites indicate whether the subject of the sentence denotes' the doer or the recipient of the action.
Cf. She asked ... and She was asked.

§ 205. With regard to the category of voice verbs divide into those that have voice opposites and those which have not. The second subclass comprises subjective verbs and some objective verbs denoting actions of weak dynamic force (in which the meaning of 'action' is hardly felt) like belong, become ('be suitable'), befit, befall, cost, fail, lack, last, mis­give, own, possess, resemble, etc.

Still, when comparing the subjective verb stands with the two voice opposites writes — is written, we see that stands resembles the 'active voice' member of the opposeme by its synthetic form (write-s, stand-s) and by its regular connection with the subject word. Cf. He stands and writes (not is written).
Therefore subjective verbs, can be treated as united by the oblique (lexico-grammatical, potential) meaning of 'active voice' (see § 44).

§ 206. The content of all voice opposemes is the same: two particular meanings of 'active' and 'passive' voice united by the general meaning of 'voice'. All the other mean­ings found in both members of the opposeme are irrelevant within the opposeme.

The forms of voice opposemes seem to differ considerably. In the opposeme ask — am asked the 'active' member has a zero grammatical morpheme and the 'passive' member has a complicated positive morpheme/-am... -t/. In asks — is asked both members have positive grammatical morphemes /-s/ and/-iz ... -t/. In will ask — will be asked the forms of the grammatical morphemes are still more complicated. But this variety of form can be generalized if we exclude every­thing that expresses other meanings than those of 'voice'. Then the 'active' member can be regarded as unmarked and the 'passive' member as marked by the combination of one of the words of the lexeme be used as a grammatical word-morpheme and the grammatical morpheme of participle II, in formulaic representation be + -en (Cf. to write — to be written, writing — being written).

§ 207. One of the most difficult problems connected with the category of voice is the problem of participle II, the most essential part of all 'passive voice' grammemes. The fact is that participle II has a 'passive,' meaning not only when used with the word-morpheme be, but also when used alone. Thus, participle I writing seems to have two 'passive' opposites: being written and written.

Participle II has also a 'perfect' meaning, not only when used with the word-morpheme have (have written, having written) but when employed alone, too. Thus, the participle fading seems to have two 'perfect' opposites, having faded and faded.