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

Voice Grammemes

§ 288. In the system of the English language the active (non-marked) and the passive (marked) members of the voice opposeme are equal in rank, mutually complementing each other. This is not the case in speech where, in conformity with the general tendency, non-marked, i. e. less specific opposeme members usually prevail over marked ones.

According to our statistics based on the analysis of 10,000 objective verbs, both finite and non-finite, the active voice occurs in speech in about 94 per cent and the passive — in 6 per cent of all cases.
§ 289. In Modern English speech the passive voice is mostly used in those cases when the doer of the action is a) unknown, indefinite or b) left unexpressed for some reason, as in: She was much admired. I hate being looked at. He refused to be beaten. In our family his behaviour was not spoken about.
According to Sweet "The passive is a grammatical device of bringing the object into prominence, of getting rid of the necessity of naming the subject".
As proved by the research of some linguists, the so-called two-member passive (passive constructions in which the pro­ducer of the action is not mentioned) is much more common in English speech than the three-member passive (passive constructions including a word indicating the producer of the action). More than 70 per cent of all passive constructions in English speech are two-member ones.

§ 290. As we know, verb grammemes containing the mean­ing of 'active voice', whether actual or oblique, present the action as issuing from the doer, but sometimes they may acquire what can be described as 'passive' meaning.

Cf. to let a house and a house to let (i. e. offered for rent). The book reads well (i. e. is read easily). The surface felt smooth (i. e. when felt, it gave the impression of being smooth). In such cases transitive verbs do not attach an object.

§ 291. It has been noted (§ 208) that 'passive voice' anal­ytical words of the type is filled, was done have homonymous word combinations denoting 'states', not 'actions'. The context often differentiates the homonyms.

a) The presence of adverbial modifiers emphasizes the dynamic meaning of the analytical word, as in Such letters are often written in haste.
b) The syntactical coordination with 'active' verbs often brings the idea of action into prominence.
E. g. He stepped into the coach and was borne away.
c) The presence of the 'by-phrase' strengthens the idea of action, making the passive construction to some degree parallel to the active construction.
E. g. That was d о п e by his elder sister.
d) The continuous aspect is a sure sign of the analytical verb. E. g. This work is being d о n e all over the world.

§ 292. It has often, been claimed that passive structures can be regarded as transforms of certain active struc­tures ¹.

It would, however, be erroneous to think that these con­structions are always mutually convertible, provided the verb is objective.
a) To begin with, some verbal grammemes (e. g. those represented by will be singing, has been singing, had been singing, will have been singing, to be singing, to have been singing) have no passive opposites.
b) Repin painted this famous picture and this famous picture was painted by Repin are not absolutely identical in meaning. In the passive construction the main stress falls upon the word naming the doer of the action. It serves to answer the question Who(m) was the picture painted by?, while the active construction answers some question like What did Repin do?
c) Two-member passive constructions which constitute the bulk of passive, constructions in Modern English speech cannot be made active since they contain no word which might become the subject of a parallel active construction².
d) A passive construction with the impersonal subject cannot be made active, e. g. It is said, believed, hoped, etc.
e) An active construction cannot be made passive if it contains a reflexive pronoun or an infinitive as an object.
E. g. She admired herself in the mirror, but not *herself was admired... She promised to come. *To come was promised is impossible.
f) As already mentioned (§ 205) some objective verbs have no passive opposites.
g) Active and passive constructions differ stylistically: the active is markedly more colloquial, the passive being largely confined to literary English, scientific prose.
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1} See, for instance, N. Chomsky. Syntactical Structures. Russian translation in «Новое в лингвистике», вып. II, М., 1962, р. 448—450. See also К. Pike, op. cit., p. 26 "...a passive may be derived from an active... John was hit by Bill would be a transform sentence of the under­lying sentence Bill hit John".