Theoretical grammar of english

Voice — is the category which characterizes the relations btw the doer of the action and the object of the action expressed by the form of the predicate verb
1. Sometimes the subject of the active construction can't be regarded as the doer of the action due to the lexical character : e/g He lost his father in the war.
There's a disagreement btw the grammatical form of the predicate verb and the lex meaning.
The meaning is passive. The subj of the sentence isn't the doer but the sufferer. Yet, such examples are treated among the active voice b/c of the form of the verb.
2. The verb in the Active Voice denotes an action/process that is going on in the subject itself middle passive.
e.g The concert began The door opened The book sells well
3. The Subject denotes the doer and the object of the action (they are the SAME) - reflexive passive
e.g The boy washed John shaved
4. The subject is plural and the doer and the abject are DIFFERENT persons - reciprocal passive (взаимный)
e/g They kissed
John and Nelly met in the street
We can see that the classification is based on the MEANING. BUT! The Soviet Linguists put forward their own arguments against this theory:
۷ A Gr cat — a unity of form and meaning. In all the cases the form is active. Gr-ly the subject is represented as the doer
۷Such examples aren't numerous. In majority of the sentences w/an active Voice form, the subject denotes the doer proper .
Barhudarov suggested to define the M of the Active Voice as NON-PASSIVE!
PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS:
Passive Voice is a form of the verb which shows that the subj is the obj of the action expr-ed by the predicate verbs.
1. Direct Passive - the subj corresponds to the direct object of the predicate verb. e/g Coal is used for making fire.
Several restrictions:
۷Passive isn't used when the obj denotes the same person as the subj in an active sentence.
e.g He hurt himself
۷The Passive isn't used either if the obj in an active sentence is modified by the possessive
pronoun referring to the same person as the subj
e/g He cut his finger
۷ Passive isn't used when the obj is part of the set expression
e/g to take courage; to keep one's word
But still some set expr-s build Passive : to take care, to pay attention, to take measures
۷Passive can't be built with intransitive verbs
2.Indirect Passive — we employ the Indirect object. e/g He was told an interesting story.
In such Ss we keep the direct obj and this obj is specially termed "a retained object".
It's freely used w/the verb "to tell" only. Often w/ "to give" when it's part of the set expression
"to give a chance/choice/orders". Sometimes it's used with "to offer, to show, to prompt"

3. Prepositional Passive - the prepositional obj can also become the subj.

It can be built w/ any verb taking a prep obj. BUT: it's found w/a few Vs of everyday use: to
speak, to talk, to laugh, to set for...
The use has one restriction:
=> It's not used with verbs taking 2 objs: direct and prepositional.
The only passive costruction w/ "explain" is e/g The rule was explained to us
4.Adverbial Passive - when an Adv modifier becomes a subj of a Pass Sentence. However the number of such Ss is limited in Eng.
2 of them:
e/g The house wasn 't lived in
The bed wasn't slept in