Passive

The Passive Introduction : English like many other languages give the possibility of choosing between two possibles constructions : the active construction and the passive one. Typically, in active construction, the grammatical subject is the agent of the action. We use active constructions far more frequently than passive ones. Sam has found the lost dog. 1a) The lost dog has been found [by Sam]. Those sentences show how the same message is presented into different ways. We may notice that there are some important differences. First the passive adds the auxiliary be followed by the past participle of the main verb. Second, the subject of the active sentence may become the agent in the passive one. Third, the direct object of the active sentence becomes the passive subject. Fourth, the preposition « by » is inserted before the agent in the passive sentence. But usually, the agent tends to be omitted and it is optional. The distinction between passive and active applies only to transitive verbs that is to say verbs with a direct object. 2) Peter saw the burglar. 2a) The burglar was seen [by Peter]. -> The object becomes the subject. When the verb has no direct object, it has no passive counterpart (equivalence) : 3) She left hours ago. 3a) Hours ago was been left her -> impossible ! In some cases, we have the direct object and yet the passive construction will be ungrammatical. 4) He plays basketball. 4a) Basketball is played by him. -> Ungrammatical ! 5) David loves spinach. 5a) Spinach is loved by David. -> Ungrammatical ! When a verb is ditransitive (= 2 direct objects), we can pick up either of them and use it as the grammatical subject in a passive construction. 6) She gave her children bread. 6a) Her children were given bread [by her]. 6b) Bread was given to her children [by her]. -> Each time, the agent is not obligatory but optional. -> The auxiliary be always takes on the tense, the aspect or the modal of the main verb in the active construction. 7) Lily will buy a pudding. 7a) A pudding will be bought [by Lily] -> Be takes on the modal WILL. 8) The children are painting the room. 8a) The room is being painted [by the children] -> be takes on the progressive aspect. There is a category of multi-word verbs in English ; they consist of a lexical verb and either a particle or a preposition. When we passivize an active sentence, we should always keep the particles and the propositions : 9) You can't cope up with him easily. 9a) He can't be coped up with easily. 10) You must do without your computer for some weeks. 10a) Your computer must be done without for some weeks. 11) He will look after your gold-fish. 11a) Your gold-fish will be looked after. Sometimes, the direct object of the verb is not a nominal group but it is a whole clause (une proposition entière). Still, we can obtain a passive counterpart : 12) They say he is very busy. 12a) He is said to be very busy. 12b) It is said that he is very busy. 13) They thought she was angry at friends. 13a) She was thought to have been angry at her friends. 13b) It was thought that she was angry at her friends. -> We can use a passive sentence even the object is as a clause. The uses of the passive : Language use is always a matter of choice and constraints. The language user chooses a possible way of organizing their message but the choice is limited by the grammatical rules and norms of the language. One of the choices we have is between the active and the passive sentences. But usually, this choice is not random, not arbitrary, it is often motivated by a number of criteria or reasons and we can think of at least 6 different reasons that motivate the choice of the passive at the expense of the active construction. a. The identity of the agent is unknown We can use the passive when we have no idea about the identity of the agent who performs the action. In this particular case, the passive almost imposes itself : 14) The lifeboats were launched immediately. 15) The car was stolen last year -> We have no idea of who did it. These 2 sentences tell us that something took place without specifying who actually carried them out. So these two sentences can do without the agent -> we can not mention it because we don't know it. b) The identity of the agent is obvious Sometimes, we use the passive because the identity of the agent is obvious enough. Either, because it has already been mentioned or because it can be easily worked out from the context. 16) The refugees were arrested, blindfolded and interrogated for hours before they were sent back home. 17) When he was in the airport, his luggage was checked thoroughly. -> It goes without saying that in sentence 16, police are the agents and that in sentence 17, customs officers are the agents. Therefore, there is no need to specify it anymore. Obscuring the agents In some cases, the speaker knows the identity of the agent and still they opt for the passive : 18) Lily broke the vase. 18a) The vase was broken. 19) You haven't answered my letters. 19a) My letters have not been answered. By choosing the passive, we decide not to identify the agent and therefore, not to put the blame on them. In sentences 18 and 19, we openly assign responsibility to "Lily" and "You". We identify them as the guilty parties/agents. But in 18a and 19a, we decide to obscure the agents and to conceal/hide the identity of the performers. End-focus The distribution of information within an English sentence is governed by the principle of end-focus. We tend to put at the end of the construction the elements we want to focus on. This alliance is positioned at the end of the sentence and it gets a maximum intention : 20) Sam opened the door -> Insist on the door. 20a) The door was opened by Sam -> Insist on Sam. -> We don't focus on the same elements. e. Scientific and technical texts The passive is massively used in scientific and technical texts so as to erase the subjectivity of the scientist and to present the result in an objective and neutral way. Besides, with the passive, scientists give us the impression that they're just describing a natural process without their intervention, as if the experiment were running itself. 21) The concentration of sodium is observed to increase when a charge is applied. 22) Nowadays, this disease can easily be cured if it is detected early enough. f. To retain the same subject We sometimes use the passive for stylistic reasons. It enables the writer to keep the coherence of the text. When several verbs have the same subjects, or when the subject of the discussion has already been mentioned, we will employ the passive. This enables us to avoid any stylistic or discursive disruptions/discontinuities. 23) Record numbers of "at risk" children are being taken from their families and placed into care, official figures show. III. The passive with get Basically, the passive is constructed with "be" + "past participle". But sometimes, "be" is replaced by "get". The "get" passive is less frequent than the "be" passive. We find it in certain context and with 2 particular implications : It is found in informal varieties of English : 1) The window got broken. 2) They got stuck in the elevator. We also find it when we want to insist that the subject has some responsibility for the action that they have somehow triggered it. The action may have a positive or negative consequence : 3) He annoyed everybody and he got bounced from the party. 4) He talked so convincingly that he got himself elected. IV. Passive constructions and Adjectives Many adjectives in English are past participles : 5) He was delayed by the huge amount of work he has to do. 6) She is overwhelmed by this new. For this reason, it is sometimes difficult to know whether we have a passive construction or an adjective. In sentences 7 and 8, we have the same word "closed" : 7) The gate was closed when we arrived : adjective, because we describe a state. 8) The gates are closed as soon as the party ended : passive construction, because we describe a process and an action. V. Translating the passive The passive is much more used in English than in French. It is generally considered as the syntactic equivalence of the French impersonal pronoun "on". 9) On peut remarquer que... -> It may be observed that... 10) On dit qu'il est riche -> He is said to be rich. Sometimes we use it to translate personal constructions introduced by "il" after verbs of supposition : 11) Il se murmure que le PM va démissionner -> It is rumoured that the PM will resign. In less formal context, we may translate "on" by "they", "we" or "you" : 13) On parle anglais en Jamaique -> They speak English in Jamaica / English is spoken... 14) On ne sait jamais -> You / We never know. In the passive constructions introduced by verbs such as "think", "say", "believe", pastness is indicated by have + past participle. 12) On dit qu'il n'a pas assisté à la réunion -> He is said not to have attended the meeting. Finally, the passive is used to translate the French reflexive "se" : 15) La décision se prend maintenant -> The decision is being made now. 16) Le vin blanc ne se boit pas avec la viande rouge -> White wine isn't drunk with meat. So as a conclusion, the 2 languages use the passive but not for the same reasons.