Professor Flavia Cunha 2013/2

What is voice?

Examples: Sentence (a) is in the active voice, and (b) is in the passive voice.

i.The verb In addition to intransitive verbs, which are never used in the passive, some transitive verbs do not occur in the passive. Voice Constraints

verbs of containing (e.g. contain, hold, comprise) * Twenty slices of bread are contained by the packet. verbs of measure (weigh, cost, contain, last) * Five dollars is cost by the parking fine. Voice Constraints

reciprocal verbs (resemble, look like, equal) * Maria is resembled by her father. verbs of fitting (fit suit) * He is suited by the jacket. Voice Constraints

verbs of possession (have, belonging) * A car is had by him. with some verbs only the passive is possible: * John was born in the late fifties. * John was said to be a good teacher. Voice Constraints

ii.The object Co-reference between subject and nominal objects blocks the passive transformation, and occurs with (a) reflexive, (b) reciprocal, and (c) possessive pronouns in the object. Voice Constraints

John could see himself in the mirror. * Himself could be seen in the mirror. We could hardly see each other in the fog. * Each other could hardly be seen in the fog. Voice Constraints

iii. The meaning The passive usually does not affect the meaning of a sentence, but it does affect the way you think about the information in a sentence because it changes the usual order of the subject and object of an active sentence. Voice Constraints

Still a change of meaning may accompany a change of voice in verb phrases containing auxiliaries that have more than one meaning, e.g. shall, will and can. John cannot do it. (ability) It cannot be done (by John) (possibility) Voice Constraints