The category of Voice

The category of voice is a grammatical category which shows the relations between the subject and the action. Let us take the following two sentences.

He invited his friend

He was invited by his friend.

The relations between the subject he and the action invite in the two sentences are different. In the sentence he invited his friend the subject he performs the action, it is the doer of the action. In the sentence he was invited by his friend the subject he doesn’t act, it is not the doer, but the object of the action.

The category of voice is expressed by the opposition of the active forms and the passive forms.

As we have said the passive voice is the marked member of the opposition, it is marked in meaning, because the passive voice has quite a definite meaning. It denotes that the subject is represented as acted upon /e.g. the doer was opened/. It is marked in form - to be + -ed. The active voice is the unmarked member of the opposition. It is not marked in form and it is not marked in meaning, because the meaning of the active voice is less definite. The active voice has several meanings:

a/ the active meaning - He asked a question. He invited ms to the party. In the sentences given above the subject he denotes the doer of the action.

b/ medium - The door opened. The book sells well.

Here the subject does not denote either the doer or the object of the action. The verb in such sentences can not be followed by the object with the preposition by.

c/ reflexive - He washed and shaved.

The subject in such sentences denotes both the doer and the object of the action. We may say - John dressed himself. He cut himself.

d/ reciprocal - They met in the street. They embraced.

The subject is in the plural form. It denotes the persons who acted and who were affected by the action.

ActivePassive

to invite to be invited

invites is invited

invited was invited

is inviting is being invited

has invited has been invited

Not all the verbs of the M.E. have the category of voice. With regard to the category of voice, verbs may be divided into two subclasses: the verbs which form the passive and the verbs which cannot form the passive, The verbs which form the passive are transitive verbs they include: like the verb:

1/ V_give - He gave me an apple. An apple was given to me. I was given an apple. /2 pas. constr./

2/ V_take - He took an apple. /1 pas. costr./ an apple was taken by him.

3/ V_{look at} / which take prepositional objects/ - They looked at him. He was laughed at.

4/ V_put - He put the stick in the corner of the room. The stick was put
in the corner of the room. (with an obj. and adv. mod)

Constrictions with the verbs in the passive voice may be classified in the following way:

1. Direct Passive - This book was given to me by my friend./ The friend gave me

this book//more than 70%/

1. Indirect Passive - I was given the book by my friend /12%/
2. Prepositional Passive - The doctor was sent for /18%/

The most often used form of the Passive is the direct passive.

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