СодержаниеIntroduction 3
Chapter 1. The theoretical aspects of passive constructions’ definition 5
1.1. Thе саtegory of voice. Passive constructions 5
1.2. Types and Principles of Passive Construction 13
Chapter II. The analysis of passive constructions 24
2.1. Types of passive constructions 24
2.2. Direct passive of the verbs demanding two direct objects 37
2.3. Direct passive of the verbs demanding direct and indirect object 41
2.4. Direct passive of the verbs demanding direct and a prepositional object 43
2.5. Indirect passive 47
Chapter III. The description of passive constructions 52
3.1. Characteristics of the passive constructions 52
3.2. Analysis of passive forms 59
Conclusion 63
Bibliography 67ВведениеThe Voice is the property of a verb, which shows whether the subject of the action performs the action or receives the action described by the verb. If the subject performs the action described by the verb, the verb is treated as belonging to the Active Voice. Accordingly, if the subject receives the action, the verb is said to be in the Passive Voice.
The voice of a verb depends on the relation between the verb and its subject.
When the subject of a verb acts, the verb is in the active voice; when the subject is acted upon, the verb is in the passive voice .
The active voice stresses the activity of the subject and helps to make a sentence direct, concise, and vigorous.
One and the same idea can often be expressed in two ways, by means of an active, and by means of a passive construction. The English passive is formed with an auxiliary, generally be, but often also get and become, and the second participle
We distinguish several types of the passive constructions in the modern English language, illustrating our explanations with examples of the usage of these types.
The purpose of our paper is to reveal the grammatical nature of the passive constructions and to register different types of such construction in Modern English.
The objectives of this paper are:
- to consider the theoretical aspects of passive constructions’ definition;
- to describe types and Principles of Passive Construction;
- to analyze the passive constructions;
- to give the description of passive constructions;
- to give the analysis of passive forms.
The paper consists of an Introduction, three parts: Theoretical, Results of the Analysis, Conclusions, Bibliography.
In the introduction we emphasize actuality of the theme and state the purpose and objectives.
In the first Part we learn the theoretical knowledge on the problem of Passive constructions in Modern English. The second part deals with the analysis of different types of passive construction in modern English. The third part covers the description of passive constructions.ЗаключениеEnglish verbs have two “voices”—active and passive. Active verbs are used when the subject of the sentence is the agent of the action performed in the sentence. A writer employs the passive voice when the subject is the recipient (the patient or direct object) of the action performed by the verb. Any sentence with a transitive verb (a verb that performs its action upon a direct object) in the active voice has a passive alternate .
The Passive Voice in the Modern English language is a distinctive system, which has a number of different constructions. Derect, Indirect, and Prepositional.
In most sentences the agent/patient relations aren’t as painfully (or medically) clear. In the following example, “Professor Murray” is the agent and “the lecture” is the patient, or direct object, of “deliver.”
Active: Professor Murray delivered the lecture. Passive: The lecture was delivered by Professor Murray.
Not every passive verb can or should be made active. Sometimes you simply don’t know who or what performed an action, or you deliberately want to obscure who performed an action. Passive verbs are useful when who did an action is less important than to whom it was done. A passive verb puts the victim (in grammatical terms, the patient) right up front in the sentence where it gets attention.
The Passive Voice in Modern English is found with different types of verbs in various verb phrases. Monotransitive verbs are numerous and almost of them form a direct passive construction. Phrasal transitive verbs are often used in the passive voice. Though in many examples there was an evident correspondence of the Active and the Passive Voice construction, but there were found cases in which there was not a one-to one correspondence. There are semantic reasons for this constraint, as these verbs denote not an action or process, but a state or relation.
The direct passive represents such passive сonstruction in which the subject corresponds to a direct object of a verb.
The quantity of examples of a direct passive in the investigated literature makes 22.597 of the total equal 23.107, i.e. on a share of a direct passive the overwhelming majority of examples is necessary.
The direct passive includes a lot of various сonstructions.
1. Basically the direct passive is formed from the verbs demanding one direct object. This passive сonstruction plays the leading part among all other сonstructions. The quantity of examples makes 18.975.
In this сonstruction all the verbs demanding a direct object can be used, but very few exceptions. As a whole it is possible to consider this passive сonstruction lexically unlimited.
A number of structural restrictions are imposed on a direct passive: it not be formed when an object of a verb is expressed by mutual pronoun, a subordinate clause, infinitive or gerund.
The direct passive in forms of Present Indefinite and Past Indefinite can denoted both action, and the condition which has come as a result of the done action. Meaning of an action or a condition in these tense forms depends upon lexical character of a verb from limiting or nonlimiting nature of a verb from which the participle II is formed. The combination of a verb to be with a participle II from nonlimiting verbs always matters actions. The combination be with a participle II from telic verbs can denote both action, and the condition which has come as a result of achievement of a limit of action, the limiting character incorporated in a verb. Thus, we find two subspecies in a direct passive: a passive of action and a passive of condition. These two subspecies differ from each other in the environments.
In passive of action there are necessary components of a construction, such as special structural signals which are the factors of action. The passive of action is met in English more widely (18.181 example), than a passive of a condition (794 examples).
From the verbs demanding one direct object, the special form of a passive representing a combination of an auxiliary verb get with a participle II can be formed this structure always denotes action. This kind of passive has not found distribution in modern English language: in the investigated material of all there were 132 examples of this passive construction. The passive construction with get lexically is limited: the majority of the verbs is characterized by quite certain semantic orientation - they mean undesirable, actions for the person or a subject denoted by a subject.
The subject predicative member expressed by participle I, a participle II, an adjective and a noun, can be entered by ‘as’. All these constructions are lexically limited, they can be formed only from the certain circle of verbs.
Other specific construction in which basis there is direct passive, sentences with formal ‘ it ’ are as a subject . In total there were 524 examples. These break construction up to some types depending on structure of the sentence. All these types of sentence lexically are limited: they meet the certain circle of verbs.
The passive from the verbs demanding one direct object, meets also in parenthetic clauses which are characterized by absence of a subject. Such sentences are entered by ‘as’. This passive construction also is lexically limited. It has met in 53 examples.
The direct passive can be formed also from verbs, demanding two direct objects from which one is usual only can become subjects of the sentence: other addition follows for Passive predicate. In total there were 42 examples of this construction.
This passive is construction lexically limited: it was revealed
Only 6 verbs from which it is formed. In formation of a passive construction from these verbs also are observed structural. Restrictions: as a subject of a passive construction that of two objects who denotes the person is used.
The direct passive can be formed also from the verbs demanding direct and an indirect object: the direct object is a subject of the offer, and indirect - follows a passive predicate.
The agentive by-object corresponding to the subject of the active construction is very rarely used in passive constructions with ditransitive verbs. Of the two passive constructions (direct and indirect) with ditransitive verbs the indirect passive is by far the most common.
As far as passive constructions with prepositional monotransitive verbs are concerned there were found most verbs of this type denoting the process of speaking, mental and physical perception. Also there were registered prepositionsl passive constructions with modal verbs.
The use of the agentive by-object is highly restricted, it occurs in one case out of five, and even less frequently in colloquial speech and imaginative prose. However, when it does occur, the by-object is of great communicative value, and its elimination makes the meaning of the verb incomplete. There were mostly found by-objects as a noun (a living being, or a thing or notion as a source of an action).
As the result of the research the following tense forms of the verb are registered in the Modern English and American texts: Present and Past Indefinite, which are the predominant tense forms in Modern English. Future Indefinite is found in equal quantity in English and American texts. As for Perfect forms, the number of their examples is limited.
We can state, that the use of Passive constructions in the periods under analysis is limited in many ways: not all types of Passive constructions were widely used and the use of analytical forms, namely Perfect, is very scarce in the Passive Voice. The wide use of various Passive constructions in Mldern English testifies to the high productivity of the Passive Voice.Литература1. Anson, Chris M. and Robert A. Schwegler. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers. Second edition. (2000). Pages 118-120; 270-272; 262-64; 369-71; 448.
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