Middle voice is what you get when the verb is inflected like an active verb, but the meaning of the verb is something done to the subject, e.g., I broke the glass vs the glass broke.

When the glass breaks, the implication is that someone did the breaking to the glass, but the verb "breaks" is inflected as though the glass is breaking by itself. In the passive voice, we'd conjugate the verb differently: "The glass was broken." Also, normally with passive, you can add a "by" phrase (the glass was broken by the little girl) but you can't say "The glass broke by a little girl." And sometimes the meaning differs from the passive, e.g., "The passage reads well" says something about the passage, but "She reads the passage well" says something about her reading skill. 

Per the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, the category of "middle voice" has more to do with semantics than with syntax.

I don't think I've ever addressed this concept in my classes, though it has come up in conversation with individual students on occasion.

Beth

Dr. Beth Rapp Young
Associate Professor, English
[log in to unmask]

University of Central Florida
"Reach for the Stars"
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Jan Kammert [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2015 2:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: middle passive


My apologies ...
I think I just sent a blank message to the list.

Is anyone willing to explain middle passive to a middle school teacher?  I wonder if it's something I see in my students' writing.
Thanks!
Jan


From: "Prof. Richard Grant WAU" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2015 7:30:04 AM
Subject: Re: ATEG Digest - 9 Mar 2015 to 10 Mar 2015 (#2015-19)

This morning I discovered a study on the middle voice/middle passive.  The researcher presents data showing a decline in the use of passive and a significant increase in the spread and use of the middle passive.

 

Here’s the title: Hundt, Marianne. English Mediopassive Constructions : A Cognitive, Corpus-based Study of Their Origin, Spread, and Current Status.  2007

 

Richard

        

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