Sure it could, Diane: the active voice version would be, "Sorrow swelled his heart."  In passive voice sentences, the prepositional phrase with the "Agent" named in the noun phrase is most often marked with the preposition "by," as in your "His heart was swollen by sorrow."  We use "by" when the agent is literally or metaphorically animate.  But the Agent can also appear in a prepositional phrase marked by the preposition "with," as in "The essay was written with a pencil."  Here, the Agent--"a pencil"--is inanimate: it is an "instrument."  For literal or metaphorically inanimate Agents, we mark the Agent in the passive voice using a prepositional phrase starting with "with." So in your original sentence, "His heart was swollen with sorrow," "sorrow" is the Agent that caused his heart to swell.



Seth

Dr. Seth Katz

Department of English

Bradley University



	-----Original Message----- 

	From: Diane Allen [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 

	Sent: Mon 4/19/2004 9:00 AM 

	To: [log in to unmask] 

	Cc: 

	Subject: Truncated passive

	

	



	In the sentence "His heart was swollen with sorrow" the strictest

	interpretation would dictate that "swollen with sorrow" is a subject

	complement following the linking verb "was". However, could it be read as a

	truncated passive, as in "His heart was swollen (by) sorrow" with "was"

	serving as a passive auxiliary?

	

	Diane

	

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