Some interest has been expressed in defining the passive voice. I'm not
going to attempt a full definition here, but I recommend that interested
people refer to good grammars of English such as the Quirk, Greenbaum,
Leech and Svartvik grammars put out by Longman. There are two things I'd
like to say about passives.
(1) I think it is a good idea to present the definition and initial
explanations of passive voice by presenting the same meaning content in
active/passive pairs such as:
- A tall woman opened the door.
- The door was opened by a tall woman.
However, students should later focus their efforts on recognizing
passive sentences without by-phrases. Passives with by-phrases occur
quite rarely in real language use. Also, it is likely that the most
stylistically felicitous use of passive is without a by-phrase.
This reflects my belief that our grammar teaching should be based on how
the language is used in real communication.
(2) In explaining the passive, its reason for being should be included.
Passive voice exists in part to enable us to discuss events when their
causes are unknown or not important or when the speaker/writer wishes to
hide the responsible agent:
- The old library has been torn down.
- Mistakes were made.
Passive also exists to satisfy needs at the text level -- that is, it
exists to help us achieve and maintain coherence in a _text_ -- a set of
sentences organized around some theme, for some specific communicative
purpose. Teachers focus on the _subject_ in the active/passive contrast;
this integrates nicely with discussing its textual value. A traditional
and extremely common type of text structure uses the subject of a clause
to do several things:
- Maintain reference to the main topic(s) of the text; tie new
information that the text introduces to the main topic(s).
- Introduce subtopics as part of the development of the overall topic.
When a 'patient' or 'undergoer' is a topic or subtopic, then using the
passive voice puts it in subject position, allowing the value of subject
position as described above to be exploited. Topic coherence can be
maintained even when the topic is an undergoer.
Subjects often name 'given' information, that is, information that the
text reader is presumed to know by virtue of either previous material in
the text or by general knowledge. Predicates are often the main locus of
new information -- the new knowledge the text is intended to impart to
its reader/listener. When the writer/speaker desires to give out new
information about an undergoer, passive allows this by enabling
placement of the undergoer in subject position.
Explanations to students can be simplified versions of the above, but I
believe they can be used at a fairly early level -- certainly by later
middle school. (This assumes, of course, that other grammar instruction
has familiarized the students with such notions as 'subject'). They
would, of course, include sample texts. Start observing during your own
casual reading and you will find example texts.
Including the text value of grammatical constructions such as the
passive integrates grammar instruction with writing -- it puts grammar
in context.
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Johanna Rubba Assistant Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184 • Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone. 756-259
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] • Home page: http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
**
"Understanding is a lot like sex; it's got a practical purpose,
but that's not why people do it normally" - Frank Oppenheimer
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