The document discusses the differences between active and passive voice. It notes that most transitive verbs can be used in either the active or passive voice. The passive voice is less common and used for special discourse functions. Some examples of sentences in both the active and passive voice are provided. The document also discusses short and long passives, verbs that are commonly used in the passive voice, verbs that rarely use the passive voice, and combinations of voice and aspect.

1. VOICE
ACTIVE and PASSIVE

2. Active and Passive
Voice
• Most transitive verbs can occur in
two voices: active voice and
passive voice.

3. Active Voice
• It is the most common, unmarked
voice.
Subject Verb Object
Active
>
Voice
The lumberjack cut the tree.

4. Passive Voice
• Passive verb phrases are less common and
used for special discourse functions.
Subject Verb Object
Passive
>
Voice
The tree is cut by the lumberjack.

5. Now, compare:
• The lumberjack cut the tree.
• The tree is cut by the lumberjack.

6. The passive is possible with
most transitive verbs:
• Everyone drinks water.
• John brought the black cat.
• Marylin mailed the letter.
• The scientists rescued the sea turtles.
• Thousands of teenagers read Harry Potter.

7. Short passives vs. Long passives
• Short passives  The agent is not specified.
(agentless passive)
“From my infancy I was noted for the docility and
humanity of my disposition.” (The Black Cat, Edgar Allan Poe).
“Those that are found are called meteorites.” (
www.infoplease.com)

8. Short passives vs. Long passives
• Long Passives contain a by-phrase  The
agent of the action is specified.
“Many accidents are caused by dangerous driving.”
(MURPHY, Raymond. English Grammar in Use)
“This house was built by my grandfather.”
(MURPHY, Raymond. English Grammar in Use)

9. Short Passives across registers
• Most common in academic prose:
“Following this methodology, three strains were selected,
with which three sparkling wines were produced by the
Champenoise method. Industrial sparkling wines were
also produced with the commercial strain EC-1118, used
as a control in this study, and with strain J, from the
collection of the winery where the sparkling wines were
prepared. The wines thus obtained were aged for 12
months in presence of the yeast. The findings of the
sensory analysis indicated that all of the sparkling wines
were good quality.”
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740002000903903)

10. Short Passives across registers
• Also common in news:

12. Short Passives across registers
• Passives are rare in conversation. However,
there are some that are more common in
conversation than in the written registers:
“I can’t be bothered with my cosplay today, too tired.”
“It’s gotta be done.”
“She’s a lady and ladies shouldn’t be messed with.”

13. Long Passive across registers
• In principle, the long passive can be
replaced by an active clause with the
same meaning.
• Passive:
“In principle, the long passive can be replaced by an active clause with
the same meaning.”
• Active:
“In principle, an active clause with the same meaning can replace the
passive.”

14. Long Passive across registers
However, this active clause would
have been less appropriate then
the passive clause, because there
are three motivations for choosing
the long passive.

15. Long Passive across registers
• Principle 1: The long passive is chosen to
accord with the information-flow
principle: the preference for presenting
new information at the end of a clause.
This means that given information is
placed before new information.

16. Long Passive across registers
• Principle 2: The long passive is chosen to
accord with the end-weight principle. This
means the “heavier” (or more lengthy)
element of the clause, in this case the
agent, is placed at the end, where it does
not hold up the processing of the rest of
the clause.

17. Long Passive across registers
• Principle 3: The long passive is chosen to
place initial emphasis on an element of the
clause which is the topic, or the theme, of
the current discourse.

18. Verbs that are common in the
passive voice
• 90% of the time in the passive voice:
Aligned (with), based (on), born, coupled
(with), deemed, effected, entitled (to),
flattened, inclined, obliged, positioned,
situated, stained, subjected (to)

19. Verbs that are common in the
passive voice
• 70% of the time in the passive voice:
Approved, associated (with), attributed (to),
classified (as), composed (of), confined
(to), designed, diagnosed (as), distributed,
estimated, grouped (with), intended,
labelled, linked (to/with), located (at/in),
plotted, recruited, stored, viewed.

20. Verbs that almost always occur
in the passive
• Verbs that almost always occur in the
passive:
Be born:
Susan was born in Chicago.
Be reputed:
The deal is reputed to be worth $1m.

21. Verbs that almost always occur
in the passive
• Verbs like be based on, be deemed, be
positioned, and be subjected to, are
grammatical in both the active and passive
voice, but they are used 90% of the time in
the passive voice
“The material was deemed faulty.”
“Anyone found guilty of drinking alcohol may be subjected to 80
lashes of a cane.”

22. Get-Passive
It’s rare in all registers, but is
occasionally used in conversation.

23. Get-Passive
• Only 5 verbs have notable frequency in
this case:
Get married Get left
Get hit Get stuck
Get involved

24. Get-Passive
• Many of these verbs have a different
emphasis when used with be-passive:
I was married for a couple of years. (state)
She got married when she was eighteen.
(process of getting into a state)

25. Uncommon verbs in the
passive.
• There are many verbs that rarely
occur in the passive voice:
- Single Word Transitive Verbs: agree,
exclaim, guess, hate, have, joke, try,
etc..
- Single-object prepositional verbs:
agree to/with, belong to, bet on, etc...

26. Uncommon verbs in the
passive.
• As we could see, many single-
object prepositional verbs rarely
occur in the passive voice.
They’re all waiting for me.

27. Uncommon verbs in the
passive.
• The passive voice is awkward, if not
impossible, with these verbs, because
there would be a stranded
preposition after the verb.
* I’m being waited for by them.

28. Uncommon verbs in the
passive.
• However, a few single-object prepositional
verbs do easily occur in the passive voice.
The subject correspond to the prepositional
object of the active version.
- Active: You can rely on your sister to remember when
your birthday is.
- Passive: Your sister com be relied on to remember when
your birthday is.

29. Uncommon verbs in the
passive.
• In contrast, two-object prepositional
verbs usually allow (normally occur in)
the passive voice. The subject is the
direct object of the active form.
The style have been based on this assumption.
(active: Someone based the style on this assumption).

30. Voice and aspect
combinations
•Passive can combine with perfect and/or progressive
aspect.
•In actual use the perfect passive is moderately
common.
•The progressive passive is rare.
•The perfect passive with present tense is preferred in
academic prose and news.
•The past perfect passive is moderately common in
fiction.

31. Voice and aspect
combinations
• Perfect passive verb phrases with present tense
typically retain the meaning of both the perfect and
the passive. They show past time with present
relevance (perfect aspect) and they reduce the
importance of the agent (passive voice):
• “He has been jailed for explosives offenses in Ulster
and has previously been denied a visa.” (Grammar)

32. Voice and aspect
combinations
• Perfect passives in the past tense are
moderately common in fiction:
“Most of the lights had been turned off.”
• The passive with progressive aspect is rare,
but occurs occasionally in news and
academy writing:
• “A police spokesman said nobody else was
being sought in connection with the incident.”
(grammar)