Editing Passive voice

{{Short description|Grammatical construction}}
{{About|the passive voice generally|the passive voice in English|English passive voice}}
{{Transitivity and Valency}}

A '''passive voice''' construction is a [[Voice (grammar)|grammatical voice]] construction that is found in many languages.<ref name=Siewierska>{{cite book|last=Siewierska |first=Anna |year=1984 |title=The Passive: A Comparative Linguistic Analysis |location=London |publisher=Croom Helm}}</ref> In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical [[Subject (grammar)|subject]] expresses the ''theme'' or ''[[Patient (grammar)|patient]]'' of the main verb – that is, the person or thing that undergoes the action or has its state changed.<ref name="O'Grady">{{cite book |last=O'Grady |first=William |author2=John Archibald |author3=Mark Aronoff |author4=Janie Rees-Miller |year=2001 |title=Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction |edition=Fourth |location=Boston |publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's |isbn=978-0-312-24738-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/contemporaryling00ogra }}</ref> This contrasts with [[active voice]], in which the subject has the [[Agent (grammar)|agent]] role. For example, in the passive sentence "The tree was pulled down", the subject (''the tree'') denotes the patient rather than the agent of the action. In contrast, the sentences "Someone pulled down the tree" and "The tree is down" are active sentences.

Typically, in passive clauses, what is usually expressed by the [[object (grammar)|object]] (or sometimes another [[Argument (linguistics)|argument]]) of the verb is now expressed by the subject, while what is usually expressed by the subject is either omitted or is indicated by some [[adjunct (grammar)|adjunct]] of the clause. Thus, turning an active [[word sense|sense]] of a verb into a passive sense is a [[Valency (linguistics)|valence-decreasing]] process ("detransitivizing process"), because it [[syntax|syntactically]] turns a [[transitive verb|transitive]] sense into an [[intransitive verb|intransitive]] sense.<ref name=Kroeger>{{cite book|last=Kroeger |first=Paul |title=Analyzing Grammar: An Introduction|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2005 |isbn=978-0521816229}}</ref> This is not always the case; for example in [[Japanese language|Japanese]] a passive-voice construction does not necessarily decrease valence.<ref name="BooijLehmann2004">{{cite book|last=Booij|first=Geert E. |author2=Christian Lehmann |author3=Joachim Mugdan |author4=Stavros Skopeteas |title=Morphologie / Morphology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wqikmIpNjjYC&pg=PA1156|access-date=13 September 2013|year=2004|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-019427-2}}</ref>

Many languages have both an active and a passive voice; this allows for greater flexibility in sentence construction, as either the [[semantic]] agent or patient may take the [[syntax|syntactic]] role of subject.<ref name=Saeed>{{cite book|last=Saeed |first=John |year=1997 |title=Semantics |location=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=978-0-631-20035-2}}</ref> The use of passive voice allows speakers to organize stretches of discourse by placing figures other than the agent in subject position. This may be done to [[Foregrounding|foreground]] the patient, recipient, or other [[Thematic relation|thematic role]];<ref name=Saeed/> it may also be useful when the semantic patient is the [[topic–comment|topic]] of on-going discussion.<ref>{{cite book|last=Croft |first=William |year=1991 |title=Syntactic Categories and Grammatical Relations: The Cognitive Organization of Information|url=https://archive.org/details/syntacticcategor0000crof |url-access=registration |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-12090-4}}</ref> The passive voice may also be used to avoid specifying the agent of an action.

==Passive marking==
Different languages use various grammatical forms to indicate passive voice.

In some languages, passive voice is indicated by verb [[Grammatical conjugation|conjugation]], specific forms of the verb. Examples of languages that indicate voice through conjugation include [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Latin conjugation|Latin]], and [[North Germanic languages]] such as [[Swedish grammar#Passive voice|Swedish]].

{|class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col" | Voice
! scope="col" | Latin
! scope="col" | Swedish
! scope="col" | Meaning
|-
| Passive
| {{lang|la|Vīnum ā servō '''portātur'''.}}
| {{lang|sv|Vinet '''bärs''' av tjänaren.}}
| "The wine '''is carried''' by the waiter."
|-
| Active
| {{lang|la|Servus vīnum '''portat'''.}}
| {{lang|sv|Tjänaren '''bär''' vinet.}} 
| "The waiter '''carries''' the wine."
|}

[[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] ([[Nynorsk]]) and [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]] have a similar system, but the usage of the passive is more restricted. [[Nynorsk#Passive construction|The passive forms in Nynorsk]] are restricted to being accompanied by an [[auxiliary verb]], which is not the case in [[Swedish language|Swedish]] and [[Danish language|Danish]].

Nynorsk uses "'''å verte'''" or "'''å bli'''" + past participle for passive voice, and Swedish and Danish use the passive suffix "'''-s'''" and Icelandic uses "'''að''' '''verða'''" or "'''að''' '''vera'''" + past participle or "-'''st'''" suffix for middle voice.{{cn|date=July 2018}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Khan |first=Simeron |date=Jan 12, 2023 |title=Passive Voice Conjugations in Norwegian and Icelandic Languages |url=https://englishgrammaresl.com/passive-voice-conjugations-in-norwegian-and-icelandic-languages/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412074008/https://englishgrammaresl.com/passive-voice-conjugations-in-norwegian-and-icelandic-languages/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=April 12, 2023 |access-date=April 12, 2023 |website=EnglishGrammarEsl.com}}</ref> 

In Latin, the agent of a passive sentence (if indicated) is expressed using a noun in the [[ablative]] case, in this case {{lang|la|servō}} (the ablative of {{wikt-lang|la|servus}}). Different languages use different methods for expressing the agent in passive clauses. In Swedish, the agent can be expressed by means of a [[prepositional phrase]] with the preposition {{lang|sv|av}} (equivalent here to the English "by").

The [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]] language [[Dusunic languages|Kimaragang Dusun]] also indicates passive voice by verb conjugation using the [[infix]], {{lang|poz|{{angbr|in}}}}.<ref name=Kroeger />
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col" | root
! scope="col" | past passive
! scope="col" | meaning
|-
| {{lang|poz|patay}}
| {{lang|poz|pinatay}}
| "was killed"
|-
| {{lang|poz|nakaw}}
| {{lang|poz|ninakaw}}
| "was stolen"
|-
| {{lang|poz|garas}}
| {{lang|poz|ginaras}}
| "was butchered"
|}

Other languages, including English, express the passive voice [[Periphrasis|periphrastically]], using an [[auxiliary verb]].

===In English===
{{Main article|English passive voice}}
English, like some other languages, uses a [[periphrasis|periphrastic]] passive. Rather than conjugating directly for voice, English uses the [[Participle|past participle]] form of the verb plus an auxiliary verb, either ''be'' or ''get'' (called [[linking verb]]s in [[traditional grammar]]), to indicate passive voice.
*The money '''was donated''' to the school.
*The vase '''got broken''' during the fight.
*All men '''are created''' equal.

If the agent is mentioned, it usually appears in a prepositional phrase introduced by the preposition ''by''.
*Without agent: The paper was marked.
*With agent: The paper was marked '''by Mr. Tan'''.

The subject of the passive voice usually corresponds to the direct object of the corresponding active-voice formulation (as in the above examples), but English also allows passive constructions in which the subject corresponds to an [[indirect object]] or [[preposition]] complement:
*We '''were given''' tickets. (subject ''we'' corresponds to the indirect object of ''give'')
*Tim '''was operated on''' yesterday. (subject ''Tim'' corresponds to the complement of the preposition ''on'')
In sentences of the second type, a [[stranded preposition]] is left. This is called the ''prepositional passive'' or ''pseudo-passive'' (although the latter term can also be used with other meanings).

The active voice is the dominant voice used in English. Many commentators, notably [[George Orwell]] in his essay "[[Politics and the English Language]]" and [[William Strunk, Jr.|Strunk]] & [[E.B. White|White]] in ''[[The Elements of Style]]'', have urged minimizing use of the passive voice, but this is almost always based on these commentators' misunderstanding of what the passive voice is.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.pdf|title=Fear and Loathing of the English Passive|last=Pullum|first=Geoffrey|date=2014|journal=Language and Communication|volume=37|pages=60–74|doi=10.1016/j.langcom.2013.08.009|citeseerx=10.1.1.643.9747}}</ref> Contrary to common critiques, the passive voice has important uses, with virtually all writers using the passive voice (including Orwell and Strunk & White).<ref>
{{cite news
 |title       = Active resistance: What we get wrong about the passive voice
 |first       = Jan
 |last        = Freeman
 |url         = http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/03/22/active_resistance/
 |newspaper   = [[The Boston Globe]]
 |location    = Boston
 |issn        = 0743-1791
 |date        = 2009-03-22
 |access-date  = 2010-03-01
 |quote       = All good writers use the passive voice.
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100113172942/http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/03/22/active_resistance/
 |archive-date = 2010-01-13
}}
</ref>
There is general agreement that the passive voice is useful for emphasis or when the receiver of the action is more important than the actor.<ref name="MW">{{cite book|author= Merriam-Webster|title= Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage|year= 1989|publisher= Merriam-Webster|pages= [https://archive.org/details/merriamwebstersd00merr/page/720 720–21] |isbn= 978-0-87779-132-4|quote=There is general agreement that the passive is useful when the receiver of the action is more important than the doer[...] The passive is also useful when the doer is unknown, unimportant, or perhaps too obvious to be worth mentioning.|title-link= Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage}}</ref>

''[[Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage]]'' refers to three statistical studies of passive versus active sentences in various periodicals, stating: "the highest incidence of passive constructions was 13 percent. Orwell runs to a little over 20 percent in "Politics and the English Language". Clearly he found the construction useful in spite of his advice to avoid it as much as possible".<ref name="MW" />

==Defining "passive"==
In the field of [[linguistics]], the term ''passive'' is applied to a wide range of grammatical structures. Linguists therefore find it difficult to define the term in a way that makes sense across all [[human language]]s. The canonical passive in European languages has the following properties:
# The subject is not an [[agent (grammar)|agent]].
# There is a change in: [[word order]]; or in nominal morphology—the form of the nouns in the sentence.
# There is specific verbal morphology—a particular form of the verb indicates passive voice.
The problem arises with non-European languages. Many constructions in these languages share at least one property with the canonical European passive, but not all. While it seems justified to call these constructions ''passive'' when comparing them to European languages' passive constructions, as a whole the passives of the world's languages do not share a single common feature.<ref name=Siewierska/>{{rp|255}}

[[R. M. W. Dixon]] has defined four criteria for determining whether a construction is a passive:<ref name=Ergativity>{{Cite book |last=Dixon |first=R.M.W. |year=1994 |title=Ergativity |url=https://archive.org/details/ergativitycambri00dixo |url-access=limited |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/ergativitycambri00dixo/page/n167 146]}}</ref>
# It applies to [[Underlying representation|underlying]] transitive clauses and forms a [[Morphological derivation|derived]] intransitive.
# The entity that is the [[patient (grammar)|patient]] or the [[object (grammar)|object]] of the transitive verb in the underlying representation (indicated as ''O'' in linguistic terminology) becomes the core argument of the clause (indicated as ''S'', since the core argument is the [[subject (grammar)|subject]] of an intransitive).
# The agent in the underlying representation (indicated as ''A'') becomes a [[chômeur]], a noun in the periphery that is not a core argument. It is marked by a [[Grammatical case|non-core case]] or becomes part of an [[adpositional phrase]], etc. This can be omitted, but there is always the option of including it.
# There is some explicit [[Markedness|marking]] of the construction.
Dixon acknowledges that this excludes some constructions labeled as ''passive'' by some linguists.<ref name=Ergativity/>

==Adversative passive==
In some languages, including several Southeast Asian languages, the passive voice is sometimes used to indicate that an action or event was unpleasant or undesirable.<ref name=Kroeger/> This so-called ''adversative passive'' works like the ordinary passive voice in terms of syntactic structure&mdash;that is, a theme or instrument acts as subject. In addition, the construction indicates adversative [[Affect (linguistics)|affect]], suggesting that someone was negatively affected.

In [[Japanese language|Japanese]], for example, the adversative passive (also called indirect passive) indicates adversative affect. The indirect or adversative passive has the same form as the direct passive. Unlike the direct passive, the indirect passive may be used with intransitive verbs.<ref name=Tsujimura>{{cite book|last=Tsujimura |first=Natsuko |year=1996 |title=An Introduction to Japanese Linguistics|location=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=978-0-631-19855-0}}</ref>
{{fs interlinear|indent=3|lang = ja
|花子が 隣の 学生に ピアノを 朝まで 弾かれた。
|Hanako-ga tonari-no gakusei-ni piano-o asa-made hika-re-ta.
|Hanako-NOM neighbor-GEN student-DAT piano-ACC morning-until played-PASS-PFV
|"Hanako was adversely affected by the neighboring student playing the piano until morning."<ref name=Tsujimura/>}}

[[Central Alaskan Yup'ik language|Yup'ik]], from the [[Eskimo–Aleut languages|Eskimo–Aleut]] family, has two different suffixes that can indicate passive, ''-cir-'' and ''-ma-''. The morpheme ''-cir-'' has an adversative meaning. If an agent is included in a passive sentence with the ''-cir'' passive, the noun is usually in the [[Allative case|allative]] (oblique) case.<ref name=Mithun>{{cite book|last=Mithun|first=Marianne|year=2000|chapter=Valency-changing derivation in Central Alaskan Yup'ik|editor=R.M.W. Dixon |editor2=Alexendra Aikhenvald|title=Changing Valency: Case Studies in Transitivity|url=https://archive.org/details/changingvalencyc00dixo|url-access=limited|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/changingvalencyc00dixo/page/n106 90]|isbn=9780521660396}}</ref>
{{interlinear|indent=3|lang=esu
|top={{lang|esu|neqerrluk yuku'''cir'''tuq}}
|neqe-rrluk yuku-'''cir'''-tu-q
|fish-departed.from.natural.state be.moldy-'''get'''-IND.INTR-3sg
|"That beautiful piece of dry fish '''got''' moldy."<ref name=Mithun/>}}

==Stative and dynamic passive==
{{see also|English passive voice#Stative and adjectival uses}}

In some languages, for example English, there is often a similarity between clauses expressing an action or event in the passive voice and clauses expressing a state. For example, the string of words "The dog is fed" can have the following two different meanings:
# The dog is fed (twice a day).
# The dog is fed (so we can leave now).
The additions in parentheses "force" the same string of words to clearly show only one of their two possible grammatical functions and the related meaning. In the first sentence, the combination of the auxiliary verb "is" and the [[past participle]] "fed" is a regular example of the construction of the passive voice in English. In the second sentence, "is" can however be interpreted as an ordinary [[copula (linguistics)|copula]] and the past participle as an [[adjective]].

Sentences of the second type are called ''false passives'' by some linguists, who feel that such sentences are simply confused with the passive voice due to their outward similarity. Other linguists consider the second type to be a different kind of passive – a ''stative passive'' (rarely called ''statal'', ''static'', or ''resultative passive''), in contrast to the ''dynamic'' or ''eventive'' passive illustrated by the first sentence. Some languages express or can express these different meanings using different constructions.

{{anchor|In German}}The difference between dynamic and stative passives is more evident in languages such as German that use different words or constructions for the two.<ref name="Anagnostopoulou">{{cite book|last= Anagnostopoulou|first= Elena|editor= A. Alexiadou |editor2= M. Rathert |editor3= A. von Stechow|title= Perfect Explorations|year= 2003|publisher= Walter de Gruyter|isbn= 978-3-11-090235-8|pages= 1–36|chapter= Participles and voice}}</ref> In German, the auxiliary verb {{lang|de|sein}} marks static passive ([[German language|German]]: {{lang|de|Zustandspassiv}}, rarely {{lang|de|statisches Passiv}}, in referring to German also called {{lang|de|sein-Passiv}} or {{lang|de|Sein-Passiv}}), while {{lang|de|werden}} marks the dynamic passive ({{lang|de|Vorgangspassiv}} or {{lang|de|Handlungspassiv}}, rarely {{lang|de|dynamisches Passiv}}, in referring to German also called {{lang|de|werden-Passiv}} or {{lang|de|Werden-Passiv}} or simply {{lang|de|Passiv}} or {{lang|de|Passivum}}).<ref>{{cite journal|last= Maienborn |first= Claudia |year= 2008 |title= Das Zustandspassiv. Grammatische Einordnung – Bildungsbeschränkung – Interpretationsspielraum |journal= Zeitschrift für Germanistische Linguistik |language= de |volume= 35 |issue= 1–2 |pages= 1–268 |doi= 10.1515/ZGL.2007.005|s2cid= 145225618 }}</ref>
The English string of words "the lawn is mown" has two possible meanings corresponding to the example "the dog is fed" above. It can be used in the following two different senses:
# dynamic: ''The lawn is mown (once a week).'' 
# stative: ''The lawn is mown (so they're probably not gone.)''
 
German uses two different grammatical constructions for these sentences:
# dynamic: {{lang|de|Der Rasen wird (einmal pro Woche) gemäht.}}
# stative: {{lang|de|Der Rasen ist gemäht (also sind sie wahrscheinlich nicht verreist).}}<ref group="fn">Despite the superficial resemblance of "der Rasen ist gemäht" to the perfect tense construction of some intransitive German verbs in the active voice (e.g. ''er ist gekommen'') and all verbs in the passive (e.g. ''der Rasen ist gemäht worden''), "der Rasen ist [schon] gemäht" and the equivalent English sentence #2 (''the lawn is [already] mown'') are clearly present tense, not perfect tense. The English example could of course be rephrased to mean the same thing in the perfect tense as "the lawn has [already] been mown..." (''der Rasen ist [schon] gemäht worden...''), but it would be incorrect to label either the English original or its German equivalent as "perfect tense".</ref>

Further examples and explanations:
# dynamic: {{lang|de|Der Rasen wird (gerade/oft) gemäht}} ("The lawn is being mown right now" / "The lawn is mown often", literally "The lawn gets mown right now / often", dynamic)
# stative: {{lang|de|Der Rasen ist (schon) gemäht.}} ("The lawn is [already] mown.")

A number of German verbs such as {{wikt-lang|de|bedecken}} ("cover"), {{wikt-lang|de|erfüllen}} ("fill"), and {{wikt-lang|de|trennen}} ("separate"), when used as [[stative verb]]s, usually only form static passives.
:- {{lang|de|Schnee bedeckt die Erde}} ("Snow covers the ground", active)
:- {{lang|de|Die Erde ist mit Schnee bedeckt}} ("The ground is covered with snow", static)
:- rare, poetic: {{lang|de|Die Erde wird durch Schnee bedeckt}} ("The ground is being covered with snow", dynamic)
:- but not: *{{lang|de|Die Straße wird mit Trümmern bedeckt.}} (The English equivalent would be equally incorrect: *"The street is being covered with rubble.") 
:- correct: {{lang|de|Die Straße ist mit Trümmern bedeckt.}} ("The street is covered with rubble.")<ref>{{cite book |title= Die Grammatik der deutschen Gegenwartssprache |trans-title= Grammar of the contemporary German language |publisher= [[Dudenverlag]] |year= 1973 |location= Mannheim |edition= 3rd |editor-first= Paul |editor-last= Grebe |pages= [https://archive.org/details/dudengrammatikde0000unse_h0u1/page/91 91–95] |isbn= 978-3-411-00914-5 |url= https://archive.org/details/dudengrammatikde0000unse_h0u1/page/91 }}</ref>

{{anchor|In English}}In English, the passive voice expressed with the auxiliary verb "get" rather than "be" ("get-passive") expresses a dynamic rather than a static meaning. But when the auxiliary verb "be" is used, the main verb can have either a dynamic or static meaning as shown below (including copies of some examples from above):

:The dog ''gets fed'' twice a day. (dynamic)
:The dog ''is fed'' (twice a day). (dynamic)
:The dog ''is fed'' (so we can leave now). (stative)
:The couple ''got married'' last spring. (dynamic)
:The marriage ''was celebrated'' last spring. (dynamic)
:It ''is agreed'' that laws were invented for the safety of citizens. (stative)

Verbs that typically express static meaning can show dynamic meaning when used in the passive formed with ''get'', for example ''be known'' (static) vs. ''get known'' (dynamic):

:Zoltan ''is known'' for hosting big parties. (static)
:Get your foot in the door, ''get known''. (dynamic)<ref>{{cite book|last= Knabe|first= Norman |title= The Get-Passives as an Emotive Language Device|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=GsKtydQM40kC&pg=PA8|access-date= 13 November 2012|date= January 2009|publisher= GRIN Verlag|isbn= 978-3-640-25174-2}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Impersonal verb]]
*[[List of common English usage misconceptions]]

==Footnotes==
<references group="fn"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/grammar/passives.html Confusion over avoiding the passive]
* Siewierska, Anna. 2005. [https://wals.info/chapter/107 Passive constructions]. In Martin Haspelmath, Matthew S. Dryer, David Gil & Bernard Comrie (eds.), ''The World Atlas of Language Structures'', 434–437. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Zúñiga, Fernando & Seppo Kittilä. 2019. ''Grammatical Voice''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{doi|10.1017/9781316671399}}

[[Category:Grammatical voices]]
[[Category:Transitivity and valency]]
[[Category:Grammatical construction types]]
[[de:Leideform]]