Meaning and Use of Passive Voice
The passive voice represents the subject as acted upon: 'John was punished for disobeying his mother.' 'Our house is being painted. Only transitives can form a passive. Some transitives, however, on account of their meaning do not readily take passive form, especially certain verbs.The passive is a favorite form of expression in English.
Formation of the Passive.
The active verb is often a simple form, but the passive is always a compound. It is made in the following ways, of which the forms in 1, 2, 3, 4 are finite, those in 5 infinite.1. Common Actional Passive Form.
The common literary form is made by combining some form of the copula be with the past participle: 'The house is painted every year. The house was painted last year. The house has just been painted. In early Modern English, is is often used instead of has been: 'Besides I met Lord Bigot and Lord Salisbury, With eyes as red as new enkindled fire, And others more, going to seek the grave Of Arthur whom they say is (now has been) kill'd tonight On your suggestion' (Shakespeare, King John, IV, II, 162).In this older English the participle had not only the force of a predicate adjective expressing a state, as in 'The house is painted,' but also the force of a passive verb pointing to the past, as in the example from Shakespeare. The common actional passive form represents the act as a whole, as a fact, hence it has terminate force. Although it always represents the act as a whole, as a fact, it has two quite different meanings. It indicates a single occurrence or a customary, habitual occurrence, the context alone deciding which of the two meanings is present. Single occurrence: "The attitude of the community is well described in today's issue of our local paper.' 'Our house was painted last month.' Customary occurrence: 'Our house is painted every two years.' 'The end of the struggle is nearly always that the public is conceded everything.'
To represent the beginning or the end of the occurrence as a fact we place the simple form of begin or cease before the passive infinitive: 'Our house has begun to be painted.' 'This oil well has ceased to be worked. If we desire to represent a progressive action as just starting or as approaching an end we must employ the expanded form.
2.New Passive Actional Forms.
Within the modern period have sprung up several valuable new passive forms.a. 'GET'-PASSIVE.
The common actional form is employed also as a statal passive, i.e. to express a state: 'The door was shut (state) at six, but I don't know when it was shut' (act). This is explained by the simple fact that in our copula be are merged two quite different verbs is and be. Be had effective force with the meaning of our modern effectives get and become. The modern forms of be still often have their old effective force: 'The door was (= got or became) shut at six.' Effective be indicates an act, but unfortunately be does not always have this meaning. It more commonly indicates a state, retaining the old meaning of is.We still have a certain feeling for both meanings of the forms of be, but the matter is not vividly clear to us, and there has arisen a widely felt desire to express ourselves more clearly. There is a strong drift in England and America to employ be to denote a state and use effective get to denote an act: 'He is married (state) now, but I can't tell you when he got married' (act). 'Your nature is an overbearing one, Sophia, and for once you got punished for it' (A. Marshall, Many Junes, Ch. I). 'The men say: "Good stunt, Mont! But not practical politics, of course." And I've only one answer: Things as big got done in the war'
(Galsworthy, The Silver Spoon, Ch. VII). 'I suppose it will get whispered about, and they'll hear it' (Tarkington, Gentle Julia. Ch. XVIII).
b. 'BECOME'-PASSIVE.
This form is made by combining some form of become with the past participle: 'Beatrice became more and more influenced by Randal's arguments' (Lytton, My Novel, II, II, Ch. III). Get and become as effectives have in general the same meaning, but in passive constructions they are becoming differentiated. The get-passive denotes a simple act, as illustrated in a, while the become-passive represents the occurrence as the final outcome of a development: 'Good and readable as these addresses are, we should like to see those which deal with these larger topics gathered into a single smaller volume, which at a modern price might become widely read by the people of both countries' (London Times, Educational Supplement, A.D. 1914). 'He became seized with a profound melancholy' (McCarthy, History of Our Own Times, I, p. 228). 'For the first time the im mensity of what she was doing became borne in upon her' (Doro thea Gerard, Exotic Martha, Ch. V). This is the youngest of the passive constructions, but has already on account of its fine dis tinctive meaning become common. It is strange that it has been overlooked by grammarians. It is not mentioned even in the great Oxford Dictionary. The first example and the last two are taken from Poutsma's large English Grammar, II, Section II, p. 100. This Dutch scholar quotes these interesting sentences as examples of English passive formations, but he does not describe their pe culiar character.As become is used here in the common form it represents the development as a fact. If we desire to represent the development as approaching its culmination we employ the expanded form.
c. 'COME-TO'-PASSIVE, 'GET-TO'-PASSIVE.
This passive is made by combining some form of come or get with a passive in finitive: 'He came (or got) to be highly respected by everybody in the community. The get-to passive is not so choice English as the come-to passive, and moreover it becomes impossible in the present perfect tense on account of the ambiguity of the form: 'He has come (not got) to be treated more kindly by his associates.' Has got here would indicate that the speaker is determined to bring about a better treatment of the person in question.After come we sometimes employ the past participle instead of the present passive infinitive: 'I can now tie my shoes so that they won't come untied,' instead of won't come to be untied. This construction is after the analogy of 'It comes true'.
The come-to-passive is sharply differentiated from the become passive: 'He used to be so hard-headed, but he has gradually come to be influenced by his wife. Evidently, he has become softened by gentleness and kindness.' Both constructions indicate the end of a development or the outcome of events. Become directs our attention only to the final outcome, while come to points also to the preceding course of events. In 'O'Connell became seized with a profound melancholy' became cannot be replaced by came to be, for the reference is to a sudden development.
As come and get are used here in the common form they represent the development as a fact. If we desire to represent the develop ment as approaching its culmination we employ the expanded form.
d. PASSIVE OF EXPERIENCE.
There is another passive, which, though it did not absolutely arise in the present period, first became common in modern times. It is now widely employed in colloquial speech and is found also in the literary language. It represents the subject of the sentence as experiencing something. In this peculiar construction there is always a past participle with passive force. This participle serves as an objective predicate, predicating something of the object of the principal verb, which is regularly have or get: 'Last week I had (or got) my right leg húrt in an acci dent.' 'I have just had (or got) given me (or 'to me') a fine new knife.' In more careful language the usual auxiliary is have: 'In life I have had this truth repeatedly driven in on me.' 'In this grammar the spoken language has had its proper importance as signed to it.'e. PASSIVE AFTER CAUSATIVES.
The construction is the same as in d, but have and get are here stressed: 'I hád (or gót) a new suit made.' 'We have our work done' (We employ others to do it), but with quite different meaning 'We have our work done' (It is done, completed). Thus accent can play a rôle in English grammar.3. Expanded Form.
The expanded form has different meanings with different kinds of verbs.a. WITH DURATIVES AND ITERATIVES.
With duratives and iteratives, we employ the expanded form of the copula be in connection with the past participle to indicate that the subject is receiving the action continuously and that the attention is directed to the midst of the action: The bread is being baked in the new oven.' 'He is being beaten by some ruffians.' Here the common form of the copula be represents the action as going on, but the common form of another copula, even though it have strong durative force, represents the action, not as going on, but as a whole, as a fact: 'For a long while she kept being disturbed by her conscience.' 'She kept being startled by the stump of his missing finger' (Robert Raynolds, The Brothers in the West, p. 15).The passive expanded form with the copula be is used only in the present and the past tense. In other tenses, on account of the clumsiness of the form, it is replaced by the shorter form described in the next paragraph. For full inflection of the two forms as now used in the literary language.
There is another expanded passive form than the one described above. It was widely employed between 1700 and 1825, and in the literary language is still in limited use in the present and the past tense and is the usual literary construction for the present perfect, past perfect, and future. It is made by combining a form of the copula be with the present participle, which here contains the pas sive idea, although elsewhere it usually has active force: 'There is a new bridge building. This construction first appeared about the middle of the sixteenth century. It gradually replaced in the literary language the much older gerundial construction, 'There is a new bridge a-building,' from older on building, in building. The contracted form a-building survives in popular speech, like many other older literary means of expression.
It does not seem probable that the passive construction 'There is a new bridge building' developed entirely of itself. There was alongside of it, from the start, an older passive with the same con struction, i.e. active in form but passive in meaning. It represented something as going on of itself as a natural process or development: 'The heel of my right shoe is wearing badly on the outer side.' 'There is a storm brewing. There is mischief brewing.' See 4 on page 222 for other examples of this passive. It is a marked peculiar ity of our language that intransitives develop passive force. The presence of this passive must have facilitated the establishment of the passive 'There is a new bridge as a whole, as a fact: 'For a long while she kept being disturbed by her conscience.' 'She kept being startled by the stump of his missing finger' (Robert Raynolds, The Brothers in the West, p. 15).
The passive expanded form with the copula be is used only in the present and the past tense. In other tenses, on account of the clumsiness of the form, it is replaced by the shorter form described in the next paragraph. For full inflection of the two forms as now used in the literary language see 70 B. There is another expanded passive form than the one described above. It was widely employed between 1700 and 1825, and in the literary language is still in limited use in the present and the past tense and is the usual literary construction for the present perfect, past perfect, and future. It is made by combining a form of the copula be with the present participle, which here contains the pas sive idea, although elsewhere it usually has active force: 'There is a new bridge building.' This construction first appeared about the middle of the sixteenth century. It gradually replaced in the literary language the much older geruncial construction, 'There is a new bridge a-building,' from older on building, in building. The contracted form a-building survives in popular speech, like many other older literary means of expression.
It does not seem probable that the passive construction 'There is a new bridge building' developed entirely of itself. There was alongside of it, from the start, an older passive with the same con struction, i.e. active in form but passive in meaning. It represented something as going on of itself as a natural process or development: 'The heel of my right shoe is wearing badly on the outer side.' "There is a storm brewing.' 'There is mischief brewing.'
It is a marked peculiar ity of our language that intransitives develop passive force. The presence of this passive must have facilitated the establishment of the passive 'There is a new bridge building.'
The passive 'There is a new bridge building' was after 1825 to have a serious competing construction in another passive form, which first appeared about 1447 and was thus a century older but had not yet made much headway: 'There is a new bridge being built.' The present and past tenses, is being built, was being built, though heavier than is building, was building, were felt as clearer passive forms and gradually came into favor and for the most part supplanted the shorter forms. But on account of the impossibility of such clumsy forms as has been being built, had been being built, will be being built, the longer passive construction has not become established in the present perfect, past perfect, and future. On account of the clumsy combination of be being the longer construction cannot be used also in the present infinitive. On account of these formal difficulties in the way of the long con struction the shorter present perfect, past perfect, and future forms has been building, had been building, will be building have been retained. In our colloquial speech is a still younger form, which is both handy and accurate. It is made by combining get and the past participle. It can form all the tenses: 'A new bridge is getting built, was getting built, has been getting built,' etc. As the literary language has no form in the present infinitive the get-passive is now used here: 'It is, however, an excellent thing that bicycles should be getting called simply wheels' (Aber crombie, Poetry and Contemporary Speech). The expanded get passive may later become more useful in the literary language.
To express the idea of the beginning or end of progressive action with duratives we place the expanded form of begin or cease before the passive infinitive: 'This paper is beginning to be widely read.' 'The village was greatly excited over the murder, but the subject is now ceasing to be discussed.'
b. WITH POINT-ACTION VERBS.
With point-action verbs we employ the expanded form to indicate a beginning or an ap proaching end: 'The work is just being (or getting) started.' 'The last bit of our patience is being (or getting) exhausted.' The passive constructions become progressive effectives when they have the expanded form: 'Our patience is becoming exhausted by these constant annoyances.' 'This paper is becoming widely read by the people of this community.' 'He is coming (or getting) to be highly respected by everybody.' The development is here represented as culminating.4. Passive Force with Active Form.
Many intransitives which represent something as going on of itself as a natural process or development acquire passive force: 'The hat blew (= was blown) into the river.' 'Muscles, nerves, mind, reason, all develop (= are developed) under play.' 'My coat caught (= got caught) on a nail.' 'The plans worked out (= were worked out) successfully.' 'The books sold out (= were sold out) in a week.' 'The vessel steers (= can be steered) with ease.'The expanded form is used with many of these verbs to express the progressive idea: 'The plans are working out successfully.' 'The books are selling rapidly.' 'Snow is blowing in at the window.' This passive has not shared the fate of the passive construction of the same form described in 3 a above: "The bridge is building,' now supplanted by the more expressive 'The bridge is being built.' We say is being built when we think of something being constructed by visible human hands, but we say "The lecture hall is rapidly filling up with students and townspeople' and 'Snow is blowing in at the window' because we think of something proceeding of itself, i.e. spontaneously, naturally, without the aid of the conscious effort of hand or brain. The two shades of passive thought were not differentiated in form in early modern English but are now clearly distinguished by the form of expression.
There is another common construction in which the verb usually has passive force with active form. In older English a predicate infinitive after the copula be had passive force with active form. Only a few expressions survive in the principal proposition: 'This house is to let' (is to be let). 'He is to blame' (= is to be blamed). In abridged relative clauses this old usage is still common: 'He is not a man to trifle with' (= that can be trifled with). 'It is not a place to visit ( that should be visited) at night.'
