TEMA 27. LA VOZ PASIVA.

FORMAS Y FUNCIONES

1. Introduction

Voice is a grammatical category which makes it possible to view the action of a sentence in two ways
without change in the facts reported:
Active: Mary read a book
Passive: A book was read by Mary
Thus, the same idea can often be expressed in two different ways. Although each sentence means
essentially the same, they are not synonymous in every respect. It is, therefore, not superfluous for a language to
have both turns and thus be able to shift the point of view.

2. Form
The passive of an active tense is formed by putting the verb to be into the same tense as the active verb
and adding the past participle of the active verb. The subject of the active sentence becomes the agent of the
passive verb, but it is very often not mentioned. When it is mentioned, it is preceded by the preposition "by"
and placed at the end of the clause. Finally, the active object becomes the passive subject.
The process of active-passive transformation for a transitive sentence with nominal object can be
represented diagrammatically in this way:

S V O
The postman brought a letter

ACTIVE SUBJECT ACTIVE VERB ACTIVE OBJECT

PASSIVE SUBJECT PASSIVE VERB OPTIONAL OBJECT

A letter was brought by the postman

S V:PASS A

Some examples:

Present simple: English is spoken here

Present progressive: The wall is being painted
Past simple: It was spoken
Past progressive: I was being watched.

3. Content
A verbal construction in the passive denotes an action undergone by the subject of the sentence.
According to Jespersen, as a rule, the person or thing that is the centre of interest at the moment is made
the subject of the sentence, and to make that possible, the verb is in some cases put in the active or, in others, in
the passive.

4. Choice of the passive

Jespersen points out that in the vast majority of cases, the choice of the passive turn is due to one of the
following reasons:
4.1. Choice of the passive when the agent is omitted
The agent is omitted when it is unknown or it is refereed to in a vague general way, such as they, people,
someone, etc. For example:
Ex: They make laws in the Parliament -------- Laws are made in the Parliament.

If the active subject is self-evident from the context it doesn't need to be mentioned:
Ex: He was elected MP for Leeds.
 There may be a special reason, such as tact or delicacy of sentiment, for not mentioning the active
subject; thus the mention of the first person is often avoided. This is more frequently used in writing than
in speaking.

4.2. Choice of the passive when the agent is indicated

The passive is preferred when the action seems more important than the person who does it. The
agent, when mentioned, is placed after the subject and the verb and preceded by the preposition "by".
Ex: The house was struck by lightning.
If something inanimate is mentioned, other prepositions may be employed:
Ex: The food contained arsenic --------------- Arsenic was contained in the food.

5. The passive auxiliary in English

The verbs to be and to get
The passive auxiliary is normally to be. But besides "to be", to get may occur as an auxiliary of
the passive; it expresses the getting into a state or situation denoted by the participle, for example: "How
many people got killed?"
This use of to get is avoided in formal style. Even in informal English it is far less frequent than
the be-passive. To get is much more commonly used in sentences which look superficially like the
passive, having a connotation of something self-inflicted. For instance: " You'll get hurt"

To become is occasionally followed by a past participle denoting action, and may then be said to
be a kind of auxiliary of the passive. The combination expresses change from one condition to another: "
We became acquainted".

To have is used when someone has the action done by another person, instead of doing it
himself. It can be used with all tenses of "to have".
Simple Present........................ He always has his burglar alarm tested every year
Present Continuous.................. He is having his house re-painted.
Simple Past............................... He had the telephone installed yesterday.
As with the passive form of to be, the passive with to have can also be used with modal verbs:
"You ought to have had the car repaired"

6. Types of English Passives

* Agentive passives. These types of sentences have a direct active-passive relation. The agent is always
possible but not always expressed. For example:
Ex: "The criminal was arrested (by the police)"
* Quasi passives. They look like passives but they really consist of the verb to be not used as an
auxiliary, and a past participle functioning as an adjectival. It is also possible to insert an intensifier
before the past participle. For example: "He was (very) interested in art".
There are several prepositions which can introduce such quasi agents, for instance,
about, at, over, to, with.
Ex: "I was surprised at his behaviour".
* Non agentive passives. These sentences have no active transform or possibility of agent addition, since
no performer of the action is conceived of. Moreover, the participles have adjectival value as the quasi
passives. For example:
Ex: " The modern world becomes highly industrialized".
Quirk includes these sentences in the passive because they still satisfy the formal passive
requirement. On the other hand, they also satisfy the passive requirements as regards content because the
subject undergoes the action expressed by the verb.

7. English verbs used in the passive

7.1. Transitive verbs
Since the subject of the passive is the object of the corresponding active sentence, it follows that
only sentences with transitive verbs can be transformed into the passive. However, certain transitive
verbs cannot be used in the passive, at least in some of their meanings. Among then we find:
a) The verb "to have" with durative association : "I have a house in the country"
b) Stative verbs. Verbs which refer to states and which often have no progressive forms. Examples are
fit, have, lack, resemble, suit: " My shoes don't fit me"
c) Verbs with a "cognate" object, that is, verbs which take an object related in content with it: " She
smiled a curious smile".
d) Verbs with a reflexive pronoun as object: "I usually shave myself".

7.2. Intransitive verbs

The passive is not used in sentences which contain an intransitive verb or a linking verb such as
seem, sound, prove. But the passive is used in a number of verbs which, while being primarily
intransitive, may be used as causatives. Some of the most common are fly, stand, run, walk: " Cheap
trains will be run on Sundays".

7.3. Phrasal and prepositional verbs

Not all prepositional verbs can be used in passive structures. We cannot say: "I was agreed with
by everybody".
Phrasal verbs can often occur in the passive, but not as freely as in the active. In this category
we find verbs followed by a preposition which are so closely associated that they practically form a unit:
to be cared for, to be laughed at, to be talked to, etc.
Another type of construction which may be put in the passive is that consisting of to be + past
participle followed by noun + preposition. For example: to be made fun of, to be taken advantage of, etc:
" His weakness was taken undue advantage of".

7.4. The progressive forms

Since it adds one element of complexity to the verb phrase, the passive is often felt to be heavier
than the corresponding active sentence. Therefore progressive forms are generally avoided in the passive,
especially in the perfect tenses.

8. The subject of the passive in English

The subject of a passive in what in the active would be an object. But a sentence may contain
two objects: a direct object, usually denoting a thing, and an indirect object, usually denoting a person.
Then, only one of them can be made the subject, the other object is retained as such, and it is therefore
possible to have two passive forms:
Ex:" I was given a parking ticket at lunchtime" or " A parking ticket was given to me at lunchtime"

The first of these two forms is far more usual. Jespersen points out that the greater interest felt
for persons than for things naturally leads to the placing of the indirect before the direct object.
After some verbs, a direct object can be followed by an object complement, a noun or adjective
which describes the object. In this case, only the direct object can serve as subject in the passive: "He
was elected president".
When the object of the active construction is an infinitive or a clause introduced by that,
whether or if, a sentence with introductory it is required. For example: "It is said that he is a very
clever student". However, an infinitive construction is often preferred: " He is said to be a very clever
student".
Such verbs as: say, find, think, expect, know, believe, understand, consider, report (mental
processes) normally take the infinitive after a passive verb. For example:
"The man over there is known to be dangerous".

9. Passive versus active infinitive

Changes in the content of the infinitive
We find a number of cases in which the active form of the infinitive can have a passive content.
For example: " There is work to do " (= to be done).
The active form of the infinitive with passive content is found as the complement of many
adjectives, note in particular easy, difficult, hard: " The question was hard to answer".
In many cases only one form is idiomatic. For example: "You are to blame (not to be
blamed), "the house is to let" (not to be let).
In other cases, there is a vacillation between the active and the passive form for passive
content. In some phrases, in spoken English, the shorter form is usually preferred:
Ex: “There is no time to lose / to be lost”
It must be noted that when verbs of perception (see, hear...) make and let are used in
the passive, the infinitive following them takes to even though these verbs have not this prepositions
when used in the active. For example:
 She saw him take the money --------- He was seen to take the money.

10. Comparison of the passive in English and in Spanish

We will follow Stockwell, Bowen and Martin and we will mainly consider those cases
in which the English construction differs from the Spanish one.
The passive in English is generated in such the same way as in Spanish, with be + past
participle and transposition of subject and object, with optional omission of the by phrase that carries the
agent.
Constructionally, the Spanish passive differs from the English passive primarily in that
the participle agrees in number and gender with the subject, since Spanish distinguishes three
grammatical categories in participles.
In recent years the great influence of the English language has made the passive voice
more common in Spanish. Although the passive in English is frequent and highly productive, the passive
in Spanish is relatively rarer and less productive for the following reasons:
- Agent deletion. The sense of the passive is very regularly conveyed by a sentence type that
results from agent deletion, i.e., a sentence in which the Spanish pronoun se is used with a passive
function. Ex: " Se llevaron los heridos al hospital".
- Frequency of use. Spanish makes use of the active more often than English does in sentences
which could be expressed in the passive too, especially when the agent is not expressed.
- Estar + adjective. The construction estar + adjective is used in Spanish if an event is over
and only its results are being noted. In other words, what Quirks calls quasi passive is expressed in
Spanish by a non-passive construction with the verb "estar".
Ex: He was interested in Linguistics------ El estaba interesado en la Lingüística.

We have seen that the usual auxiliary verb to form the English passive is be. But get and
become may in some cases be used as auxiliaries too. In Spanish ser is the only auxiliary of the passive.
Get and become being equivalent to a construction in the active with a personal pronoun. For instance:
You´ll get hurt --------- Te harás daño

When we have two objects in the active, a typical passive transform in English like: John was
given a book / A book was given to John, has no equivalent in Spanish. The reason is that the
corresponding active sentence in English "they gave John a book", with two noun objects, does not exist
in Spanish; one noun must go into a prepositional phrase that functions as an adverb of interest ( dieron
un libro a Juan). English allows two objects in sequence and either object can become the subject in
English; but only the direct object can become the subject in the Spanish passive:
Dieron a Juan un libro ----------------- Un libro fue dado a Juan.
Only transitive verbs can be used in the passive voice in Spanish. This rules out constructions
as: "Cheap trains will be run on Sundays", where the English passive is used of a number of verbs which,
while being primarily intransitive, may be used as causatives.

11. Translation of the Spanish "se" in passive constructions

Here we are concerned only with the cases in which the Spanish pronoun se functions as a
reflexive whether with passive or with impersonal character, i.e. when se functions as a signal of what is
called in Spanish pasiva refleja or impersonal refleja.
11.1 Pasiva refleja or Spanish "se" plus object
If we examine the following examples,
Ex: “ Se cierran las tiendas a las dos” / “Se organizaron los juegos”, we can observe that all of
them contain a verb in connection with the pronoun se plus a subject. This subject agrees with its verb in
number. This construction is called pasiva refleja in Spanish. In English it could be termed as
“reflexive “se” in agent deletion”. When we want to translate this construction into English, we can do
it in the following ways:
 By means of a non-agentive passive with “be” + participle: “ Spanish is spoken here”.
 By means of a passive construction with “get”, “become” + participle : “The wall got dirtied”
 An intransitive construction: “The shop close (at closed) at five”.
 Impersonal refleja or “se + verb” with no subject expressed: “Se vive muy bien aquí”.

In Spanish, we have sentences with no subject; this is not possible in English. We must try to find a
subject that will be structurally useful, semantically meaningless and with an indefinite reference. This
can done, for instance, translating the indefinite agent with “one”, “people”, “we”, “you” and sometimes
“they”. For example: “ One lives well in America” / “You have to work hard here”.