The Understanding of Passive Voice

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

G. Passive Voice of Present Progressive Tense

1. The Understanding of Passive Voice

As a two-sided coin, passive voice is the opposite of active voice in sentence pattern. Both show different understanding and function and have dissimilar rule in use. In case of this research, there will be only passive voice is explained more rather than one. Some linguists have already tried to have comprehensive view about passive voice, and H. Sweet is the one of those whom has done it. He states, “The passive voice is … a grammatical device for a bringing the object of a transitive verb into prominence by making it the subject of the sentence, and b getting rid of the necessity of naming the subject of a transitive verb”. 6 Another idea belongs to Warriner, it is “A verb is said to be in the active voice when it expresses an action performed by its subject”. 7 Sentence does, at least, contain of a subject and a verb. Based on the explanation above, a sentence which has no object, or it is usually named intransitive, will not be able to be turned into passive voice. This occurs because in passive sentence, its subject is derived from the object of active sentence. As what Azar writes, “In the passive, the object of an active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb”. 8 According to Marcella Frank about passive voice that “… the same action is referred to indirectly; that is, the original ‘receiver’ of the action 6 Ljiljana Mihailovic, “Some Observations on the Use of the Passive Voice”, in W. L. Darley ed., English Language Teaching, Plaistow: Oxford University Press, 1963, vol. XVII No. 2, p. 77. 7 John E. Warriner, English Grammar and Composition, New York: Harcout Brain Jovanovich Publisher, 1982, p. 166. 8 Betty Schrampfer Azar, Understanding and Using English Grammar, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1989, second edition, p. 120. is the grammatical subject, and the original ‘doer’ of the action is the grammatical object of the preposition by”. 9 Here, she illustrates the subject by naming original doer and the object refers to original receiver. Also, it is used a preposition by to clear what things to be the object. As it has been demonstrated in the beginning, passive voice has certain function in its usage. Martin Parrot says “We choose passive constructions to avoid very long subjects – a passive construction allows us to put a long andor complex phrase at the end of a clause where it is easier to understand than at the beginning”. 10 Then, another is simply addressed by Marcella Frank, “The passive voice is preferred when the “doer” of an action or, the agent is unimportant or unknown”. 11 In line with hers, Menachem B. Dagut tells that “… the passive in English is primarily used to enable the speakerwriter to describe an action or event, without being obliged to specify the doer or cause of the action or event”. 12 Furthermore, in detail of its general use, Martin Parrot implies as follows: a. to describe processes The beans are picked in late summer and are left to dry in the sun. b. to introduce evidence, argument, or opinion It is sometimes argued that … c. to avoid the implication of personal involvement or responsibility The vase got broken, Mum. d. with certain verbs – verbs we use when the person who did the action is generally unimportant He is alleged to be in sanatorium. 13 9 Marcella Frank, Modern English; a practical reference guide, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1972, p. 55. 10 Martin Parrot, Grammar for English Language Teachers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 288. 11 Frank, Modern English; part I, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1972, p. 67. 12 Menachem B. Dagut, “a Teaching Grammar of the Passive Voice in English”, in Bertil Malmberg and Gerhard Nickel eds., International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, Hemsbach: Beltz Offsetdruck, 1985, p. 5. 13 Parrot, Grammar for ..., p. 288 – 289. It may be illustrated for the summary of passive voice’s usage shown by Patrick Kameen: a. use the passive to place a short object and verb before a long subject thus avoiding front-heavy sentences The IRS has been cheated by otherwise honest individuals who feel too large a percentage of their salaries goes for taxes and who believe that the government is wasting their tax dollars. b. use the “it” or “second passive” form to sound objective or to indicate that there is no absolute proof for the statement It is said that the governor is a high-stakes gambler. c. use the agentless passive when the agent is well known, unknown, or unimportant Cars are manufactured in Detroit. d. use the agentless passive to describe technical processes and to report research procedures and results Hydrogen and chlorine were combined, and the resulting chemical reaction was observed e. use the passive with the by-agent phrase when referring to historically or socially significant works Gone With the Wind was written by Margaret Mitchell. 14 Else, there is a rule must be noticed in forming passive voice. Dissimilar with active, in producing passive sentence, not all the verbs are able to be turned into passive. As it has been viewed that only transitive verbs are able to be changed to passive. But, not all transitive verbs can be a verb for passive. Michael Swan has told that “Some transitive verbs cannot be used in the passive, at least in certain of their meanings. Most of these are “stative” verbs verbs which refer to states, not actions, and which often have no progressive forms. Examples are: They have a nice house. But not: A nice house is had …”. 15 Moreover, Biber has mentioned the verbs single word transitive verbs and single-object prepositional verbs as follows: • single word transitive verbs: agree, climb, dare, exclaim, guess, hate, have, hesitate, joke, lack, let, like, love, mind, pretend, quit, reply, 14 Patrick Kameen, “the Passive Voice: it must be spoken for”, in John F. Haskel ed., TESOL NEWSLETTER, Illinois: Pantagraph Printing, 1983, p. 181. 15 Michael Swan, Practical English Usage, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983, p. 462. resemble, survive, swear, thank, try, undergo, want, watch, wish, wonder, yell • single-object prepositional verbs: agree towith, apologise tofor, belong to, bet on, come acrossfor, compete with, cope with, correspond to, glance at, laugh aboutat, listen to, live likewith, look atlike, participate in, smile at, stay with, talk aboutto, wait forwith 16

2. The Understanding of Present Progressive Tense