Acknowledgements
Active voice and passive voice syntactically, semantically and pragmatically viewed
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- Điều hướng trang này:
- 1.4 Voice and related concepts
- 1.5 English verbs
- Transitive and Intransitive verbs
- 1.5.2 Tense, aspect and mood of English verbs
- 1.5 .3 Phrases and clauses
- Phrases
- Clauses
1.3 Active voice and passive voice syntactically, semantically and pragmatically viewedTwo popular categories of voice are often known as the active and passive voice. In general, voice oppositions are characterizable in terms of certain syntactic and semantic features. As a point of departure, the active – passive opposition is characterized at the sentence- level as a system of correlation between grammatical functions such as the subject and the object. In the syntactic aspect, the opposition between the active and passive voice can be seen in the movement of constituents in the linear order. In the semantic aspect, it is the correlation between semantic roles such as the agent and patient. Finally, in the pragmatic aspect, the passive voice is in greater interest, which includes the pragmatic function and the pragmatic aspect. The pragmatic function is related to the passive sentence’s frequency in different texts. The pragmatic aspect is concerned with agent - demotion (agent - defocusing) and non-agent promotion which unify passive constructions with other constructions such as the plural (in English), the honorific (in French), the indefinite person constructions (in English). 1.4 Voice and related conceptsIn this thesis, the concept in analysis is the information structure. The information unit is a unit of information. The information unit is a structure made up of two functions, the New and the Given. At the sentence level point, the New Information is the information considered New to the hearer and the Old information is the already existing stock of knowledge in the hearer’s mind. In English, Passive constructions allow the New information at the following part of the sentence as the late news, which follows the universal rule of the Given being followed by the New information. This part is also the sentence focus with higher pitch in conversation. 1.5 English verbsUnder different approaches with different criteria, the system of English verbs is differently classified under different labels. The main part presented here is taken from Quirk R., et al (1972). 1.5.1 Classification of English verbsLexical, semi –auxiliary and auxiliary verbsThe first division between the auxiliary, semi auxiliary and lexical verbs is based on the grammatical functions in the verb phrase. The auxiliary is subdivided into the primary and modal auxiliary. The division is illustrated in the following diagram. 
In English, Voice is strictly related to auxiliary verbs. Some Auxiliary verbs like do, have, be can be used as lexical verbs which have a wide range of forms including the present participle and the past participle. In the relation to the semi – auxiliary and lexical verb, one interesting feature should be noted here is the semantic difference under voice restriction when active sentences are transformed into passive sentences (with the same or nearly the same meaning). The following examples are taken from R. Quirk, et al. (1972: 87).
The verb phrase in the sentence 1 consists of an auxiliary (was) and a lexical verb (see). In the sentence 2, they is a semi – auxiliary (happened) and a lexical verb (see). In the last sentence, “expect” is a lexical verb plus an other lexical verb “see”. These examples are taken to prove one point that all of three subdivisions of lexical semi –auxiliary and auxiliary verbs do exist in passive constructions. The auxiliary verb is a compulsory part of the English typical passive constructions. With a semi – auxiliary verb (happened) and a lexical verb (expect), the passive constructions differ among themselves and from the original sentence. The following sentence is taken as an example.
With “expect” there are four grammatically acceptable passive sentences. The play was expected to be seen by him. It was expected of him to see the play. It was expected that he would see the play. It was expected that the play would be seen. However, these sentences are entirely different in meaning from the original sentence “He expected to see the play. Whereas the two following sentences are close in meaning. He happened to see the play. The play happened to be seen by him. From the above example, the similarity between the semi -auxiliary verbs and the auxiliary verbs are obvious in two points. Firstly, they form a unit with infinitive (i.e. their head) which is sufficiently close to admit the transformation from the active form into the passive form in the head. Secondly, the semi-auxiliary verbs and the auxiliary verbs allow the passive only in the non-finite head. Transitive and Intransitive verbsAn other way of verb classification is based on the object government capability. The concept of voice is always related to the transitive verbs. This part deals with the question what the transitive verb is and whether or not all transitive verbs can come in passive forms. According to R. Quirk, et al. (1980), the English verbs basically can be divided into the transitive verbs (which accept objects) and intransitive verbs (which do not permit any type of object or complement) If the transitive verbs permit indirect objects, they will be classified as ditransitive verbs. Some transitive verbs have object complements and these are to be distinguished as complex-transitive ones. Three following sentences are seen as examples:
According to, Sinclair, J.et al. (1990) related to transitive/ intransitive verbs, there are reporting verbs, reflexive verbs and ergative verbs. Reporting verbs are classified as transitive verbs because the reported clauses are considered as the objects as in the sentence She said that she would come. In the case of reflexive verbs, reflexive pronouns are objects. In the following example He prefers to shave himself before breakfast, the reflexive pronouns is an object. Finally, ergative verbs can be classified as either transitive (with the object) or intransitive (with the subject). In the two following sentences, the same verb is classified differently. In the sentence He broke the vase, the verb is a transitive one while in the sentence The vase broke, the verb is an intransitive verb. One interesting point is not all transitive verbs can come in the passive form. Some transitive verbs never come in passive forms like reflexive verbs and other verbs like fit, resemble, have, own.
The English Tense and Aspect are often realized in finite verb phrases. Tense refers to the relationship between the form of verbs and the concept of time. According to R. Quirk, et al. (1972: 83-92 ) there are two tenses in English: present tense and past tense. Aspect refers to the manner in which the verb action is regarded or experienced. English has two sets of aspectual contrast perfective versus non-perfective and progressive versus non-progressive.
The combination of the English tenses and aspects produces the following table: Among these subdivisions, the perfect progressive rarely used in the passive forms. The future forms in English consists of the future simple will/shall+infinitive, the future continuous, the future perfect, the future perfect continuous and some grammatical, lexical means like be going to, be about to. Among different future forms, the future continuous and future perfect continuous are rarely in the passive forms. Mood Mood shows the speaker‘s attitude towards the action. English Mood is realized with three moods: Indicative, imperative and subjective, which respectively consist of declarative sentences – question, imperative sentences and clause containing recommendation, resolution, and surprise. The following sentences are taken as examples of three moods: (Indicative) He is coming.
(Imperative) Be quiet. (Subjunctive) God save the Queen. The indicative is involved with the tense and aspect of verbs. The relation between the mood of indicative and the voice of passive has been shown above. As for the imperative and subjunctive, if transformed into passive, the sentences in these two moods do need changes in constructions. The following example is in the imperative mood. Do not touch the switch. The switch must not be touched. The subjunctive mood has two forms: the present subjunctive and the past subjunctive. While the present subjunctive is rarely in the passive form, the past subjunctive sentences are often known as “unreal past” and often transformed as conditional sentences. 1.5.3 Phrases and clausesBased on the structure, there are six types of phrases and three types of clauses. With the different heads of Noun, Verb, Adjective, Preposition and Adverb, there are five groups of phrases: Noun phrase, Verb phrase, Adjective phrase, Prepositional phrase, Adverb phrase and there are three main clauses: Finite, non-finite and verb less clause. In this thesis, the main concern is on the English verb phrase, and Finite/ Non-finite clauses only. PhrasesAccording to Richards, J. (1990:53), “A phrase is a group of words which form a grammatical unit. A phrase does not have a subject – predicate structure. Phrases are usually classified according to their central word or head”. Quirk, R. et al. classifies English verb phrases into two categories: Finite verb phrase phrase and non-finite verb phrase. Voice is associated with the Finite verb phrases only. According to Eastwood, J. (1992), in a verb phrase there is always an ordinary verb plus one or more optional auxiliary verbs. In the passive form, the verb order is modal verb + perfect+ continuous+ passive ordinary verb. This order is illustrated in the following example He must have been picked up at the station by the time police arrived. The order in the sentence is modal verb, perfect, passive and ordinary verb.
The finite clause always contains a subject as well as a predicate, except in the case of commands and subject ellipsis. Non- finite clauses consist of four groups: Infinitive without to, Infinitive with to, -ing participle and -ed participle among which the -ed participle is often associated with the passive.
In this chapter, the theoretical definitions and classification presented here consist of the general view of voice, the difference in syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features between the active and passive voice, the voice- related concepts: Information structure. The final part is the summary of the different classifications of English verb and its related categories. Каталог: jspui -> bitstream -> 123456789 123456789 -> Nguyễn Ngọc Lý Giám đốc Trung tâm Nghiên cứu về Môi trường và Cộng đồng 123456789 -> Vò Quúnh Thu Cao häc K18 123456789 -> Khoa Báo chí Đhkhxh&NV 123456789 -> Danh mục chữ viết tắT 123456789 -> Chương TỔng quan vật liệu mao quản trung bình (mqtb) trật tự 1 Giới thiệu chung 123456789 -> Khoa hóa họC (141 142 báo cáo) 123456789 -> TRƯỜng đẠi học khoa học tự nhiên lưƠng thị loan tải về 426.37 Kb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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