INTRODUCTION

Our first concern will be passive constructions. Below you will find some information about some
formal aspects of these constructions, some comments on their discourse functions, the kind of
texts they are likely to appear in. I have taken this information and many of the examples from The
Grammar of Spoken and Written English (Biber et al., 1999)1, New Proficiency Gold (Newbrook and
Wilson, 2001)2, Progress to Proficiency (Jones, 1999)3, Advanced Language Practice (Vince, 2003)4.

The passive, which involves a restructuring of the clause, is one of the ways in which the information
in a clause can be re-arranged to fulfill different communicative needs and stylistic norms, and ease
processing for the receiver.

SOME FORMAL ASPECTS OF PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

 TWO FORMS OF THE PASSIVE

The passive takes two forms:

 the short passive, where the agent (or experiencer, instrument, etc.) is left
unexpressed

short passive with stative verb, describing the state resulting from and
action, rather than the action itself:

Andy may be adopted or something like that. (CONV)

1BIBER, D; Johannson, L.; Leech, G.; S. Conrad, S.; Finnegan, E. (1999) Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written
English. Longman.

2 NEWBROOK, J. & WILSON, J. (2001) . New Proficiency Gold. Longman

3 JONES, L (1999). Progress to Proficiency. OUP

4 VINCE, M. (2009) Advanced Language Practice: English Grammar and Vocabulary Macmillan
 It had made Slammer feel like a fool to go immediately to a phone booth
on Riverside Drive. Of course the phone was smashed. (FICT)

short passive with dynamic verb, describing an action rather the resulting
state:
Whichever system is used it is vital that leaking water is avoided. (ACAD)

 the long passive, where the agent (or experiencer, instrument, etc.) is expressed in
a by-phrase

 FINITE AND NON-FINITE PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

 Finite constructions

o short passive with stative verb, describing the state resulting from and action,
rather than the action itself:

Andy may be adopted or something like that. (CONV)

It had made Slammer feel like a fool to go immediately to a phone booth on Riverside
Drive. Of course the phone was smashed. (FICT)

o short passive with dynamic verb, describing an action rather the resulting state:
Whichever system is used it is vital that leaking water is avoided. (ACAD)

o long passives:
Her Royal Highness was received by the Austria Ambassador. (NEWS)

 Non-finite constructions

o Postmodifier of noun, short passive

The major weather factors involved are apparently temperature and precipitation.
(ACAD)

o Postmodifier of noun, long passive

Let us look at an example given by Bailliel et al. (ACAD)

If, further, he feels that the free market policies and values embraced by Mrs
Thatcher have done much to create a divided nation, dominated by Pharisees, he
should feel free to offer his opinion. (NEWS)
 The club looked like a palace, a heavy Baroque building writhing with nymphs and
naiads, its portals supported by a quarter of herculean pillars. (FICT)

 THE SUBJECT OF THE PASSIVE CONSTRUCTION:

 usually corresponds to the NP which is the direct object in the associated active
construction
My purse was found (by one of the cleaners)

He was hit on the head with a hammer.

Jim was elected class representative. (Act.: We elected Jim class representative)

 can correspond to the indirect object of a ditransitive verb

I was handed a note. (Note: A note was handed to me.)

 PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS WITH VERBS OF SAYING OR BELIEVING

We will be dealing with these constructions and their use in

 SOME SPECIAL POINTS ABOUT THESE CONSTRUCTIONS

 Prepositional verbs
It is possible to end a sentence with a preposition in a sentence where a prepositional verb
is made passive.

Somebody broke into our house.

Our house was broken into.

 Have/get something done

o This typically describes a service performed for us by someone else.

I’ve just had my car serviced. I have it done every winter.

I’ve just got my car serviced. I get it done every winter.

o It can also describe something unfortunate that happens to someone.

We had our car broken into last month.
 We got our car broken into last month.

o Get is more likely to be used than have when:

 there is a feeling that something must be done.

I really must get (have) my hair cut.

 there is a feeling of eventually managing to do something.

I eventually got (had) the car fixed at the Fast Service garage.

 in orders and imperatives.

Get your hair cut!

Note that get should not be used in the present perfect passive, where it
would be confused with have got.

o Get can be used instead of be to form the passive in spoken language.

Martin got arrested at a football match.

 need doing
The need to have a service done can be described with need doing. This structure has a
passive meaning.

The house needs painting. (= The house needs to be painted.)

Your hair needs cutting.

 make, see, hear, help

These verbs are followed by the infinitive without to when they are active, and the infinitive
with to when they are passive.

The made him stand at the front.

He was made to stand at the front.
They heard him complain about the service at the restaurant.
He was heard to complain about the service at the restaurant.
 let
This is never used in the passive.

They usually let him stand at the front.

He is usually allowed to stand at the front.

 Future with is to

o This is often used in the passive for reporting news items. It is a fairly formal structure.
New measures to support the homeless are to be introduced (by the government).

o It is common in newspaper headlines, where it is usually shortened.

New measures to support homeless to be introduced

 by, with and in

o The agent of the passive verb is introduced by by. With or in may be used to introduce
the means by which something is done.
The drain was cleared by the workmen.

o The difference between by and with may involve the presence of a person:
Dave was hit by a branch. (an accident)

Dave was hit with a branch. ( A person hit him with one).

The drain was blocked with rubbish.

o With is used after participles such as filled, packed, crowded, crammed.

The roads were crowded with people.

o Cover and verbs which involve similar ideas, such as surround, decorate, can use with
or by. Cover an also be followed by in.
The furniture was covered in dust.

The living room has been decorated with flowery wallpaper.

Service is included in the prize.

 Note these cases of sentence transformation:

Information about the hotel is available at the reception desk.
 Information about the hotel can be found at the reception desk. (Not **“is found”)

New anti-pollution measures will be introduced next month.

Next month will see the introduction of new anti-pollution measures.

If we want to do something about the traffic problem, we should act now.

If the traffic problem is to be resolved, we should act now.

 USE OF PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS IN REQUESTS, ORDERS, STATEMENTS, ETC. IN FORMAL

WRITTEN ENGLISH

 Formal written English tends to use:

o Passive verb forms

o Nouns in place of verbs (e.g. cancellation, refund, departure)
o More formal vocabulary, for example, refund (= give back), vacate (= leave), deface
(spoil or damage), execute (=carry out or do a job), premises (= a building, etc.)

SPOKEN (informal) WRITTEN (formal)

(e.g. in notices or in printed rules and
regulations)

‘Please, don’t smoke in the dining room.’ GUESTS ARE KINDLY REQUESTED NOT TO SMOKE
IN THE DINING-ROOM

‘You can’t cancel ...’ No cancellations can be accepted ...

‘You’ve got to leave your room ...’ All rooms are to/must be vacated ...

‘They don’t give you back your money ...’ NO REFUNDS CAN/WILL BE MADE ...

 Some common adverb-verb collocations in passive constructions

 kindly asked
respectfully requested
strongly advised
legally entitled
You are cordially invited to do ...
strongly recommended
respectfully reminded
legally required
strongly urged

falsely
accused (of ...)
wrongly
greatly admired (for ...)
highly delighted (with/by)
unfairly dismissed (for ...)
completely
I was exhausted (by ...)
thoroughly
completely ignored (by ...)
He was fully insured (against ...)
keenly interested (in ...)
etc. sadly missed (by ...)
sadly mistaken
highly rated (as a ... by ...)
highly recommended (for ...)
sorely tempted (to do ...)
promptly told
((not) to do)
quickly ordered

________________________________________________________________________________
 The job was promptly executed.
The facts were well/widely known.
We were completely lost.
The supplies were badly needed.
Help was kindly/generously offered.
His action was deeply resented.
My offer of help was utterly rejected.

Now let’s focus on when, where, why and how these constructions are generally used.

DISCOURSE FUNCTIONS OF PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

The primary functions of the passive (both the short and long passives) are the following discourse
functions:

 coherence, cohesion, and contextual and co-textual fit through:

o ordering of information
o omission of information (short passive)

 weight management (especially long passive)

There has always been a tendency to associate the passive with impersonality. However, not all
passive patterns behave in the same way; the particular conditions of use are quite different for the
short and the long passives.

CONDITIONS OF USE OF THE SHORT DYNAMIC PASSIVE

 THE SHORT DYNAMIC BE-PASSIVE IN FINITE CLAUSES: the most basic pattern
 Main purpose: to leave the initiator of an action (e.g. agent, cause, etc.) unexpressed
because agent (etc.) is:

o unknown
o redundant
o irrelevant (i.e. of particularly low information value)

The need to leave the (notional) subject unexpressed and/or the reasons for leaving it
unexpressed vary with register (and kinds of texts).

 Register:

o ACADEMIC PROSE: the most frequent use of short dynamic passives because:
Academic discourse is concerned with generalizations rather than with the specific
individuals carrying out the action

 Generic nature of the omitted subject.

 The unexpressed agent can be restored using a generic pronoun or NP:

by us/ by one/ by researchers/ by laboratory workers

 The generic nature of the omitted subject can be seen in the excerpt
below, where there is a switch from passive to active voice
accompanied by the use of generic we as subject:
Stylistics, simply defined as the (linguistic) study of style, is rarely
undertaken for its own sake, simply as an exercise in describing what use
is made of language. We normally study style because we want to explain
something <...> (ACAD)

 The new and/or more important information is carried by the verb; the omission of
the agent gives clause final position to the verb, and the sentence then comes to
conform to the Information Principle, and the Principle of End Focus.

o NEWS: high frequency of short dynamic passives, but only about half as many as in
academic prose

News in usually concerned with specific events rather than generalizations, but
although the agents are specific, they are suppressed because:

 The identity of the agent:

 is not at issue
 and/or does not need to be stated
  The agent is recoverable from:

 context as it (often) follows from shared cultural frameworks of

knowledge (e.g. knowledge about law-courts, or hospitals, etc.)
 preceding co-text
Jobless Frank Mason was cleared last night of attempting to kill a man in a
street. Mason, of Bramston View, Witham, was acquitted of attempting to
murder 27-year-old Adrian Hawes, but the jury failed to reach a verdict on
alternative charges of wounding with intent and causing actual bodily harm.
The charges arose from an incident in Cyprus Road, Witham, on January 19 last
year when three men got out of a car and set about Mr HawEs. He was
punched, and kicked to the ground and stabbed three times in the back.
(NEWS)

The first serious prospect of a cure for Aids, rather than a treatment which
delays its effects, has emerged when no trace of the Aids virus was found during
the post mortem on a patient who had been treated with the standard AZT
drug and a bone marrow transplant. (NEWS)

o FICTION and CONVERSATION: the passive frequency in these registers is lowest,

although these are registers with the highest frequency of lexical verbs

 Strong predominance of active verbs should be seen in relation to the high

frequency of personal pronouns, as actions are presented in relation to agents

 In fiction, short dynamic passives are used:

 when the agents are unknown
 when their identity is regarded as irrelevant

CONDITIONS OF USE OF STATIVE-BE PASSIVES

 Stative-be passives do not describe an action; they focus of the result of the action (they are
like constructions with copular plus adjective).

 Register:

o Most common in CONVERSATION

CONDITIONS OF USE OF THE LONG PASSIVE

 The choice of the long passive is influenced by the same type of factors that affect pure order
variations, especially:

o LENGTH OF SUBJECT VS. LENGTH OF AGENT PHRASE

 There is a tendency for the subject to be shorter than the agent phrase in long
passives
 Agent phrases rarely consist of a single word, while long subjects are not
uncommon

 The choice of the long passive can be accounted for by the principle of end-weight,
i.e. the tendency to place heavy elements (long and complex) toward the end of
the sentence/clause

The Roman Literature was collected and condensed into one volume about the
year 1240 [by Senator of Bologna, Petrus Crescentius, whose book was one of the
most popular treatises on agriculture of any time]. (ACAD)

Note: sometimes the subject and the agent phrase are equally long, and sometimes the
subject is longer than the agent phrase; the Principle of End-weight is sometimes insufficient
in itself to account for the choice of the by-passive. It is necessary to account for the choice
of this construction in terms of other factors, for example, in terms of information status.

o GIVENNESS OF SUBJECT VS. GIVENNESS OF AGENT PHRASE

In most cases, the subject has a higher level of givenness than the agent phrase.

Note these examples:

Richard, like a good commander, sensed the uneasiness of the meeting, even through the
solid teak partition. [He] would never, if he had taken to the high seas in past centuries,
have been caught napping [by a mutiny]. (FICT)

‘He’ : given/ old information ---------- ‘a mutiny’: new information

[That similar relationships occur with these two species under field conditions in
Saskatchewan] was suggested [by Pickford] (1960, 1966a). (ACAD)

Very long subject in conflict with the Principle of End-weight, but in agreement with the
Information Principle