Arsenov Branislava

DejiVesna
urevi Marina
Filipovi Slavica

English Verb Contrastive Approach 1

Academic year 2009/2010

Lexical Passive and its Serbian Equivalents

Voice (Passive) is a grammatical category that makes possible to view the action of sentence
in either of two ways, without the change in the facts reported:
(1)
a. We keep the butter here. (active)
b. The butter is kept here. (passive)
Passive is used to change the emphasis in a clause when the agent is unknown or irrelevant,
so as for stylistic purposes. Passive can also be found in combinations of be+-en forms that are clearly
not true passives. We can divide passives into:
Pseudo passives
Semi passives
Statal passives
Lexical passive
Quirk et al. (1980) A Grammar of Contemporary English
Quirk et al. divide passive into three types:
1. Agentive passive
a) With expressed agent:
(2)
My father built this house.
b) Without expressed agent:
(3)
The house has already been sold.
2. Quasi passive
(4)
We are encouraged to go on with our project. (= the results encourage us)
3. Non agentive passive (intensive active complement construction)
(5)
The modern economy becomes highly industrialized.
Notional passive is a part of the non agentive passive. It denotes the change of secondary
verb-class verbs 1from transitive to intransitive. Notional passive can be part in the first participle:
(6)
The clock winds up at the back. The clock can be wound up at the back.
Notional passive is often followed by an intensifying verb such as well or badly.
(7)
This book reads well.
Other verbs include: divide, drive, soil, steer, undo, wash, unlock.
Palmer, F.R. (1989) - The English Verb
Lexical passive occurs with intransitive verbs and has an active form but passive meaning.
This kind of passive contains the connotation of the potential, displaying quality rather than an action
and is followed by adverbials that denote an action that passes slowly, naturally and spontaneously, in
contrast to typical passive actions.
(8)
The plans are working successfully.
There are several types of active sentences that are both semantically and syntactically like
the passive. The two most significant types are case relations and adverbial passives.
1. Case relations
It has long been known that many verbs in English function as both transitive and intransitive
e.g. ring and break, as in:
(9)
a. She rang the bell.
b. The bell rang.
(10)
a. Susan broke the bowl.
b. The bowl broke.
The significant point is that the object of the transitive verb is the subject of the intransitive.
Syntactically, and to some degree semantically, the intransitive is like the passive:
1

The term secondary verb class verbs can be found in Quirk et al. (1980)

Arsenov Branislava
English Verb Contrastive Approach 1
DejiVesna
Academic year 2009/2010
urevi Marina
Filipovi Slavica
(11)
a.1. The glass broke.
a.2. The glass was broken.
There is more than this, however. Consider open:
(12)
a. The boy opened the door with the key.
b.1. The door opened.
b.2. The boy opened the door.
b.3. The key opened the door.
In semantic terms we may refer to the boy as the agent or actor, the door as the goal and
the key as instrument. The sentences considered show that agent, goal and instrument may all
function as the grammatical subject. But there are some severe restrictions.
The goal must be always present. It is not possible to say:
c.1.* The key opened.
c.2.* The boy opened.
Priority for subject place is given to an agent, instrument and goal in that order.
1) The goal can be subject only if the other two are absent
d.1.* The door opened with the key/by the boy.
2) The instrument can be subject only if the agent is absent
d.2.* The key opened the door by the boy.
The goal can occur as subject if the verb is passive.
e.1. The door was opened with a key.
e.2. The door was opened by a boy.
It is clear from this that the transitive/intransitive functions of verbs like open must be
handled together with the voice.
2. Adverbial passives
Many verbs can be used in passive sense in such sentences as:
(13)
These skirts wash well.
(14)
This bread cuts easily.
There is a distinction between these and the intransitives that were discussed earlier. This is
illustrated by the ambiguity. In the sentence
(15)
The door doesnt open in wet weather.
It can mean either that the door stays shut or that it cannot be opened. There is, however, no
ambiguity in
(16)
a. The door opens with a key.
This cannot be treated in the same way as in
b. The door opened.
These uses of the active in the passive sense are adverbial in that they normally occur with
adverbs and indicate how the items are or are being washed, cut, sold, etc. A contrastive pair of
sentences that has often been quoted in:
(17)
a. Theyre selling like experts.
b. They are selling like hot cakes.
The first sentence means that they are selling something, the second that something is being
sold. What is indicated is not just an activity, but also a quality or characteristic.
The construction of lexical passive with the active morphology of the verb, but passive
meaning can be called middles, since they can not be equalled neither to an active nor passive form.
They denote ordinary actions.
(18)
This book sells well.
(19)
My sweater washes easily.

Huddleston, R. & Pullum, G. (2004) - The Cambridge Grammar of the English

Language

Arsenov Branislava
DejiVesna
urevi Marina
Filipovi Slavica

English Verb Contrastive Approach 1

Academic year 2009/2010

The term closest to lexical passive in this grammar is dual transitivity verbs. These verbs are
divided into three categories:
1. Non agentive dynamic intransitive
(20)
The vase broke. (subject of the intransitive theme)
(21)
He broke the vase. (object of the transitive theme)
Object of the transitive sentence corresponds to the meaning of the subject of the intransitive
one. Other verbs of this category: open, widen, tear, change
2. Non agentive static intransitive
(22)
The ladder leant against the house.
Verbs of this class include verbs of position such as hang, rest, stand
3. Middle intransitive
(23)
She frightens easily.
These verbs are used intransitively to denote that they have an unexpressed causer. They are
active in form but are similar to passive semantically because the causer is implied. However, the
meaning is not identical.
Characteristics of these verbs:
causer is implied
causer cannot be expressed in by phrase
(24)
* She frightens easily by spiders.
the clause expresses how the subject experiences the process expressed in the
verb (frightens easily)
the clause contains an adjunct of manner such as well or easily.
the clause expresses such things that are generally true:
(25)
This surface polishes up badly. (characteristic of the surface)
(26)
This surface was polished up badly. (characteristic of the polisher)
The other verbs include clean, hammer, read, wash..
Collins Cobuild English Grammar (1990)
This grammar makes a distinction between ergative verbs and ergative verbs which need
adjuncts.
1. Ergatives
a) Most ergative verbs describe events which lead to change from one state to another:
(27)
The window glass shattered all over the bedroom.
b) Verbs which specifically relate to:
food and cooking
(28) The soup is boiling.
physical movement
His eyes rolled.
vehicle as a subject of an intransitive verb
His truck shunted into a tree.
Restriction on ergative subject: some verbs used ergatively with only a small number of nouns
with which they collocate.
(31) The bell rang.
(32) The gun fired.
2. Ergative verbs which need adjuncts
A small number of ergative verbs need an adjunct when used intransitively. They show
behaviour of certain things when they are affected by someone or something. The doer is not
important.
(33) The new carpet vacuums easily.

(39)

(30)

Arsenov Branislava
English Verb Contrastive Approach 1
DejiVesna
Academic year 2009/2010
urevi Marina
Filipovi Slavica
Ergative verbs emphasize how something was done without mentioning who or what does the
action.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Instead of discussing the notion of lexical passive, Wikipedia discusses ergatives and middles.
1. Ergative verbs
Ergative verbs can be used both transitively and intransitively. The ergatives may take past,
progressive or present tense form.
Ergative verbs are divided into several classes:
Verbs suggesting a change of state break, burst, melt, tear
Verbs of movement move, shake, sweep, turn
Verbs involving vehicles drive, fly, reverse, sail
Verbs of cooking bake, boil, cook, fry
The intransitive use of ergative requires the agent to be deleted:
(35)
*The window broke by the burglar.
Consider the following examples:
(36)
The airplane flew.
(37)
The airplane was flown.
(38)
Someone flew the airplane.
The verb intransitive construction doesnt allow an agent to be mentioned and indeed can
sometimes imply that no agent is present and that the subject is performing an action on itself. It is often
considered to be in a middle voice, between active and passive or in a mediopassive voice.
2. Middle verbs
Middle verbs take active form, but their meaning is similar to that of passive. The middle
sentences denote states and not actions or events. They always have the corresponding transitive
constructions.
(39)
They cut the bread The bread cuts easily.
(40)
This type of coal doesnt burn very easily.
Other verbs include cut, drive, photograph, burn
Middles usually take the present tense. They are often used with adverbials of manner (easily),
modals (This book could sell), negation (This paper doesnt cut), focus (This bread does cut easily).
Serbian Equivalents to Lexical Passive
. (1969) 2
In Serbian, passive is often formed with the reflexive pronoun . Depending on the context,
the same verb can be either passive or active.
Real reflexive verbs
The verbs where clitic could be replaced with its full form (
, , ...).
Reciprocally reflexive verbs
These verbs usually have clitic , but sometimes the clitic can be left out
(- , - ). These verbs can be active and passive at the
same time.
Passive
(41)
.
(42)
.
Reflexive verbs
The clitic cannot be replaced with because it does not denote direct object, but
former indirect object.
(43)
-> , .

Arsenov Branislava
English Verb Contrastive Approach 1
DejiVesna
Academic year 2009/2010
urevi Marina
Filipovi Slavica
The verbs which can have both active and passive meaning are as follows: ,
, , , ...
Some verbs can be used passively or in the active form of the lexical verb with the clitic .
In the later case the sentence has a passive meaning.
(44)
. (passive)
(45)
. (active form, passive meaning)
. . (1990)
The closest equivalent in Serbian to the lexical passive is here called e-passive. We form epassive by using the active form of the lexical verb and the reflexive pronoun e. Verbs used in epassive are usually in the third person singular or plural, while the subject is expressed in the
nominative case. e-passive has forms for all tenses.
(46)
.
Agent cannot be expressed in e-passive.
(47)
*Delta City .
It is sometimes difficult to distinguish e-passive from the reflexive verb in the active:
(48)
.
e-passive can also be used in the first and the second person singular or plural.
(49)
.
(50)
?
(51)
.
Modal verbs and the verb can also be used in e-passive. Modal verbs occur only in
the third person singular and in singular neuter form. can only be used in /
and infinitive, or + 3rd person present tense complement. Infinitive is used as a complement to
when the agent is unknown.
(52)
(53)

/ / .
/ .
Neutral or impersonal passive could also be considered as an equivalent to the English lexical
passive. It occurs with verbs which do not have complement in accusative and where people in
general perform the action. Examples include verbs such as , ,
(54)
.
et al. (2005)
The closest equivalent in Serbian to the English lexical passive is . It is
formed by using the clitic , which is formed from the reflective pronoun , together with the
active form of lexical verb.
(55)
.
The patient takes the subject position and functions as a grammatical subject. Agent is
usually not syntactically realized. However, if the agent is expressed, it is introduced by prepositions
, , .
(56)
.
(57)
.
Some types of the adverbial passive are another equivalent. Consider the following examples:
(58)

.
The lexeme can mark either reflexive verbs ( ), or passive (P ).
There are some borderline cases where we can interpret the same verb in active or passive
voice:
(59)
( ).
(60)
().

Arsenov Branislava
English Verb Contrastive Approach 1
DejiVesna
Academic year 2009/2010
urevi Marina
Filipovi Slavica
Some verbs, such as , , , can be used with or without . If
used with , they have a passive meaning:
(61)
.
(62)
.
Serbian passive sentences, in which the emphasis is put on the quality of the action itself,
rather than on the passive voice, are equivalence to the English adverbial passives or middles:
(63)
.
Sentence where subject has the theta-role of patient could be interpreted as passive
constructions:
(64)
.
References
Huddleston, R. & Pullum, G. (2004), The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Mrazovi, P. i Vukadinovi, Z. (1990), Gramatika srpskohrvatskog jezika za strance, Sremski
Karlovci: Izdavaka knjiarnica Zorana Stojanovia.
Palmer, F.R. (1989), The English Verb, London: Longman.
Piper, P. et al. (2005), Sintaksa savremenoga srpskog jezika, prosta reenica, Beograd: Institut za
srpski jezik SANU/Beogradska knjiga, Novi Sad: Matica Srpska.
Quirk, R. et al. (1985), A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, London: Longman.
Sinclair, J. (1990), Collins Cobuild English Grammar, London: Collins.
Stevanovi, M. (1967), Savremeni srpskohrvatski jezik I, II, Beograd: Nauna knjiga.
Wikipedia available at http://en.wikipedia.org/