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Introduction Introduction Thefocusofthe present thesis isthe passivevoice,perceivedfromasemantico- syntactic pointofview.Myprimaryaimistoexplore theuseandfunctionsofthe passivevoiceinEnglish,examiningthereasons whichmotivateanauthortopreferthe passiveformtotheactiveone.Secondaryinterestisdevotedtothefunctionandtheuse ofthe passivevoice inCzech.AsresearchmaterialIhavechosentheshortstories by theAmericanwriterO.HenryandtheirCzechtranslations byStanislavKlíma.The reasonswhyIhavechosenthegenreofashortstoryare that itisnotedfortheunityof time,placeandaction.I believethat duetothisfact,theresultsof myresearchwillgive higherevidenceoftheuseofthe passivevoicesincethe basis forcomparisonisunified andcompactcontraryto,forexample,anovel.Forthesamereasonofevidence,I explore just thetranslationsofonetranslator,sinceeveryone hashis/her personal style anddifferentwayofthinkingandunderstandingoforiginal text. Iaminterestedinthe issueofinformationpackaging,especiallyinthedifferent waysofexpressingone andthesamerealityinthetwolanguages:when bothactive and passiveversionsareformallypermitted,whatfactorsfavour thechoiceofoneover other?The passivevoice isa phenomenonwhichisinvolvedbothinEnglishandin Czechbutinunlikeextent.Asfaras Iknow,the passivevoiceisafavouritemeansof expressioninEnglishwhereas inCzechitsusageisnotsopopular.Inviewofthisfact,I supposethattheresults willworkthisway. Thethesisisdividedintotwomainpartswhichareinterlinked,andcomplement eachother.Thefirst partdealswiththetheoreticalknowledgeaboutthe passivevoicein EnglishaswellasinCzech,whereas inthesecondpartI investigatetheapplications of the passive voiceinconcreteshortstories.Inaddition,thetextisdividedintofive chapters. 1 Inthefirstchapter,Idelineate thetheoretical backgroundoftheuseofthe passivevoiceinEnglish.Thisinformationissummarizedfromthe professional literatureandbothfrom asyntactic andasemantic pointofview.Thesameresearchas fortheuseofthe passivevoiceinCzechisconcerned,is performedinChapter2. Further,inchapter3,I present thedataforananalysis.Itcomprises twotablesinwhich Imakeanincidence statisticsofthe passiveexpressionsintheEnglishfictionandinthe relevantCzechpassages.Chapter4analyses thefrequencydataandthedifferentways oftranslationofthe passiveforms,summarizedinthe precedingtables.Thelast,fifth chapter,focusesonthefunctionalandsemanticanalysis,it looksatindividualinstances ofthe passivevoice’susage,tryingtofindoutits practicalcircumstancesand conditions.Itcomparesthetheoreticalfactswith myownfindingsanddraws conclusions aboutthe similaritiesanddifferencesintheuse ofthe passiveinthe two languages. AfterIhavegonethroughsomeof myresources,Ihavefoundoutthatthe term passivevoicecoversvarious phenomenaandcanbeexpressedinseveral differentways, especiallyintheCzechlanguage.ThatiswhyIdecidedtorestrictmyfieldof explorationinEnglishonlytothe passivevoice proper.Thisoneisrealizedthroughthe auxiliaryverb tobe + past participle ofalexical verb.Theauxiliaryverb maytake differenttensesandmayoccurinprogressaswell.Therange ofthe passiveasameans offunctionalsyntaxiswide,althoughnotasmuchasthatoftheactivevoice. Tospecifytheinterpretationsofthe passivevoice,letmeconsiderone basic example.The passive sentence: The manwasbittenbythedog showsthatthesubject of thesentencereceivestheactionexpressedinthe verb,inotherwordsthe subjectis,ina passivemanner,actedupon.Theagent performingtheactionmayappearina“ bythe ...” phraseormaybeomitted. Thedog hereobtains thefullamountofreader’sattention. 2 Oneoftheresultsofthe useofthe passivevoiceisthe productionofanindirectand wordyutterance,whichcanberhetoricallyeffectiveingivensituations.Myaimisto drawoutthesituations inwhichthe passivevoice is preferred,forexample,whenan authorwantstoemphasizesome participantofanactionotherthanthe subject. RegardingthecriticalapproachthatIamgoingtoemployinmydiploma thesis, Iwill compareandcontrastmyownconclusions abouttheuseofthe passivevoicein Englishwiththosefoundoutabout thisuseinCzech.Further,Iwill comparemyown resultsaboutthetypesofusagesofthe passivevoiceinEnglishandinCzechwiththe theorems.Thiswilldistinguishthose moreappropriateandpracticallyapplicableones fromtherest,andIalsohopetodiscovermaybeafewspecificusagesofthe passive voicewhicharenotmentionedinthe books. 3 1. The English language 1.1 Introduction Inspiteofthefactthatthesyntactic andthesemanticstructuresformtheirown categories,theremust belinks betweenthetwo.The basic rulesays that differencesin syntaxindicatedifferencesof meaning(Miller1985:193).Thedifferencesmaybe ‘mere’mattersof perspective andorientation,whichismyconcernhere; however,they exist andmust betakenintoaccount (Miller1985:193). Thenotionofvoiceisdefinedvariouslyintheliterature; Ihaveadoptedtheway asit isdefinedinAGrammarofContemporaryEnglish : “voiceisagrammatical categorywhichmakesit possible toviewtheactionofasentenceintwoways,without changeinthefactsreported”(Quirketal.1974: 801),since this particularfeatureofthe passivevoiceisthemostusefulandindeedutilizedone.Oneandthesameideacan oftenbeexpressedintwodifferent ways,bymeansofanactive,andbymeansofa passiveconstruction.Theactivevoiceisconsideredastheunmarkedmemberofthe pair.Thenames active and passive derivefromtheroleofsubject-referentinclauses whichexpressanaction:itwillstandardlybe the actor,oractive participantinthe unmarkedversion,andthe patient,or passive participant inthemarkedversion (Huddleston1984:438). 1.2 Formation of the passive TheEnglishpassive isformedwithanauxiliary,generally be, butoftenalso get or become ,andthe past participleofafullverb.The passiveformoftheverb phrase thuscontainsthis pattern: be+ past participle.Concerningthe passiveauxiliaries, get is aseriouscontenderof be, however,itsapplicationis“usuallyrestrictedtoconstructions withoutanexpressedanimateagent”:*Theboy got givenaviolinbyhis father. (Quirk etal.1974: 802) Apparentlywell-founded,theget-passive isavoidedinformalstyle. 4 Ontheotherhand,it iscommonasaresultingcopula,inwhichcase itis equivalentto become whichisusedto“expressgradualchange,oftenenhancedbymodificationwith moreandmore,increasingly, etc.”(Quirketal.1974:803).Biberet al.(1999:477) arguethattheget-passiveis“a recentinnovationinEnglishandis[therefore]found almostexclusivelyindialoginfiction”. In‘Johnwas beatenbyTom’the participant John orgenerallythesubject ofthe passivevoiceistypicallycalledthe patient sinceitisassociatedwitha passiverole.By contrast,the participant Tom istraditionallycalledthe agent asit isalignedwiththe activerole.However,inclauseswhichdonotexpressanaction,therolesinquestion aresometimescalledbymorerelevantnamesof experiencer and stimulus ,e.g. The premierwashatedbymostmembersofthecabinet (Huddleston,Pullum 2002:1427). Furthermore,HuddlestonandPullum (2002:1428)refer tothe agent as toan internalisedcomplement ,fortheydonotwanttoconfusethetermwiththenameofa semanticrole.Inthe active,Tom isthesubjectandhenceexternal tothe verb phrase, butinthe passiveitis internal tothe verb phrase (Huddleston,Pullum2002:1428). ‘Tom beatJohn’(active)and‘Johnwas beatenbyTom’(passive)means essentiallythesamething,andyettheyarenotineveryrespectsynonymous,andit is thereforenotsuperfluousforalanguagetohave bothturns.AsLeechnotes,“anactive sentencehasadifferent meaningfromits passiveequivalent,althoughinconceptual content theyseemtobethesame”(Leech1981:19).Suchclauses(as above)arealike asfarasthe ‘typeof process’andthe‘participantroles’areconcerned:thedifference hastodowithsuchmattersas informationfocus(Halliday: 1967,citedinHuddleston 1971:645).Leechtreatsthemagainstthe backgroundofthematization(i.e.“the process oforganizingtheelementsofthemessagesothat weightandemphasisfall in appropriate place”)(Leech1981:195).The thematicmeaning ofanutteranceis 5 “communicatedbythewayinwhicha[…]writerorganizesthemessage,intermsof ordering,focus,andemphasis.” (Leech1981:19)Theclausesaredifferentinrespectof thematicor discourseorganization.Thethematicdimensioninvolvessuchmatters as foregroundingoremphasis,distinctionbetween‘given’ and‘new’informationetc., whichtypicallyaffecttheorderofelementsinthesentenceandtheintonationand rhythm(or punctuation).Leechclaimsthat thesemanticdifference betweenanactive sentenceandits passivetransformationcanbeseeninthelayersofdifferent typesof meanings.Forexample, (i)Mrs BessieSmithdonatedthefirst prize. (ii) Thefirst prizewasdonatedbyMrs BessieSmith. Certainlythesetwoparallelshavedifferentcommunicative valuesandcallfordifferent contexts:in(i)weknow whoMrsBessieSmithisandtheissueinfocusis thefactof donationofthefirst prize;thuswecanask“WhatdidMrsBessieSmithdonate?” Whereasin(ii) thefocus ofourattentionisdrawntotheagentwhoisunknowntous, thuswecanask“Whodonatedthefirst prize?”,whichimplicitlysuggeststhat thefact ofadonationofthefirst prize bysomeoneisknowntous,possiblyfromthecontext or froma previousmention(Leech1981:19).Leechconcludes that thechangeofan overallmeaning(communicativevalue)ofanutterancecausedbyachangeofthe thematicmeaningis inevitableineachactive -> passive transformation. This basicschemaoftheformationofthe passiveisoftenextendedbyan agentive phraseaddedtotheelementalstructure be + past participle.Leechspeaks about transformationalrule thatoperatesonsyntacticstructureswiththeirassociated semanticcontentasfollows(Leech1981:196): 6 Passiverule …S aVP [active](…)O b …→…S b VP[passive](…)(AdverbialPhrase) by NounPhrase a (where aand b indicate thecorrespondingargumentsinthesemanticrepresentation). Thisrule providesa“deviceoflinearorganizationonthesyntacticlevel” (Leech1981: 196)andits functionis to“assigndifferent thematicmeanings tosentenceswhich conveythesame conceptualmeaning”.
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