Introduction
The focus of the present thesis is the passive voice, perceived from a semantico syntactic point of view. My primary aim is to explore the use and functions of the passive voice in English, examining the reasons which motivate an author to prefer the passive form to the active one. Secondary interest is devoted to the function and the use of the passive voice in Czech. As research material I have chosen the short stories by the American writer O. Henry and their Czech translations by Stanislav Klíma. The reasons why I have chosen the genre of a short story are that it is noted for the unity of time, place and action. I believe that due to this fact, the results of my research will give higher evidence of the use of the passive voice since the basis for comparison is unified and compact contrary to, for example, a novel. For the same reason of evidence, I explore just the translations of one translator, since everyone has his/her personal style and different way of thinking and understanding of original text.
I am interested in the issue of information packaging, especially in the different ways of expressing one and the same reality in the two languages: when both active and passive versions are formally permitted, what factors favour the choice of one over other? The passive voice is a phenomenon which is involved both in English and in
Czech but in unlike extent. As far as I know, the passive voice is a favourite means of expression in English whereas in Czech its usage is not so popular. In view of this fact, I suppose that the results will work this way.
The thesis is divided into two main parts which are interlinked, and complement each other. The first part deals with the theoretical knowledge about the passive voice in
English as well as in Czech, whereas in the second part I investigate the applications of the passive voice in concrete short stories. In addition, the text is divided into five chapters.
1 In the first chapter, I delineate the theoretical background of the use of the passive voice in English. This information is summarized from the professional literature and both from a syntactic and a semantic point of view. The same research as for the use of the passive voice in Czech is concerned, is performed in Chapter 2.
Further, in chapter 3, I present the data for an analysis. It comprises two tables in which
I make an incidence statistics of the passive expressions in the English fiction and in the relevant Czech passages. Chapter 4 analyses the frequency data and the different ways of translation of the passive forms, summarized in the preceding tables. The last, fifth chapter, focuses on the functional and semantic analysis, it looks at individual instances of the passive voice’s usage, trying to find out its practical circumstances and conditions. It compares the theoretical facts with my own findings and draws conclusions about the similarities and differences in the use of the passive in the two languages.
After I have gone through some of my resources, I have found out that the term passive voice covers various phenomena and can be expressed in several different ways, especially in the Czech language. That is why I decided to restrict my field of exploration in English only to the passive voice proper. This one is realized through the auxiliary verb to be + past participle of a lexical verb. The auxiliary verb may take different tenses and may occur in progress as well. The range of the passive as a means of functional syntax is wide, although not as much as that of the active voice.
To specify the interpretations of the passive voice, let me consider one basic example. The passive sentence: The man was bitten by the dog shows that the subject of the sentence receives the action expressed in the verb, in other words the subject is, in a passive manner, acted upon. The agent performing the action may appear in a “ by the ...” phrase or may be omitted. The dog here obtains the full amount of reader’s attention.
2 One of the results of the use of the passive voice is the production of an indirect and wordy utterance, which can be rhetorically effective in given situations. My aim is to draw out the situations in which the passive voice is preferred, for example, when an author wants to emphasize some participant of an action other than the subject.
Regarding the critical approach that I am going to employ in my diploma thesis,
I will compare and contrast my own conclusions about the use of the passive voice in
English with those found out about this use in Czech. Further, I will compare my own results about the types of usages of the passive voice in English and in Czech with the theorems. This will distinguish those more appropriate and practically applicable ones from the rest, and I also hope to discover maybe a few specific usages of the passive voice which are not mentioned in the books.
3 1. The English language
1.1 Introduction
In spite of the fact that the syntactic and the semantic structures form their own categories, there must be links between the two. The basic rule says that differences in syntax indicate differences of meaning (Miller 1985: 193). The differences may be
‘mere’ matters of perspective and orientation, which is my concern here; however, they exist and must be taken into account (Miller 1985: 193).
The notion of voice is defined variously in the literature; I have adopted the way as it is defined in A Grammar of Contemporary English : “voice is a grammatical category which makes it possible to view the action of a sentence in two ways, without change in the facts reported” (Quirk et al. 1974: 801), since this particular feature of the passive voice is the most useful and indeed utilized one. One and the same idea can often be expressed in two different ways, by means of an active, and by means of a passive construction. The active voice is considered as the unmarked member of the pair. The names active and passive derive from the role of subject referent in clauses which express an action: it will standardly be the actor, or active participant in the unmarked version, and the patient, or passive participant in the marked version
(Huddleston 1984: 438).
1.2 Formation of the passive
The English passive is formed with an auxiliary, generally be, but often also get or become , and the past participle of a full verb. The passive form of the verb phrase thus contains this pattern: be + past participle. Concerning the passive auxiliaries, get is a serious contender of be, however, its application is “usually restricted to constructions without an expressed animate agent”: *The boy got given a violin by his father. (Quirk et al. 1974: 802) Apparently well founded, the get passive is avoided in formal style.
4 On the other hand, it is common as a resulting copula, in which case it is equivalent to become which is used to “express gradual change, often enhanced by modification with more and more, increasingly, etc.” (Quirk et al. 1974: 803). Biber et al. (1999: 477) argue that the get passive is “a recent innovation in English and is [therefore] found almost exclusively in dialog in fiction”.
In ‘John was beaten by Tom’ the participant John or generally the subject of the passive voice is typically called the patient since it is associated with a passive role. By contrast, the participant Tom is traditionally called the agent as it is aligned with the active role. However, in clauses which do not express an action, the roles in question are sometimes called by more relevant names of experiencer and stimulus , e.g. The premier was hated by most members of the cabinet (Huddleston, Pullum 2002: 1427).
Furthermore, Huddleston and Pullum (2002: 1428) refer to the agent as to an internalised complement , for they do not want to confuse the term with the name of a semantic role. In the active, Tom is the subject and hence external to the verb phrase, but in the passive it is internal to the verb phrase (Huddleston, Pullum 2002: 1428).
‘Tom beat John’ (active) and ‘John was beaten by Tom’ (passive) means essentially the same thing, and yet they are not in every respect synonymous, and it is therefore not superfluous for a language to have both turns. As Leech notes, “an active sentence has a different meaning from its passive equivalent, although in conceptual content they seem to be the same” (Leech 1981: 19). Such clauses (as above) are alike as far as the ‘type of process’ and the ‘participant roles’ are concerned: the difference has to do with such matters as information focus (Halliday: 1967, cited in Huddleston
1971: 64 5). Leech treats them against the background of thematization (i.e.“the process of organizing the elements of the message so that weight and emphasis fall in appropriate place”) (Leech 1981: 195). The thematic meaning of an utterance is
5 “communicated by the way in which a […] writer organizes the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis.” (Leech 1981: 19) The clauses are different in respect of thematic or discourse organization. The thematic dimension involves such matters as foregrounding or emphasis, distinction between ‘given’ and ‘new’ information etc., which typically affect the order of elements in the sentence and the intonation and rhythm (or punctuation). Leech claims that the semantic difference between an active sentence and its passive transformation can be seen in the layers of different types of meanings. For example,
(i) Mrs Bessie Smith donated the first prize. (ii) The first prize was donated by Mrs Bessie Smith.
Certainly these two parallels have different communicative values and call for different contexts: in (i) we know who Mrs Bessie Smith is and the issue in focus is the fact of donation of the first prize; thus we can ask “What did Mrs Bessie Smith donate?”
Whereas in (ii) the focus of our attention is drawn to the agent who is unknown to us, thus we can ask “Who donated the first prize?”, which implicitly suggests that the fact of a donation of the first prize by someone is known to us, possibly from the context or from a previous mention (Leech 1981: 19). Leech concludes that the change of an overall meaning (communicative value) of an utterance caused by a change of the thematic meaning is inevitable in each active > passive transformation.
This basic schema of the formation of the passive is often extended by an agentive phrase added to the elemental structure be + past participle. Leech speaks about transformational rule that operates on syntactic structures with their associated semantic content as follows (Leech 1981: 196):
6 Passive rule
…S a VP [active] (…) O b … → …S b VP [passive] (…) (Adverbial Phrase)
by Noun Phrase a
(where a and b indicate the corresponding arguments in the semantic representation).
This rule provides a “device of linear organization on the syntactic level” (Leech 1981:
196) and its function is to “assign different thematic meanings to sentences which convey the same conceptual meaning”. (Leech 1981: 197)
Before I proceed on to discuss the different kinds of verbs which allow passive transformation, since there are various terms and notions in the books, I have to state clearly which terminology I am going to follow in this work. I have chosen to conform to the conceptions defined by Rodney Huddleston, who – for my purpose here distinguishes two subject functions, referring to them as the pre passive subject and the concord subject . The former “is defined on the phrase markers which represent the structure of the sentence immediately before the passive rule applies” (Huddleston
1971: 62). The concord subject can also be called ‘post passive’ subject. This latter type corresponds to the traditional notion of ‘grammatical subject’. I consider these labels transparent enough, very easily comprehensible, that is why I have chosen them.
1.3 Which verbs allow the passive?
The basic category in verb genus is the active voice. It can be formed in all verbs
(there are verbs which form only the passive voice, but their number is very limited, e.g.
John was said to be a nice man 1), and has broader range of meanings than the passive voice.
1 Say cannot occur in the active with an object + infinitival complement; in other constructions it occurs freely in the active. Examples of verbs which are wholly restricted to the passive would be repute and rumour (Huddleston, Pullum 2002: 1435 6).
7 The passive voice can essentially be formed from verbs that have an object, though even these verbs do not form the passive voice in some cases which I will discuss later. In the simplest cases the relation between the structures at the pre and post passive levels is exemplified in:
(i) a John killed Peter b Peter was killed by John (ii) a John died b *was died by John
With intransitives, passivization cannot occur and so there will be no difference in structure at the two levels (Huddleston 1971: 93). With transitives, passivization is optional; if it is applied the pre passive subject and the direct object become adjunct
(with by as the governing preposition) 2 and subject respectively at the post passive, or concord, level, and be + en is introduced into the auxiliary. This is the general oversimplified account of voice in English.
Active transitives with no passive counterpart
In the first place there are transitive actives with no acceptable passive equivalent (Huddleston 1971: 93). In some cases there may be a quite general explanation for the absence of a passive. Passivization does not normally take place where:
a) pre passive subject and object are identical – i.e. we do not normally find reflexive agents: John knew himself to be in the wrong but *John was known by himself to be in the wrong. “This constraint does not hold if there is contrastive stress on the reflexive agent: cf. Halliday`s (1968: 189) he was supervised by himself with himself as agent (we are not of course concerned with the ‘on his own’ interpretation)” (cited in
Huddleston 1971: 94). 2 The by adjunct is often referred to as the ‘agent’ – this term is quite different from ‘agentive’, as the name of a ‘case’` in particular, not all agent noun phrases derive from underlying agentives (Huddleston 1971: 93).
8 The same principle applies where:
b) the pre passive object contains a possessive determiner that is coreferential with the subject : Mary`s briefcase was lost by her (i.e. Mary) is unacceptable if there is not contrastive stress on her – and indeed rather marginal even if there is. Similarly, inherently reciprocal verbs, so called equative verbs, do not normally allow passivization (Quirk et al. 1974: 803). Thus *‘house’ is meant by ‘maison ’ or * nine is equalled by three squared are ungrammatical whereas that isn`t what was meant and the world record was equalled by Smith , with non symmetric meanings of the same verbs, are perfectly normal (Huddleston 1971: 94). However, the acceptability of passives with symmetric verbs seems to be subject to some degree of dialectical variation (cf.
Halliday`s Mary isn`t resembled by any of her children, 1967: 68) (cited in Huddleston
1971: 94).
c) statal verbs like in Mary hated/liked/loved/preferred/wanted John to play the piano hardly allow passivization with John as concord subject – in contrast to similar clauses containing expect, intend, request, require and so on (Huddleston 1971: 94).
d) the verb have is marked as an exception that blocks the passive rule, although its meaning ‘to posses’ is necessarily active and the verb ‘posses’ itself can occur in the passive. The constraint is absolute only for one of the two main uses of have, for we can attest passives like dinner can be had at any reasonable time, the last word was had by
Mary. The two uses I have in mind are distinguished by whether or not the auxiliary do is required in the interrogative, negative, etc. It is the use where do is required that allows passivization – compare at what time do you have dinner?, *at what time have you dinner?, at what time can dinner be had?, versus how much money does John have?, how much money has John?, *how much money is had by John? (Huddleston
1971: 94 5).
9 1.4 Special types of passive formation
Verbs can be divided into single word verbs (e.g. John called the man) and in multiword verbs, which are phrasal verbs (e.g. John called up the man ), prepositional verbs (e.g. John called on the man ) or phrasal prepositional verbs (e.g. John put up with the man ) (Quirk et al. 1974: 811).
1.4.1 Prepositional verbs
Prepositional verbs cannot occur in the passive so freely as the in the active
(Quirk et al., 1974: 804). The constraints can be divided into two spheres, the first being determined by abstract/concrete distinction and the second by the degree of cohesion between the verb and its preposition.
‘Pseudo passives ’ is the term used by Huddleston for the construction where the
“concord subject derives not from a direct object but from the object of a preposition”
(1971: 95). Pseudo passives are typical of the construction in which the prepositions are determined by the verb or verbal idiom rather than being contrastive and lexically meaningful – though as far as constituent structure is concerned they are nevertheless bracketed with the noun phrase, not the verb.
Chomsky (1965: 105 6) observes that with the ambiguous John decided on the boat passivization is not possible if on the boat is locative (‘John was on the boat when he made his decision’), but is possible where on is non contrastive (‘John chose the boat’); it is obvious that the underlying relationship of the boat to decide is quite different in the two cases, and this difference may well reflected in different bracketings at the pre passive level, as Chomsky`s proposal would imply.
However, not all pseudo passives are of this type: the preposition is in some cases lexically contrastive.
10 According to Dušková (1988: 251), the possibility to form the passive in verbs with preposition depends on the type of relation between the verb and the preposition.
Also Quirk et al. (1974: 804) emphasize the degree of cohesion in relation to the formation of passive. If the government is loose and the preposition represents non governmental addition, e.g. agree with , the passive cannot be formed: * She was agreed with . It follows that only “highly cohesive” (Quirk et al., 1974: 805) prepositional verbs can take the passive. Namely if the free addition is of an adverbial nature, it may suggest something concrete and the passive is not formed. However, one and the same collocation can have also abstract interpretation, in which case the government is not loose and it is of objective nature (Dušková 1988: 251). Compare:
1. (concrete) They went into the hall. They arrived at the railway station. 2. (abstract) The matter will be gone into. No decision has been arrived at. Such prepositional verbs accept the passive only in the figurative use (Quirk et al.,
1974: 804).
Jespersen (1933: 123) proposes even different view of the issue of the ‘pseudo passives’. In such a sentence as Everybody laughed at Jim , laughed is intransitive; Jim is “governed by” or as it may also be termed “the object of” the preposition at . But the whole may also be analysed in another way, laughed at may be called a transitive verb phrase having Jim as its object. In this way, Jespersen claims, we come to understand how it is possible to turn the sentence into the passive: Jim was laughed at by everybody . Other similar passive sentences are This must be looked into . The bed had not been slept in . Even phrases containing a transitive verb with its object followed by a preposition may be thus turned into the passive: The original purpose was gradually lost sight of ( Jespersen 1933: 123).
11 1.4.2 Verbs with adverbial preposition
Dušková (1988: 251) marks off when a preposition has an adverbial meaning, like for example in to live in, sleep in, sit on. In these constructions, the passive voice is formed very rarely according to her: “the house does not seem to be lived in, the bed has not been slept in, the chair is rarely sat on” ( Dušková 1988: 251). Nevertheless the passive transformation is sometimes possible and she accounts for it in terms of
“interchangeability of a word with preposition by one word transitive verb: live in a house = inhabit; sleep in a bed = occupy/use a bed; sit on a chair = occupy” (translated from Dušková 1988: 251).
Another view of the matter is the one proposed by Huddleston, who says that
the object in prepositional phrases of time, duration, manner, reason, etc., cannot become the concord subject of a passive: * the first day of term was eloped on, *a couple of hours were read for, *enthusiasm was sung with, *the rain was remained indoors because of ; but with some place and perhaps instrumental prepositional phrases, passivization does seem possible: that bed hasn`t been slept in for years, that chair musn`t be sat on, this cup has been drunk out of, ?this blade has already been shaved with twice. (1971: 95 6)
He thinks that the acceptability of a passive with a locative phrase depends in large measure on “whether the action not only occurs at the stated place but also affects that place: a cup that has been drunk out of needs washing, to say that a bed has bee slept in may suggest that the sheets need changing and so on” (Huddleston 1971: 96).
Huddleston further suggests that we are more likely to accept the bed had been slept in than the village had been slept in. With regard to a deep structure of the sentence that bed has been slept in Huddleston distinguishes two roles that the expression that bed fills: affected and locative . More precisely the locative role would deal with in that bed and it would then be the affected role that was relevant to passivization (Huddleston
1971: 96).
12 1.4.3 Ditransitives
Ditransitive verbs are verbs with a direct and an indirect object. However, if in the active there are two objects, only one of them can be made the subject in the passive, i.e. externalised, the other is retained as such; in other words, a passive verb can have an object. But which of the two objects is made the subject of a passive sentence? Huddleston and Pullum (2002: 1432) argue that in principle, ditransitive actives have two passive counterparts. If it is the indirect object that is externalised they call the thus created passive as first passive . The version with the direct object externalised is called second passive . These terms are based on the linear position of the relevant object in the active construction.
Indirect object as the subject of passive construction
Jespersen (1933: 121) records that originally only the direct object could be thus used, e.g. Her husband left her property → Property was left her by her husband . But during the last few centuries there has been a growing tendency to make the indirect object the subject in the passive (Jespersen 1933: 121). He proposes an explanation of this tendency in the fact that the greater interest started to be felt for persons than for things, which naturally led to the placing of the indirect before the direct object. It can be seen in the active They offered the butler a reward ; consequently the order in the passive becomes: The butler was offered a reward . Along with Jespersen’s conclusion,
Huddleston (1971: 97) claims that it is normally the indirect object that is mapped onto the concord subject in the passive. “Of the three types:
a) John was given the money b) The money was given to John c) The money was given John the first two are a good deal more usual than the third – Halliday explains this in terms of the comparative rarity of someone gave John the money in the reading where John
13 carries the tonic stress and is thus the focus of new information” (cited in Huddleston
1971: 97). The case b) derives from (someone) gave the money to John: in accordance with the previous observations it is the only passive version of that clause (which is not ditranstive). However, c) is not ungrammatical, so that we must allow for two passive versions of (someone) gave John the money.
Another case when the subject of a passive construction can only be the former indirect object is found in Dušková. It is when a direct object is expressed via infinitive or subordinate clause, for example, I was given to understand that …., we were told to come at three , she was promised that the offer would remain open till her return
(Dušková 1988: 252). All in all, nowadays, ditransitive verbs can have a double passive construction in English because the subject of the passive voice can become either of the two objects. However, there are several restrictions as for the various types of predicates are concerned.
Huddleston (1971: 96) argues that with three place verbs like blame, present, provide, etc., where there is a choice as to which underlying preposition is deleted to yield a direct object, it is “only the noun phrase whose preposition has been dropped that may become concord subject of a passive” (Huddleston 1971: 96) – compare:
a) He blamed the error on John b) The error was blamed on John c) He blamed John for the error d) John was blamed for the error e) *John was blamed the error on f) *The error was blamed John for Further on Huddleston (1971: 97) singles out a group of verbs like envy , where there is never a preposition at the pre passive level, and in which only the indirect object may become concord subject: she was envied her good looks, *her office was envied her.
Dušková (1988: 253) summs up simply that the choice of the subject of the passive construction of a ditransitive verb is in line with functional sentence
14 perspective, this means that the subject is the former object with less degree of communicative dynamism. For example: John has been awarded the first prize – the first prize has been awarded to John . She adds that also an indirect inanimate object
(not only animate) can become the subject of a passive construction, for example the proposal bill will be given consideration to (Dušková 1988: 253) .
1.4.4 Verbs with adverbial particle
The passive voice is formed also from verbs with adverbial particle, or phrasal prepositional verbs, if they are transitive. For example: the scheme was given up ; their business relations have been broken off ; the offer was turned down (Dušková 1988:
251). The passive voice occurs also in transitive verbs which are tied to an adverbial particle and a preposition, e.g. inefficiency must be done away with ; such conduct cannot be put up with ; the losses have been made up for etc. (Dušková 1988: 252).
1.4.6 Summary
As has been mentioned above, the formation of the passive is in principle allowed in transitive verbs, if an object participates in the verbal action in such a way that the action passes over to it or which is somehow affected by the action. Some objective relations, however, express other semantic relations and then, even a transitive verb does not form the passive voice. We encounter this phenomenon in the cases when the verb’s meaning approaches the meaning of a copula and when the nature of an object borders on an adverbial.
1.4.7 The verb “have”
Have and get allow for the passive voice only in the infinitive, cf. there was nothing to be had/to be got . Marginally the passive voice occurs in the examples as
Besides, an enjoyable time was had by all for after the concert we invariably played poker till all hours (Dušková 1988: 258).
15 Have does not form the passive voice since it represents a transitive copula (a possessive relation can often be transformed to an attributive relation, cf. she has blue eyes – her eyes are blue , in case of get the impossibility to form the passive voice follows from its semantics of “to obtain or receive”: the subject has the same role as in the passive voice, cf. he got a watch = he was given a watch (Dušková 1988: 258).
1.4.8 Bare passive
As opposed to be passives and get passives, which are called expanded passives there is also the notion of a bare passive defined in the literature. These are the passive constructions which do not contain any auxiliary verb, like e.g. He saw Kim mauled by our neighbour’s dog. Since the verb is in the past participle form, such clauses are always non finite and thus restricted to subordinate position. Passive main clauses always contain either be or get (Huddleston, Pullum 2002: 1429 30).
1.5 Non formation of the passive voice
Except for the cases mentioned in chapter 1.3 where I discuss the active verbs which do not have any passive counterpart, along with Dušková (1988: 259), we encounter the non formation of the passive voice in the examples of locative and locativo possessive subject; the car leaks oil , in which the subject expresses the site where the intransitive action takes place. In the following, the book has sold over
100,000 copies, is the subject in a possessive relation towards the object . In the sentences as he burst a blood vessel , the subject is both the place of verbal action and at the same time the possessor towards an object. These cases do not allow for the passive voice because in principle they represent intransitive actions with an adverbial, cf. oil leaks from the car, in which the English, as opposed to Czech, is also susceptible of a subject construction (Dušková 1988: 255). Further, the passive voice cannot be formed
16 in verbonominal bonds of the following type: she gave an impatient sigh , and in cases like he groped his way ; we walked ten miles (Dušková 1988: 259).
1.5.1 Verbs which do not allow the passive voice
Further, as Dušková (1988: 258) enumerates, the passive voice cannot be formed in the following verbs: cost, last, measure, weigh, equal, mean, resemble, hold 3
(“contain”), lack, become (“befit”), suit, fit, escape and some others in the following cases and suchlike: it cost a lot of money , the supplies will last three weeks, the room measures twenty feet, two plus two equals four, ‘lucrative’ means ‘profitable’, the hall holds two hundred people, he lacks experience, this hat does not become you, the dress does not fit me, they escaped punishment . Inanimate objects in these verbs border on adverbials (we ask: how much does it cost /measure/weigh?, how long did it last?). The fact that the verbs semantically relate to copular verbs can be manifested by the possibility of use of a periphrastic construction by means of a copula, cf. it cost five pounds – the price was five pounds , it weighs two pounds – the weight is two pounds , she resembles her mother – she is like her mother, any weekday suits me equally well – any weekday is equally suitable .
1.5.2 Object restrictions
Generally it is valid that the subject of the passive voice can be transformed to the object of the active voice, nevertheless, during the operation in reverse direction, there are some restrictions put into effect. In addition to the restrictions following from the verbal semantics, there are also certain restrictions as for the nature of an object is concerned. Fundamentally, for the following objects it is impossible to make them the subject of the passive voice. Such objects are reflexive object, reciprocal and possessive object: he excused himself , they don’t know each other , she shrugged her shoulders . 3 If the verb has as well transitive meanings, the passive voice is formed in these meanings, cf. the conference will be held in May , it was meant as a compliment , the sample was weighed and measured and the like.
17 Furthermore, the subject of the passive usually cannot be any non finite clause (Quirk et al. 1974: 805 6), such as an infinitive object and participle object, for instance, I hate to contradict you , he admitted having acted thoughtlessly . In addition, finite clauses occur rarely in the passive, e.g. that such a possibility exists has been suggested before
(Dušková 1988: 259).
1.6 Relation of the active to the passive voice
The relation between the active and the passive voice is best visible in action verbs bearing a direct object, for example the state provides free education on all levels
– free education is provided on all levels (by the state) . In the active voice both participants in the action are obligatory, the agent is construed as a subject and the aim of action (patient) as an object. In the passive voice only patient is obligatory and is construed as a subject. The agent is ordinarily optional in the passive voice; if it is expressed, it has the form of agentive adverbial by means of prepositional phrase using by , in Czech by means of instrumental or genitive with od (Dušková 1988: 253).
Dušková notes that expression of the agent is obligatory in the passive voice in situations like the following: the cart was pulled by a horse , (not *the cart was pulled ), possibly the absence of an agent can compensate for other adverbial, cf. he was brought up by his aunt – he was brought up with great care but never * he was brought up
(1988: 253).
Although the relation between the active and the passive voice can be considered as an instant of syntactic synonymy, in real language expressions of their functional differentiation occurs. This differentiation follows predominantly from the facultativity of an agent in the passive voice. Linguists agree on the assertion that in a vast majority of cases the agent is unexpressed because it is either unknown, or is not relevant to the conveyed content from the point of view of the speaker. If the agent is expressed, the
18 passive voice enables different linear arrangement of the action’s participants. As a consequence of the change of syntactic functions, the agent and the patient interchange their positions in the passive voice. The different layout of the sentence can accommodate the purposes of the functional sentence perspective.
Semantic relation of the subject to the action is unambiguously determined only in the passive voice, which explicitly communicates that the subject is not the doer. In the active voice the semantic relation of the subject to the action expressed by the verb is more varied, the subject can be not only the doer of the action but also its bearer or can be somehow affected by the action. Such cases are similar to the passive constructions and we speak about an active with a passive meaning or about an unmarked passive voice (Dušková 1988: 253 4).
1.6.1 Actional versus statal passives
English passive constructed by means of the auxiliary verb be does not distinguish in between the expression of an action and the expression of a state. As contrasted to Czech, where an action and a state are indicated by different aspect, in
English the active or stative nature of the verb follows mostly from context, cf. all our effort is wasted – much effort is wasted on things like that ; my things are packed – my things are always packed by my wife (Dušková 1988: 262). The distinction between actional (or dynamic) and statal (or stative) passives can be drawn artificially by different sufficient and necessary conditions. This division can also be accounted for in terms of adjectival versus verbal passives since adjectival passives always have a stative interpretation (Huddleston, Pullum 2002: 1436 7).
Statal passives
Jespersen (1931: 92 3) makes a distinction between ‘conclusive’ and ‘non conclusive’ verbs; with the former the “action is either confined to one single moment,
19 e.g. catch, or implies a final aim, e.g. construct ”, whereas non conclusive verbs denote
“feelings, states of mind, etc.; the activity, if any such is implied, is not begun in order to be finished. As examples can be mentioned love, hate, praise, blame, see, hear. With conclusive verbs he goes on to distinguish two kinds of passive (1931: 98 9): a passive of becoming and a passive of being. Semantically, the passives of being describe the state resulting from an action, rather than the action itself (Biber et al. 1999: 936).
Curme (1931: 443 7) uses other terms to name the same; they are “actional” for the passives of becoming and “statal” for the passives of being. However, there may develop an ambiguity as for the type of the passive implied, especially if a sentence is lifted out of context, as e.g. his bills are paid. In case of actional passive interpretation this corresponds to the active (someone) pays his bills ; the statal passive reading on the other hand expresses the result of a past action: he (or someone) has paid his bills.
Huddleston (1971: 98) makes a primary division between ‘dynamic’ and ‘non dynamic’ verbs instead of Jespersen’s distinction of conclusive and non conclusive verbs. Huddleston’s concept differs in that it focuses only at the difference between actions and states, with no reference made to aim or aimlessness of a situation expressed by the verb. Dynamic verbs “express actions or processes” and non dynamic verbs express “states or relations”. Huddleston proceeds to comment on the passives of dynamic verbs, in which he tries to structurally depict the distinction between actional and statal type, as defined above. He asserts that in case of an actional passive and its active counterpart, such as
(i) a The wall was painted by John. b John painted the wall., the structures of (i)a and b are alike in that John is subject and the wall is direct object before the application of the passive transformation. Contrastively, statal passives,
20 unlike actional, have no direct active counterpart. The statal reading of his bills are paid with the finished meaning does not correspond to any active counterpart. According to
Huddleston and also Palmer, statal passives have essentially the same structure as copulative sentences with adjectival attributes, e.g. They were married when I last saw them (Palmer 1965: 68). They would analyze this sentence as “containing lexical (i.e. non auxiliary) be plus a past participle functioning as adjectival complement”
(Huddleston 1971: 99).
The category of the statal passive is rather ambiguous and, as Dušková (1988:
262) says, the past participle borders on an adjective and in some cases, the two merge.
This is the point when a subject cannot operate as an object of the active voice.
Thereafter we talk no longer about the passive, but about copular construction be + adjective, e.g. are you drunk or something? ; his expression was surprised ; his tone was annoyed etc. Therefore, it can be seen that what is considered by Huddleston and
Palmer as a typical statal passive, Dušková no longer considers to be a passive at all.
Huddleston (1971: 99) proposes one more test to distinguish actional from statal passive forms and that is the possibility of substitution for the participle of a statal passive by means of the pro form so. E.g. These motions are generally directed towards the plane but are not entirely so . On the other hand, so is not a possible substitute with actional passives: *the first liquid was heated and the second was so too (Huddleston
1971: 100).
Quasi passives
This borderline category “represents a ‘mixed’ class whose members have both verbal and adjectival properties” (Quirk et al. 1974: 809). They are verbal in having active analogues, for example John was interested in linguistics can be turned into active Linguistics interested John. The adjectival properties are the potentiality for a)
21 coordination of the participles with adjectives, b) adjectival modification with quite, rather, more, etc., c) replacement of be by a lexically ‘marked’ auxiliary (Quirk et al.
1974: 809). The members of this class are grading into be + predicative adjectives with stative meaning (Biber et al. 1999: 475).
Dušková (1988: 262) states that sometimes the quasi passives are not conceived of as passives at all, for example: I am tired / exhausted , he was surprised, annoyed , she was extremely upset , he was pleased, amused, satisfied and the like, because the participle can be modified by very, rather, much, more, too etc. which enables the coordination with an adjective and the use of another copular verb, e.g. I am very pleased, you look exhausted, he felt rather flattered etc. Also for Biber et al. it is enough to label an expression as adjectival participle if it allows modification by very (1999:
937). However, in all these cases a subject of the passive voice can function as an object of the active voice, cf. the journey tired her , the work exhausted him (Dušková 1988:
262) and that is the reason why I will include these cases into my analysis.
To confuse it a little bit more, adjectival past participle can have both transforms, copular be plus adjective and passive voice, depending on the context, cf. the changes are marked (1) (adjective), (2) the changes are marked (on the margin)
(past participle participating in the passive parallelism). Huddleston and Pullum (2002:
1431) distinguish between proper verbal passive, as is the (2) example, and adjectival passives (1), where the term ‘passive’ is used in extended and derivative sense.
1.6.2 Agent
If we want to mention who does the action of a passive verb, we add the agent , which is usually a noun phrase following the preposition by (Leech 1991: 331). More specifically, it is “the person deliberately carrying out the action described” (Hurford,
Heasley 1983: 220). The pre passive subject of a passive sentence, i.e. what would have
22 been the subject if the idea had been expressed in an active form, is regularly indicated by means of the preposition by : The city was destroyed by the French. The passive constructions with an expressed agent are also called agentive passives (Quirk et al.
1974: 808) or long passives (Biber et al. 1999: 475). Similarly, the passive constructions without an expressed agent are called agentless or short passives (ibid.). Huddleston and Pullum (2002: 1428) observe that the short passives have no exact active counterpart as for example the sentence Someone rejected his plan is the active counterpart of His plan was rejected by someone and not of His plan was rejected.
Huddleston and Pullum (2002: 1428) note that “with a small number of exceptions, the internalised component is omissible”. The exceptional cases where it is not omissible include those with precede or follow used in temporal sense, for example:
Dinner was preceded / followed by several speeches. In addition, the preposition by need not always introduce an gent phrase but has numerous other uses as well. For example, This result was achieved by dubious means where the by phrase functions as a means adjunct, just as it does in the active They achieved this result by dubious means
(Huddleston, Pullum 2002: 1428).
Instrumentals
In case there is a by phrase, there can occur a problem of determining whether it does in fact derive from the pre passive subject. There are two types often distinguished: instrumental versus agent. Where the by phrase has been given an instrumental interpretation ( by=with) , an active subject must be supplied, cf. Coal has been replaced by oil. [People in many countries] have replaced coal by oil (Quirk et al.
1974: 808 9). Fillmore (1968: 25) contrasts John opened the door and the key opened the door and finds the syntactic difference between John and the key demonstrated by
23 the fact that they cannot be coordinated, yet can be combined non coordinately: John opened the door with the key.
1.7 Why is the passive turn chosen?
The verbal voice determines the syntactico sematic relation that the participants of verbal action bear towards the action itself (Dušková 1988: 253). In the active voice, the subject is the “doer”, agent, or other generator of the verbal action, whereas in the passive voice the doer or agent is different from the subject, cf. they train ; and they are trained . As Leech (1991: 330) states, in most clauses the subject refers to the ‘doer’, or
‘actor’ of the action of the verb ( the cat chased the mouse ). However, the passive form allows us to put someone or something that is not the actor first, in the position of subject ( the mouse was chased by the cat ).
As a rule the person or thing that is the centre of interest at the moment is made the subject of the sentence, and therefore the verb is in some cases put in the active, in others in the passive. There are two basic types of the passive voice and each of them has different functions.
1. The passive without agent allows us to omit the ‘actor’ if we want to – e.g. if the
‘actor’ is not important or is not known:
“The post office has been robbed!” “Who did it?” “I don’t know!”
In fact, as Leech claims, “most passives have no agent phrase” (1991: 332). Also
Dušková thinks that the “primary function of the passive voice is to express a verbal action without any doer or actor” (translated from Dušková 1988: 259).
In the vast majority of cases the choice of the passive turn is due to one of the following reasons:
(I) The pre passive subject (i.e. what would be the subject if we had chosen the
active turn) is unknown or cannot easily be stated:
24 Her father was killed in the Boer war. I was tempted to go on.
(II) In the doctor was sent for neither the sender nor the person sent is
mentioned, because they present no interest to the speaker.
(III) The active subject is self evident from the context:
He was elected Member of Parliament for Leeds .
(IV) The short passive can be used to avoid identifying the person responsible
for some situation (Huddleston, Pullum 2002: 1446):
Mom! The vase got broken!
(V) There may be a special reason (tact or delicacy of sentiment) for not
mentioning the active subject; thus the mention of the first person is often
avoided, (in writing more frequently than in speaking):
You will be required to fill in the form .
(VI) It is well known feature of scientific writing that it has a higher proportion of
passives than most registers; the reason being the more objective flavour of
the texts without specific reference to the writer (Huddleston, Pullum 2002:
1446):
The solution was drained under a hydrogen atmosphere.
2. The passive with agent allows us to save the ‘actor’ to the end of the clause. This
is useful:
(VII) If the ‘ actor ’ is the most important piece of new information.
E.g. This painting is very valuable. It was painted by Van Gogh . Here the
most important information is the name of the painter.
(VIII) If the ‘ actor ’ is described by a long phrase which could not easily be the
25 subject. E.g. The school will always be remembered and supported by the
boys and girls who received their education here. Here the agent is a long
noun phrase (underlined).
(IX) Where it is indicated (“ converted subject ”) the reason why the passive turn is
preferred is generally the greater interest taken in the passive than in the
active subject (Jespersen 1933: 12 ):
The house was struck by lightning.
His son was run over by a car .
(X) The passive turn may facilitate the connection of one sentence with another:
He rose to speak, and was listened to with enthusiasm by the great crowd
present .
Ad 1. Since one of the major functions that the passive voice provides us with is the omission of the agent, therefore there is large number of the passive clauses which do not contain any by phrase. I will give here the reasons why now.
In many examples it can be argued that there is an agent understood: no specific mention is made of it because it is assumed to be recoverable from the context
(linguistic and/or situational). As Huddleston claims, “this type can be described formally by the familiar agent deletion transformation, which suppresses by + NP provided the latter is a pro form” (1971: 104). (The covert agent is understood to be, or to refer to, the writer; the writer is reporting a series of actions carried out by the same person, to specify the agent for each would involve a degree of repetition that is generally regarded as stylistically undesirable. This factor is likely to have favoured the selection of passive rather than active voice.)
A second large class of instances involves the generalized human ‘one’ or
‘people’, as in: It is said that the president will come . Thus the closest active version
26 would be something like People say that the president will come. The passive here contains no less information than the active, for say belongs to the class of verbs that must have a human subject at the pre passive level. According to Dušková (1988: 259), these sentences with unexpressed general doer are in narrow relation to the sentences with expressed general doer, ‘people’ or ‘man’, and are in some cases with these sentences interchangeable. In English the method of passive voice’s usage that implies a general doer to some extent compensates the lack of a widely used means of expressing a general human doer (as it is known from German – man, or from French – on ).
The type of the passive voice that implies a general human doer is used above all in professional jargon, for example several systems have been devised and tested , it is believed that the method yields safe results . In colloquial style the passive voice very often alternates with the active formulation, cf. that sort of man cannot be trusted/ you can’t trust that sort of man (Dušková 1988: 259).
Quite frequent type of the passive with unexpressed doer is the so called authorial passive , i.e. the actor is an author of an article, book, described work etc. The use of authorial passive is also characteristic of the professional jargon, since in this jargon the attention is turned to the subject of the message whereas the author’s personality is backgrounded. For instance: As has already been stated, the present study was originally undertaken in the hope of finding a satisfactory explanation for the difference between the uses of the expanded and non expanded verb clusters in English
(Dušková 1988: 260) .
The implied doer can be other identifiable or unidentifiable person or entity, the explicit expression of which is not relevant to the conveyed message or the speaker intentionally avoids its expressing; sometimes the implied doer is indefinite (somebody, something). For example, our team was beaten , the connection has been cut off . As
27 some examples show, the originator of an action of a verb is not always known. This is often the case with natural sciences, e.g. genes are arranged in fixed positions (Dušková
1988: 260).
Verbs which do not imply a human agentive at a deeper level present more of a problem in the passive. In some cases the only plausible explanation for the absence of an agent is that there is no corresponding participant involved in the process, i.e. there is no agent understood. For example His eyes were firmly imbedded in his face.
Huddleston (1971: 107) considers helpful to consider such constructions with regard to ergative verbs:
(i) a They quickly sold the book. b The book sold quickly. (ii) a He opened the door. b The door opened. (iii) a He marched the prisoners. b The prisoners marched. Huddleston calls such verbs as ‘ ergative ’ verbs, since
they suggest an ergative organization of the clause (one where a one place verb, i.e. a verb combining with a single noun phrase, takes an ‘affected’ element as subject, while a two place verb takes a ‘causer’ as subject and an affected element as object) rather than a transitive organization (one where a one place verb takes an ‘actor’ as subject and a two place verb an actor as subject and a ‘goal’ as object). (1971: 65 6)
Dušková’s attitude to the passive constructions without an expressed doer, which do not imply any doer since no agent suggests itself, is simplier. She claims that such constructions approach the intransitive constructions which sometimes develop into the coexistence of the passive and the active (intransitive) relation, without any substantial difference in their meanings. The active and the passive voice are in these cases more or less free variations, cf. the village is situated/lies on the bank of a lake, speech and thought are developed/develop simultaneously.
28 She notes that the free variation in between the active and the passive construction is not limited only to nonagentive passive voice, but occurs also in types implying a doer, e.g. he counts/is counted among the best , or even in types with an expressed doer, e.g. he was worried/ he worried about his brother . Other examples of nongentive passive are for example more than money is involved, the plain is exposed to northern winds, the two forms are distributed evenly ( Dušková 1988: 260).
Ad 2. The passive with an expressed doer is, in comparison with the passive with an unexpressed doer, substantially rarer, which follows from the main function of the passive voice and this is the suppression of the actor associated with the verbal action. In English, the passive with expressed doer enables a preverbal positioning of a patient and a post verbal positioning of an agent, which can be made use of as a tool of functional sentence perspective.
The inaminate adverbial with the preposition by in a passive sentence does not always represent a doer corresponding to an active sentence. If there is an implied animate doer, this is the question of adverbial of means, e.g. this difference was examined by statistical methods (we/the author examined the difference by statistical methods), he was treated by antibiotics (the doctor treated him by antibiotics).
Sometimes the adverbial with the preposition by is ambiguous in a passive sentence, since in an active sentence there can be both as a subject (doer) or as an adverbial
(means) corresponding to it, e.g. the order of the elements is indicated by subscripts: (1) the author indicates the order of the elements by subscripts, (2) subscripts indicate the order of the elements.
An adverbial with the preposition by can also be local or temporal. Such adverbials are, with regard to the relations between the active and passive voice, external, the changes of verbal voice do not affect them (it is the same as in the case of
29 the adverbial of means when there is an expressed or implied agent), cf. she was seated/sat by the open window, an agreement was reached/ they reached an agreement by midnight .
The inaminate doer can be introduced by means of another preposition. The choice of preposition is then determined by verbal regimen, e.g. she isn’t interested in sculpture (sculpture doesn’t interest her) , I am surprised at her attitude (her attitude surprises me) . Sometimes in the passive voice there is even the animate doer constructed with a preposition different from by , e.g. this fact wasn’t known to me , the need for more highly educated man power is reflected generally in the foundation of new universities (Dušková: 1988, 262).
Note: Also the prepositional phrase with a preposition different from by can be ambiguous in a passive sentence, with regard to the relation between an active and a passive sentence, e.g. the relative frequency of the two forms is shown in Table 1 : (1) the author shows the relative frequency of the two forms in Table 1 (adverbial), (2)
Table 1 shows the relative frequency of the two forms (subject) (Dušková 1988: 262).
1.7.1 Communicative dynamism
Communicative dynamism is a central feature of the Prague School theory of functional sentence perspective (FSP), which is concerned with the distribution of information as determined by all meaningful elements. Jan Firbas in his book
Functional Sentence Perspective in Written and Spoken Communication discusses the distribution of degrees of communicative dynamism over sentence elements and how this determines the orientation or perspective of the sentence. He examines the relation of theme and rheme to syntactic components, with particular attention to word order.
He defines communicative dynamism (CD) as “an inherent quality of communication and manifests itself in constant development towards attainment of a
30 communication goal; in other words, towards the fulfilment of a communicative purpose” (Firbas 1992: 7).
Firbas (1992: 8) claims that the CD of an English sentence often shows alignment with sentence linearity. In many cases, the actual linear arrangement of sentence elements is in agreement with a gradual rise of CD. Further he even suggests that “the element towards which the communication … is perspectived tends to occupy the final position” (Firbas 1992: 8).
Further, he distinguishes two basic principles which can be related to active and to passive sentence arrangement, respectively. The first is the grammatical principle or as he later modifies its name, FSP linearity principle, which manifests itself in that the sentence position of an element is determined by its syntactic function. In accordance with it English puts the subject before the predicative verb and the latter before the object. In addition to that, the principle of FSP arranges the sentence elements in a
Theme – Transition – Rheme sequence. If asserting itself to full extent, it orders the elements in accordance with a gradual rise in CD and induces the sentence to display the basic distribution of CD (Firbas 1992: 118).
The second is the principle of emphasis or as it is also termed the emotive principle. This principle orders the words in a way that strikes the recipient as more or less out of ordinary. This is due to the fact that the same words can appear in an order that does not create such an impression of unusualness. The unusual order fulfils an additional communicative purpose not served by the usual order, and is on this sense marked (Firbas 1992: 118).
As Jan Firbas (1992: 119) claims, Mathesius has shown that while in English the dominant role in the system of word order is played by the grammatical principle, in
Czech it is played by the FSP linearity principle. Further he asserts that “in comparison
31 with Czech, English is less ready to observe the Th Tr Rh sequence. This is because the grammatical principle renders English word order less flexible. In spite of it, English shows a strong tendency to render the grammatical subject thematic” (Firbas 1992:
119). The passive construction is one of the means of the English language which is employed to arrange the sentence elements in a Th Tr Rh sequence (Firbas 1992: 120).
32 2. The Czech language
The passive voice in Czech is defined under the same conditions as in English; we talk about the passive voice if the actor of an action does not stand in the position of grammatical subject (Trávníček 1949: 739). Particularly this situation is to be found in two cases: with or without the grammatical subject.
Formal analogy of the passive voice in English is the periphrastic passive in
Czech, which besides this has the reflexive passive at its disposal. I am going to deal only with the two parallel passive voices now, since their structure can be subject to comparison. There is a similar way of formation of the periphrastic passive in Czech and English, but it has restrictions as well. It is formed by the auxiliary verb be and the past participle, that is also the reason why it is called periphrastic passive. “The past participle can be formed solely in transitive verbs with expressed object” (translated from Rusínová 1996: 323). Dušková (1988: 250) elaborates that the formation is similar to English only in monotransitive verbs, i.e. verbs that take direct object. The subject of a passive construction is then the object of an active construction. Compare some details have been omitted with Czech některé podrobnosti byly vynechány (Dušková 1988:
250).
The periphrastic passive in present day Czech coalesces with predicate constructions which consist of an adjective and a verbal element (Rusínová 1996: 324)
This happens when the final state can be viewed as a quality of the subject: Byt byl zapečetěn / zapečetěný x V továrně jsou zavedena / *zavedená přísná ekologická opatření. Rusínová proposes a test to distinguish between the two meanings, which facilitates their proper usage as well. She suggests that the adjectival past participle can answer the question “What is it like?” (Rusínová 1996: 526). Thus Jaký je byt? – zapečetěný x Jaká jsou opatření? *zavedená. However, further Rusínová admits that it
33 is very difficult sometimes to find the difference between the two meanings (1996:
526).
2.1 Periphrastic passive
As has been mentioned above, this kind of passive voice can be in Czech used only in verbs which require an object, besides it is used predominantly in perfective verbs and its stylistic value is more or less literary and formal (Rusínová 1996: 525).
Sentences containing periphrastic passive can have either active or stative meaning
(unlike reflexive passive), whereas one of the most decisive factors is the verbal aspect:
a) sentences with perfective aspect
In sentences in which the auxiliary verb be is in past or future tense, the periphrastic construction can have both meanings: active or stative:
1. In sentences with active meaning an agent can be expressed. In such cases
the periphrastic passive is the only possibility: Byl jsem pochválen ředitelem.
2. In sentences with stative meaning, expressing a certain state as a
consequence of previous action, an agent cannot be expressed: Byt byl
uzamčen dva měsíce.
In sentences in which the auxiliary verb be is in present tense, the periphrastic passive has always the meaning of resultant state: Byt je uzamčen.
b) sentences with imperfective aspect
In these sentences the periphrastic passive has ordinarily active meaning.
However these are literary constructions which are perceived as affected style of speaking: Trávník je pravidelně stříhán (Rusínová 1996: 526). Only exceptionally such sentences with periphrastic passive have stative meaning: V Bibli je psáno, že si lidé mají odpouštět (Rusínová 1996: 526).
34 Havránek and Jedlička (2002: 105) state that the periphrastic passive in Czech can take different cases. In verbs which make it possible to bear an object in the second or in the fourth case, both passive types is grammatical: města bylo dobyto and město bylo dobyto.
2.1.1 Agent in periphrastic constructions
As opposed to reflexive passive forms, it is in most cases possible to express an agent, which is coded usually via instrumental: Byt byl zajištěn policií. This instrumental construction corresponds to the English by phrase in most Czech translations (Dušková 1988: 250). In individual verbs there are differences in government: an English verb, except for the instrumental, often corresponds to Czech verb with genitive and dative relation or with prepositional case, e.g. The aim has been reached – cíle bylo dosaženo (genitive relation); What is it called? – Jak se tomu říká?
(dative relation), Jak se to nazývá? (instrumental relation), What language is spoken there? – Jakým jazykem se tam mluví? (prepositional case) (Dušková 1988: 250 1). The genitive relation is sometimes joined via preposition od in Czech, e.g. Byl pokousán od psa. This preposition is preferred if the agent is non human.
According to Rusínová (1996: 524), some linguists overall distinguish between personal and impersonal passive in periphrastic constructions: Vilém Závada byl jmenován zasloužilým umělcem (personal passive), whereas examples like pevnosti bylo dobyto, cíle bylo dosaženo, projektu bylo využito are instances of impersonal passive.
She concludes that in practise it is not usual to come across sentences where the agent is specified through personal pronouns I and you: Syn byl mnou potrestán, Tebou o tom bylo rozhodnuto (rare) (Rusínová 1996: 524).
35 2.2 Special cases of the passive formation
2.2.1 Idioms
In English idiomatic collocations of verbs and prepositions (i.e. cases when the verb and preposition create a new semantic unit), e.g. reckon with behave in the same way as a one word verb as for the formation of the passive voice is concerned. The subject of a passive clause is again the object of an active clause and the preposition remains stuck to the verb: This possibility has been reckoned with . Such a construction does not exist in Czech: S touto možností se počítalo . The prepositional object (with this possibility) remains the same as in an active reformulation and the passive is formed as non subjective passive (Dušková 1988: 251).
2.2.2 Ditransitive verbs – which object will be transformed into subject?
Ditransitive verbs (verbs with a direct and an indirect object) have a double passive construction in English because the subject of the passive voice can become either of the two objects. On the contrary, in Czech, the subject of the passive voice can become only the direct object. For example, everyone is given an opportunity – každému je dána příležitost, an opportunity is given to everyone – příležitost je dána každému; he was assigned an important task – an important task was assigned to him byl mu přidělen důležitý úkol .
Dušková (1988: 252) notes that an indirect object often bears to in the passive.
Concurrently there occurs the passive with indirect object without to : a reward was given to him/given him . The choice of construction depends a great deal on individual verbs (Dušková 1988: 252).
36 2.2.3 Czech word order stands in for English passive voice
In English the passive with expressed doer enables a pre verbal positioning of a patient and a post verbal positioning of an agent, which can be made use of as a tool of functional sentence perspective. In Czech such a change can be reached via mere change of a word order, without any change of syntactic construction. An active construction with a changed word order is usually a counterpart of an English passive with expressed doer, namely when the doer is animate. In both languages then, the basic distribution of communicative dynamism is the same, with theme at the beginning and rheme in the end position. Compare In some animals the protection of the young is carried out by the males.
Also an inanimate doer can be in Czech constructed as a subject after an action verb, e.g. As a medical student I was impressed by the discipline in the operating theatre. Když jsem studoval medicínu, zapůsobila na mne kázeň v operačním sále .
However, more frequently, the passive is the same as in English, cf. Performance in particular subjects can be considerably affected by attitudes towards a teacher . Výkon v jednotlivých předmětech může být značně ovlivněn postoji k učiteli (Dušková 1988:
261).
2.2.4 Non formation of the passive
We encounter the non formation of the passive voice in the examples of locative and locativo possessive subject; the car leaks oil , in which the subject expresses the site where the intransitive action takes place, which in turn, expresses in the Czech by means of adverbial construction. In the following, the book has sold over 100,000 copies, is the subject in a possessive relation towards the object, cf. the Czech equivalent té knihy se už prodalo přes 100,000. In the sentences like he burst a blood vessel praskla mu céva, the subject is both the place of verbal action and at the same
37 time the possessor towards an object. These cases do not allow for the passive voice because in principle they represent intransitive actions with an adverbial, cf. oil leaks from the car, in which the English, as opposed to Czech, is also susceptible of a subject construction (Dušková 1988: 259).
2.2.5 Aspect of the Czech passive voice
English passive constructed by means of the auxiliary verb be does not distinguish in between the expression of an action and the expression of a state. As contrasted to Czech, where an action and a state are indicated by different aspect, in
English the active or stative nature of the verb follows mostly from context, cf. all our effort is wasted – much effort is wasted on things like that ; my things are packed – my things are always packed by my wife (Dušková 1988: 262) .
2.2.6 Other auxiliary verbs in periphrastic passive
In Czech as well as English the periphrastic passive can be formed also by means of other auxiliary verbs than the basic verb be, for example: Problém zůstal nevyřešen, Tento problém nemáme dosud vyřešen, (Hladká, Karlík 2004: 391), Pavel dostal vynadáno (Grepl, Karlík: 1986, 168). These syntactic constructions serve as basic means of secondary diathesis which is characterized by the removal of an agent from its subject position (Grepl, Karlík: 1986, 167)
2.2.7 Non subjective (impersonal) passive
The instances of impersonal passive, as they are mentioned by Rusínová (1996:
524) or by Havránek and Jedlička (1981: 236) merge with the non subjective passive as it is defined by Trávníček (1949: 740). It is characterised by the absence of grammatical subject in a periphrastic construction. It occurs relatively rarely, partly in cases like města bylo dobyto, which contain expressed indirect object of perfective action, partly in similar cases without an object, bylo oznámeno. The former case can be altered into
38 subjective variant by use of nominative case instead of the genitive (Trávníček 1949:
740). The English passive is always binominal, i.e. contains a subject. Monominal passive like the non subjective passive rozkazu bylo uposlechnuto does not have analogy in English. Against Czech monominal sentences in English there are binominal ones with the expressed subject which corresponds to various Czech cases (except for nominative and accusative): the command was obeyed (Dušková 1988: 265).
2.3 Reflexive passive
This passive construction is formed by means of a verb shaped as in active like shaped verb plus the reflexive pronoun se, e.g. noviny se tisknou (Daneš 1955: 58).
Havránek and Jedlička (2002: 105) argue that the subject of the reflexive passive is ordinarily material rather than personal. The reflexive passive has certain restrictions on its use:
1. In the sentences with reflexive passive, it is impossible to express an agent, except for the case when the agent is represented by the semantic notion “place” or
“time”, and then it takes the form of place or time adverbial: Na dráze se zavedly nové typy jízdenek . If the reflexive passive is conveyed by means of time or place adverbial, it can hold the shape of instrumental or adverbial case: Nová ústava Parlamentem / v
Parlamentě schválena hned napoprvé (Rusínová 1996: 524). We say that the reflexive passive bears de agentive function (Rusínová 1996: 324). Štícha in his essay directly suggests calling the reflexive passive as reflexive deagentive (in Hladká, Karlík 2004:
391). Also Dušková (1999: 177) claims that the reflexive passive may be called non agentive since in the events involved the question of agency does not arise. On the other hand sentence containing the reflexive passive largely imply the general human agent.
Hence agency, though merely implicit, is a relevant semantic feature of this type of clauses (Dušková 1999: 177)
39 2. Reflexive passive is limited to the third person. This means that it is impossible to use this construction if the patient is the speaker or addressee and in majority of cases even if the patient is a human person: Maminka umývá malou Janičku
→* Malá Janička se umývá. In such case it is possible to use only the periphrastic passive: Malá Janička je umývána (maminkou). Otherwise a homonymy with the sentence containing predicate in the active voice can occur. The reflexive particle se acquires then the function of an object and expresses that the agent and patient are the same person (Rusínová 1996: 524).
3. Sentences with reflexive passive have meaning of an action, especially in imperfective verbs (Havránek, Jedlička 1981: 237). That is why the reflexive passive is preferred (grammatically and also stylistically) in imperfective verbs which imply some agent: S tím se počítalo již dávno is more appropriate than S tím bylo počítáno již dávno
(Rusínová 1996: 525).
4. In case of intransitive verbs the phenomenon in question is not the passive voice but anonymization of an agent , for example, Sedí se tam dobře (Rusínová 1996:
324).
2. 4 Functions
Generally the shift in between the points of view with respect to active (point of view of an agent, actor, doer, performer) and passive (point of view of a patient, experiencer) voice is included in the term de agentative transformation (translated from
Grepl, Karlík 1998: 133). More concretely this is the question of de agentization of the type agent – patient . The agent is displaced from the subject position and its placed is taken up by an element with the role of a patient (Grepl, Karlík 1998: 133).
There are many motives that can inspire a speaker or writer to remove agent from its position of the subject of a sentence. And in texts the various motives often
40 combine. The enumeration of reasons given by Rusínová (1996: 528) includes anonymization, generalization, secondary attention paid to an agent or emphasis on different semantic role of an agent than agentive.
First of all, an agent can be backgrounded which means that it is not expressed in the hierarchically highest position in a sentence. This can be reached only by means of periphrastic passive. Anonymization of an agent means that it is unexpressed in any sentence position, which occurs due to its unimportance and irrelevance for the given situation, or when the speaker does not know the agent (or does not want to know). For these purposes both passive forms can be used: Moje motorka byla opravována asi týden; Moje motorka se opravovala asi týden.
Generalization of an agent differs from anonymization only in the incentive leading to non expression of an agent which is the fact that the agent can be anybody who comes into consideration with regard to the action described by the verb. This can be reached by means of reflexive passive: Před ale se píše čárka or less frequently, by periphrastic passive: Toho nařízení není dbáno (Rusínová 1996: 528).
As for the different semantic role than agentive is concerned, this is the domain solely of the reflexive passive which make the agent remove from its subject position into a dative position which consequently results in the weakening of its agentive nature. Thus other natures come into foreground:
1. “Experiencer” – Spalo se mi dobře. The emphasis put on the experiencing of the
agent shows through the expressions like the following: dobře, špatně, lehce,
snadno which characterize the intensity of the experience.
2. “Intentionality” – Petrovi se chtělo spát. The reflexive passive containing modal
verb chtít is used.
41 3. “Non agentive” – Petrovi se rozlilo mléko. Such a sentence unambiguously
indicates that the action happened not on purpose.
Daneš (1964: 222) sticks at the phrases like for example Četa byla nastoupena.
He points at the fact that the verb in question is intransitive and thus it is impossible to form the passive voice. In comparison with a very similar sentence Četa byla napadena the two sentences look alike which would suggest the passive voice. However, in the former case, as Daneš draws to attention, the used construction is not a representative of the passive voice and the past participle nastoupena has “validity of an adjective here and in connection with the verbal element byla it does not form verbal expression”
(translated from Daneš 1964: 222 3). Rather on the contrary, it is analogous to the type of sentences as strom je rozkvetlý, rybník je zamrzlý.
2.5 Stylistic differences between periphrastic and reflexive passive
Solely periphrastic passive voice is used in constructions like být chválen, jmenován, trestán, odsouzen etc. where it really has the meaning of “passivity”: the subject is able to passively receive given activity and submit to it.
Solely reflexive passive is used in expressions like prodá se (dům), zvyšuje se
(nájemné), hledá se (zařízený pokoj). Also intransitive verbs (verbs which take an object in a case different from the fourth) construct the passive voice exclusively by reflexive form: vypráví se o tom v celém městě. Since the use of this passive form is limited to the third person of both numbers, if it is required to express oneself about a first and second person we have to use periphrastic passive: byl jsem přeložen na jiné pracoviště.
To sum it up, the possibility of choice between the two passive constructions is available (except for the above mentioned cases) only in case of a third person.
Periphrastic passive is used always if we wish to express an actor. If an emphasis is focused on the activity itself and an agent is unexpressed we use the reflexive passive:
42 svetry se nosí za špatného počasí. The same is valid for sentences with impersonal subject: říká se, hovořilo se.
The use of periphrastic passive is to a great amount connected with professional style because in passive generally the actionality is strongly reduced and the view of a situation as a state resulting from previous action is stressed and foregrounded
(especially in passives of perfective verbs): přehrada byla postavena .
Thus periphrastic passive voice is a part of strongly or even fully stative phraseology and that is why it is not suitable for narrative style or news reporting
(Novinářský studijní ústav, 1955, 59). In such instances it is replaced by reflexive passive which maintains the actionality of a situation to the full.
43 3. Tables The following Table 1 provides a summary of the occurrences of the passive voice in the twenty explored short stories by O.Henry. Individual entries are reserved for verbs which function as idiomatic expressions, for example the verb play is distinguished from the perfective play out by separate analysis. The analysis includes the indication of an agent, specification of an agent (attached via by phrase: here I distinguish between human and non human agent; attached via the preposition with or by means of any other preposition which is then stated in the respective column). The abbreviation “Imp (hum)” stands for a situation when the human agent is unexpressed, nevertheless it can be deduced either from the previous verbal context or the agent is represented by, what is called, generalized human doer, which is usually conditioned by the nature of a concrete verb, for example the verb arrange presupposes a human actor.
Unknown doer completes the possibilities as for an agent is concerned by accounting for all cases when an agent is unexpressed owing to the fact that it is unknown at all
(e.g. his eyes were firmly imbedded in his face ), when the agent cannot be thought of and created with the given verb (e.g. the old restaurant is gone ), or when it is unclear whether the agent is human or non human (e.g. the window was opened – by wind or by somebody?).
Attention is also paid to the tense of the passive voice, the basic tenses are marked by words “past, present, future” with the expression “perfect” added behind if it is the case. The fact that the passive voice has been expressed in progress is indicated by the abbreviation “cont.” (continuous) following after the appropriate tense. I include an infinitive form as one of the “Tense category”. Finally the information about the formal aspects of a passive phrase is ended by demonstration of the presence of negation in the phrase.
44 The presence of a value is marked via number 1 (if not specified further). The various colours are applied when there is more than one occurrence of a same verb in the texts and where an ambiguity would otherwise arise. The differentiation of the colours and their assignment to individual instances is rather intuitive and does not need further explanation. I do not include the statistics concerning the incidence proportion of the passive as a percentage of all (inc. active) verbal occurrences since it is a well known and well proven fact that the way of expression by means of the active voice is preponderant in language.
3. 1 Table 1 Verb Passive By By With Other Imp Uknw. Tense Neg. (hum) (Non prep. (hum) doer hum) accompany 1 1 past perfect 1 accomplish 1 1 present perfect 1 administer 1 1 past admit 1 1 past allow 4 4 present 2x; future, 1 inf. arrange 1 1 present arrest 1 1 future ask 1 1 past assign 1 1 past perfect awaken 1 1 past perfect back up 1 1 past balk 1 1 inf. bark 1 1 inf. bear 3 3 past 2x; inf. begin 1 1 past believe 1 1 inf. beset 1 1 present bless 1 1 present perfect blockade 2 1 in past 2x bog 1 1 present book 1 1 past break up 1 past buck 1 1 inf. build up 1 1 inf. burden 1 past button 1 1 past cage 1 1 present call 3 3 past; present 2x carry 1 1 past charge 1 past churn 1 1 inf. close ½ 1 past perfect
45 Verb Passive By By With Other Imp Uknw. Tense Neg. (hum) (Non prep. (hum) doer hum) compare 1 1 inf. 1 complete 1 1 past connect 1 1 past consider 1 1 present consume 1 1 past corner 1 1 present cover 3 2 past 2x; present dash 1 on past deal with 1 1 inf. declare 1 1 past defeat 1 1 present 1 deliver 1 1 inf. demolish 1 1 past deny 2 1 1 present; past 1 descend 1 from past 1 from direct 1 1 past perfect discover 1 1 future dismiss 1 1 past dispatch 2 from 1 past; past perfect dispossess 1 1 past perfect dispute 2 1 1 past; inf. do 2 2 present; past drag 1 1 past draw 1 1 past dress 1 1 past drive away 1 1 past embrace 1 1 past perfect end 1 1 past enter 1 1 past perfect entrance 1 1 past erect 1 1 inf. escort 1 1 past perfect examine 1 1 past expect 1 1 inf. 1 feed 1 1 present fill 3 2 1 past 3x 1 find 3 1 + 1 1 Inf.; present; past 1 finish 1 1 past fire 1 1 past fix 1 1 past flag 1 1 past flank 1 1 past flutter 1 1 past force 2 2 present, past forget 1 1 past perfect forgive 1 1 inf. frown 1 1 present gather 1 1 past give 1 1 past perfect go 3 3 present 2x; past hale 1 1 past perfect hang 2 2 past, inf. have 1 1 inf. 1
46 Verb Passive By By With Other Imp Uknw. Tense Neg. (hum) (Non prep. (hum) doer hum) heap 1 1 past hear 1 1 future hedge 1 past hem in 1 past hold 2 1 1 past, future hold up 1 ½ ½ present perfect house 1 in present imbed 1 1 past import 1 1 past impress 1 1 present include 1 1 present inform 1 1 present perfect instruct 1 1 present intend 2 1 1 past 2x intermix 1 1 past perfect 1 interrupt 1 1 past introduce 1 1 present perfect 1 jar 1 past keep in 1 1 past kidnap 2 1 1 past 2x knock down 1 1 past lay 2 around 1 past, future leave 2 1 1 past 2x light 1 1 present light 1 1 past lose 2 1 present; past make 3 1 + 1 1 past; inf.; past perfect make up 1 from past perfect manufacture 1 1 present mark 1 1 present mean 1 1 present miss 1 1 inf. mistake 3 3 past; present perfect; present name 4 4 inf. 2x; past; past inf. need 1 1 past occupy 1 1 past open 1 1 past order 1 1 past overcharge 1 1 past overcome 1 1 past overpower 1 1 past paint 1 1 inf. patrol 1 1 present pay 1 1 past perfect peel 1 1 past 1 perform 1 1 past permeate 1 1 past play 2 2 present; past cont. play out 1 1 past perfect
47 Verb Passive By By With Other Imp Uknw. Tense Neg. (hum) (Non prep. (hum) doer hum) precipitate 1 1 past prey 1 1 present proclaim 1 1 present prompt 1 1 inf. pull 1 1 past quench 1 1 past raise 2 2 past 2x realize 1 1 inf. 1 rebuff 1 1 past receive 3 3 past; future; inf. re christen 1 1 past perfect recognize 1 1 past record 1 1 past recruit 1 1 past refill 1 1 past request 1 1 past perfect restore 2 2 past; inf. reveal 1 in past rouse 1 past say 2 2 past 2x scatter 1 1 past scuttle 1 1 present perfect season 1 1 past 1 seat 2 2 past 2x see 1 1 past sell 1 1 present serve 3 3 inf.; past` present set 1 1 present sew 1 1 past perfect shoot 1 1 past perfect 1 shove 1 1 past show 2 1 1 past 2x shrink 1 1 past situate 1 1 present smooth 1 1 past 1 spend 2 2 past; past perfect 1 step on 1 1 past perfect stew 1 present store 1 1 present stray 1 1 present stretch 1 1 past sub let 1 1 inf. 1 supply 1 1 past suppose 1 1 past suspend 1 1 past tag 1 1 present perfect take 2 1 1 past 2x 1 tattoo 1 1 past tear away 1 1 past perfect tear down 1 1 past tell 3 1 1 + 1 past; inf.; present perfect tempt 1 1 present think 1 1 past
48 Verb Passive By By With Other Imp Uknw. Tense Neg. (hum) (Non prep. (hum) doer hum) tie 1 1 past tie down 1 to present 1 torture 1 1 inf. trample 1 1 past transfer 1 1 inf. trim 1 1 past perfect tuck in 1 1 present tug 1 1 past typewrite 1 1 past perfect use 2 1 1 present, inf. waken 1 1 present wash 1 1 past perfect wear 2 2 inf. 2x 2 whistle 1 1 inf. wipe out 2 2 past; future witness 1 1 inf. worship 1 1 inf. wreck 1 1 past write 1 1 past
49 3.2 Table 2 Each instance of the passive voice entered in the Table 1 is illustrated by an appropriate example in Table 2 which cites the relevant passages containing the passive expression in English. In parallel, the correspondent Czech translations of the excerpts are offered for comparison. By letter “D” placed in front of a passage I chose to mark a direct speech periscope. The passive construction in English is marked off in bold letters including the highlighted agentive preposition if there is any. In Czech translations then, in bold are pointed out passages which correspond to the English passive constructions, regardless of the used voice or form. The English abstracts are ordered alphabetically, whereas the first letters of the highlighted passive construction’s lexical verb are considered as determinative. The abstracts are numbered in order to serve as examples in the following analytical part.
1 […], had they not been accompanied […], nebýt toho, že je provázela […] by […] vanity (p. 124) marnivost (HT 4, p. 82) 2 This could not have been Toho nemohlo býti dosaženo […] (HT, accomplished […] (p. 25) p. 75) 3 With the effect of a schoolmaster Úder měl stejný účinek jako vstup entering the play room of his pupils učitele do třídy. (VŠ 5, p. 93) was that blow administered. (p. 397) 4 2x […] you were admitted […] to […] směli jste pojíst. (VŠ, p. 88) dine. (p. 393) 5 D Why am I not allowed to accept this Proč nesmím přijmout nabídku […]? […] offer? (p. 408) (HT, p. 53) 6 D But I’ m allowed to meet her […] (p. Smín na ni počkat […] (ZH 6, p. 249) 223) 7 D […] tenants should be allowed to […] budou sloužit nájemníkům jako use […] (p. 333) […] (HT, p. 160) 8 D […] girls […] who will in time be […]děvčat, kterým bude časem allowed to accept […] (p. 408) dovoleno přimout […] (HT, p. 53)
4 HT stands for the short stories’ collection called Harlemská tragédie a jiné povídky . 5 VŠ stands for the short stories’ collection called Vrtkavá štěstěna aneb jak se Gladys činila a jiné povídky . 6 ZH stands for the short stories’ collection called Zpověď humoristova .
50 9 D Every hour […] is arranged for Každá hodina […] je zadána dny days in advance. (p. 223) předem. (ZH, p. 249) 10 D […] you will be arrested by one of […], naši agenti vás zatknou. (HT, p. our agents. (p. 408) 53) 11 D […] here’s a note I was asked to Byl jsem požádán , abych vám jej hand you. (p. 261) odevzdal. (ZH, p. 85) 12 The merry top riders had been Ochotný vedoucí ukázal účastníkům assigned to their seats by the jejich místa. (VŠ, p. 79) gentlemanly conductor. (p. 251) 13 […] they had been awakened […] by […] byli probuzeni […] výstřelem z the noise of a pistol shot […] (p. 71) pistole […] (VŠ, p. 107) 14 […] it was backed up by the muzzle […] situaci jistila hlaveň zadovky. (HT, of a breech loader. (p. 27) p. 76) 15 […], yet will his prowess be balked […] než by vydobyl sůl […] (VŠ, p. 23) when he comes to wrest salt […] (p. 276) 16 […], to be barked at by hopeful […] a soustřeďujíce na sebe pokřiky cabmen […] (p. 395) nadějných taxikářů […] (VŠ, p. 91) 17 […] the Spaniard was bearded again […] setkání provázely posměšky na in recapitulation. (p. 324) adresu Španělů. (HT, p. 107) 18 […] winter season was well begun. (p. […] byla zimní sezóna v plném 127) proudu . (HT, p. 87) 19 […] if countenances are to be believed […] pokud bylo možno věřit zdání […] […] (p. 74) (VŠ, p. 110) 20 […] the roads […] are beset with Kolem cest […] jsou ‚nástrahy a gin‛ “pitfall and with gin”. (p. 406) […] (HT, p. 50) 21 D […] I ’ve been blessed with since […], kolik jsem nezažil od doby, co […] (p. 325) […] (HT, p. 108) 22 D He was blockaded in a tangled mess Byl zablokován v klubku povozů a of vehicles and horses. (p. 224) koní. (ZH, p. 250) 23 The sidewalk was blockaded with Na chodníku došlo k tlačenici , sightseers […] (p. 251) vyvolané čumily, […] (VŠ, p. 79) 24 […] that little Alice is bogged […] (p. […], že se malá Alenka zabořila do 216) bahna […] (VŠ, p. 7) 25 Keogh was booked for a passage […] Keogh si zamluvil místo pro […] (p. 125) přeplavbu. (HT, p. 84) 26 I was born a yellow pup; […] (p. 213) Narodil jsem se jako žluté štěně; […] (VŠ, p. 6) 27 D […] we happened to be born there. […] se přihodilo, že jsme se tam (p. 178) narodili. (VŠ, p. 21) 28 D The madam was broken up worst of Nejvíce ze všeho to ale postihlo paní all. (SR 7, p. 50) domu; […] (ZH, p. 186) 29 D […] rules […] couldn’t be bucked […] zákony […] nelze zvrátit ani for a yard by a team of ten desetispřežením milionářů. (ZH, p. 250) millionaires. (p. 223) 30 D Now, that business could be built Dal by se z něho vybudovat docela up . (p. 374) slušný obchod. (VŠ, p. 46) 7 SR stands for the short stories’ collection called The Skylight Room and Other Stories ; all the other unmarked abstracts are taken from my main source 69 Short Stories .
51 31 D […] baggage […] with which his […] nebo cokoli, co by mu ztěžovalo flight was burdened . (p. 75) útěk. (VŠ, p. 111) 32 His shabby coat was buttoned high Ošumělý kabát byl zapnut na všechny […] (p. 295) knoflíky […] (ZH, p. 215) 33 Thus an animal […] acts when it is Takhle si počíná zvíře, když je lidé dají caged […] (p. 294) do klece (ZH, p. 213) 34 D I’ m called the Llano Kid in the Rio V kraji kolem Ria Grande mi však Grande country. (SR, p. 48) říkají Llano Kid. (ZH, p. 185) 35 […] hummed what is still called a […] si pobrukovala něco, čemu se chanson […] (p. 395) dosud říká […] chanson. (VŠ, p. 90) 36 The black and tan was called Černožlutýmu říkají Cukrouš. (VŠ, p. “Tweetness”. 7) 37 It was charged that not only had he Tvrdilo se, že nejen udělil […] (HT, p. given away […] (p. 133) 94) 38 D […] or the thing in which it was […] či ta věc, v níž měly být uloženy carried […] (p. 71) […] (VŠ, p. 106) 39 […] wit that can be churned out of […] důvtipem, vyvolaným California claret. (p. 397) kalifornským červeným vínem. (VŠ, p. 94) 40 ½ […]; but the majority of the doors Většina dveří však patřila obchodním belonged to business places that had podnikům, jež byly už dávno zavřené. long since been closed . (p. 259) (ZH, p. 82) 41 Nothing could be compared with […] se s tím nedalo nic jiného them […] (p. 310) porovnat . (HT, p. 46) 42 […] picture was completed […] (p. […] obraz je hotov […] (HT, p. 92) 132) 43 […] its cause was connected , […], […], že neklid nějak souvisí s with the slowly moving hands of the ručičkami časoměru, pomalu se time piece. (p. 247) pohybujícími. (ZH, p. 303) 44 D I told him it was considered a Řekl jsem mu, že to je věrná podoba. faithful likeness. (p. 297) (ZH, p. 217) 45 Tons of brew have been consumed Při pátrání […] byly již zkonzumovány over theories […] (p. 177) tuny várek různého druhu. (VŠ, p. 19) 46 […] a cur that is cornered by his […] psa, kterého pronásledovatelé tormentors. (p. 295) zahnali do kouta . (ZH, p. 215) 47 […] and […] his paper is covered! (p. […] a […] papír je popsán! (VŠ, p. 85) 391) 48 The walls […] were covered with Stěny […] byly pokryty původními original sketches by the artists who kresbami umělců, kteří […] (VŠ, p. 88) […] (p. 393) 49 […] his breast was covered […] with […] byla jeho hruď poseta […] kříži, croses, […] (p. 125) […] (HT, p. 83) 50 They […] were dashed on the crest of […] a na hřbetu mohutné vlny a great human wave of pleasure mad poblázněných návštěvníků prahnoucích seekers […] (p. 329) po zábavě byli unešeni […] (HT, p. 155) 51 […] and one who was not to be […] a mužem, s nímž se nedalo carelessly dealt with […] (p. 72) lehkomyslně jednat […] (VŠ, p. 107) 52 […] Thanksgiving Day was declared […] Den Díkuvzdání je vyhlášen […] […] (p. 309) (HT, p. 44)
52 53 But I am not defeated . (p. 397) Nevzdal jsem se však. (VŠ, p. 93) 54 […] it would be delivered to him. (p. […] mu bude bezpečně doručen . (VŠ, 176) p. 18) 55 His pictures […] were demolished . (p. […] ničili jeho portréty. (HT, p. 94) 133) 56 It cannot be denied that […] (p. 323) Nelze popřít , že […] (HT, p. 105) 57 Humans were denied the speech of Lidem není dopřáno dorozumívat se se animals. (p. 215) zvířaty. (VŠ, p. 8) 58 […], Virginians who weren’t […], lidi z Virginie, kteří neodvozovali descended from Pocahontas, […] (p. svůj původ od Pocahontas, […] (VŠ, p. 177) 20) 59 […] that had hitherto been directed at […], který do té doby šetřili výlučně Aileen alone. (p. 279) pro Aileenu. (VŠ, p. 27) 60 By reference to the almanac a large Podle jednoho kalendáře jeho paprsky amount of territory will be discovered dopadaly současně na další rozlehlé upon which its rays also fell. (p. 180) území. (VŠ, p. 11) 61 D A police captain […] was dismissed […] policejní kapitán […] byl […] from force […] (p. 373) propuštěn ze sboru. (VŠ, p. 45) 62 A sailor had been dispatched for the Poslal plavčíka pro chybějící náklad missing cargo. (SR, p. 47) […] (ZH, p. 184) 63 Colonel Emilio Falcon […] was Touto důležitou misí byl pověřen […] dispatched from the capital upon this plukovník Emilio Falcon. (VŠ, p. 105) important mission. (p. 70) 64 […] ghost that had been dispossessed . […] jako nějaký vypuzený duch. (VŠ, (p. 372) p. 44) 65 Goodwin was not to be disputed . (p. O Goodwinovi nebylo třeba 75) pochybovat . (VŠ, p. 112) 66 […] up hill charge that was disputed […] útoku do kopce, který byl […] […] by the Spaniards and afterward by kritizován jak Španěly tak později the Democrats. (p. 323) Demokraty […] (HT, p. 105) 67 D It’ s done , […] (p. 298) Hotovo , […](ZH, p. 218) 68 […] when wrong or harm was done to […] kdykoli bylo některému z nich one of them. (SR, p. 46) ublíženo, […](ZH, p. 182) 69 […] the ranchman was dragged away . […] rančer byl vlečen pryč, […] (HT, (p. 407) p. 52) 70 The shades were drawn , […] (p. 248) Žaluzie byly staženy […] (ZH, p. 304) 71 He was dressed all in black, […] (p. Byl celý v černém […] (HT, p. 45) 310) 72 […], but were driven away by the […], byly však odehnány vojskem, military, […] (p. 133) […] (HT, p. 94) 73 Not even Aileen herself had been Ani samotná Aileen nebyla veřejně publicly embraced […] (p. 278) objata […] (VŠ, p. 27) 74 […] the inquiry was ended […] (p. 76) […] vyšetřování je u konce , […] (VŠ, p. 113) 75 […] negotiations […] had been […] došlo k […] jednání […] (HT, p. entered into […] (p. 133) 95) 76 If the transients were entranced by the Jsou li občasní hosté Aileenou fascinating Aileen, […] (p. 277) okouzleni, […] (VŠ, p. 24) 77 In every town he caused to be erected V každém městě dal postavit své statues of himself […] (p. 125) pomníky […] (HT, p. 83)
53 78 […] the prince had been escorted to […] princ byl komorníkem vyveden ze the door by the butler […] (p. 372) dveří […] (VŠ, p. 43) 79 Two or three who were thus examined Dva nebo tři z těch, kdož byli takto […] (p. 71) vyslýcháni , […] (VŠ, p. 106) 80 A yellow dog […] mustn’t be expected Od žlutého psa […] nelze očekávat to perform any tricks […] (p. 213) žádné zázraky […] (VŠ, p. 6) 81 D Now, while you are fed and […] (p. Tak a teď, když jsme se dobře najedli a 394) […] (VŠ, p. 90) 82 The benches were not filled; […] (p. Lavičky nebyly obsazené ; […] (ZH, p. 246) 302) 83 Her soul was filled with a […] joy. (p. Její duše byla naplněna […] radostí. 396) (VŠ, p. 92) 84 The hallways were suddenly filled Chodba byla pojednou plná hluku. with sound. (p. 363) (HT, p. 7) 85 D When it was finished […] (p. 297) Když byl dokončen […] (ZH, p. 217) 86 D […] when the shot was fired , […] […], když už jsem byl za výstřelu […] (p. 73) (VŠ, p. 109) 87 […], tablets were fixed […] (p. 125) […] byly desky […] (HT, p. 83) 88 But at Webb, […], where it was Když však vlak zastavil ve Webbu, flagged to take on a traveller, […] (SR, […], aby přibral cestujícího, […] (ZH, p. 46) p. 182) 89 […] whose steps were flanked by two […], u jejíhož schodiště zářila po green lights. (p. 373) stranách dvě zelená světla. (VŠ, p. 45) 90 The boarders on the steps were Nájemníci na schodech se vylekali . fluttered. (p. 181) (VŠ, p. 12) 91 […] they are forced to seek […] (p. […] jsou nucena vyhledávat […] (HT, 333) p. 160) 92 […] Tommy Tucker, who was forced […] Tommy Tuckera, který byl nucen to hand out vocal harmony for […] (p. rozdávat vokální harmonii za […] (ZH, 296) p. 216) 93 D I wanted to be forgiven , […] (p. Chtěl jsem, aby mi bylo odpuštěno . 249) (ZH, p. 304) 94 […] he had discovered that one of the […], když zjistil, že byla zapomenuta necessaries of life, […], had been jedna z jeho životních potřeb, […] (ZH, forgotten . (SR, p. 47) p. 184) 95 […] space for […] a chair was not to […] ani nezbylo místo pro […] židli. be found . (p. 125) (HT, p. 84) 96 But beneath hard the crust […] is Avšak I pod tvrdou korou […] bývá found a delectable and luscious food. lahoda! (VŠ, p. 14) (p. 182) 97 […] it was found that the Kid had […], zjistilo se , že se Kid dopustil committed an indiscretion, […] (SR, p. hlouposti […] (ZH, p. 181) 44) 98 […], for […] .45s are frowned upon […], protože městští strážníci nelibě by town marshals, […] (SR, p. 47) pohlížejí na revolver ráže .45 […] (ZH, p. 184) 99 […] near which were gathered […] […],u nichž postávalo […] asi dvacet some twenty […] girls. (p. 410) […] děvčat. (HT, p. 56)
54 100 […] cats […] saw reason to give Kočky […] div že si neukroutily krky z thanks that prehensile claws had been toho, jak jsem je přehlížel. (VŠ, p. 10) given to them. (p. 217) 101 Rita’s cough is almost gone. (p. 380) Rita se už skoro zbavila kašle. (VŠ, p. 255) 102 D The old restaurant is gone , […] (p. Stará restaurace je pryč , […] (ZH, p. 261) 85) 103 D […] bank account was gone […] (p. […] peníze už byly z banky pryč […] 297) (ZH, p. 217) 104 They were not to be had in Pension V penziónu paní Murphyové sice Murphy; […] (p. 181) nebyly k mání, […] (VŠ, p. 12) 105 […] guest who had been haled from […] hosta, kterého vybral z řady […] the line […] (p. 295) (ZH, p. 215) 106 The great bulk of the Captain […] was Mohutná kapitánova postava […] heaped against the arm of the bench opírala se sklesle o opěradlo lavičky […] (p. 372) […] (VŠ, p. 43) 107 […] and he will be heard from next […] a v létě prý na sebe strhne summer at Coney Island. (p. 176) pozornost v zábavném parku na Coney Island. (VŠ, p. 17) 108 She was hedged , […] (p. 396) Byla omezována , […] (VŠ, p. 92) 109 D […] certain amount of cleanliness […] jistá dávka čistoty mu nebude will not be held against him. (p. 295) přičítána k tíži. (ZH, p. 215) 110 […] overriding of all tenets […] that […] potlačování […] zásad were held by his caste […] (p. 330) dodržovaných jeho kastou […] (HT, p. 155) 111 D I’ ve been held up for my story with Už jsem byl dvacetkrát nucen vyprávět a loaded meal pointed at my head za dobrou večeři svůj příběh. (ZH, p. twenty times. (p. 296) 216) 112 D […] while the cab was hemmed in . […], zatím co drožka byla (p. 225) zablokována . (ZH, p. 252) 113 […] thus a caged man acts when he is […] podobně jedná polapený člověk, housed in a jungle of doubt. (p. 294) když je uzavřen v džungli nejistoty. (ZH, p. 213) 114 Below it was hung a […] canvas […] […] pod ním byl upevněn plakát […] (p. 410) (HT, p. 56) 115 It was to be hung in the National Obraz má viset v Národní galerii […] Gallery […] (p. 132) (HT, p. 93) 116 His eyes were [ …] firmly imbedded in Jeho oči byly […] pevně zasazené do […] (p. 309) […] (HT, p. 44) 117 His clothes were imported […] (SR, Oděv byl z dovozu […] (ZH, p. 189) p. 52) 118 People are more impressed by a Na lidi udělá větší dojem fotoaparát kodak […] (p. 128) […] (HT, p. 88) 119 D All that’ s included in the fall. (p. Toto vše patří k mému pádu. (ZH, p. 298) 218) 120 D I suppose you have been informed Soudím, že další fakta jsou vám už of the subsequent facts. (p. 75) známa. (VŠ, p. 111) 121 D […] I am instructed to pursue […] Já jsem […] dostal příkaz , abych (p. 76) sledoval […] (VŠ, p. 112) 122 Speech was intended ; […] (p. 311) […]; měl to být projev. (HT, p. 47)
55 123 […], as a dog was intended to do. (p. […] jako správný pes […] (VŠ, p. 7) 215) 124 […], had not that genius been […], kdyby onen genius nebyl intermixed with other traits […] (p. prostoupen jinými vlastnostmi, […] 124) (HT, p. 82) 125 My meditations were interrupted by a Moje meditace byla přerušena tremendous noise and conflict […] (p. rámusem náhle vzplanuvší rvačky […] 179) (VŠ, p. 22) 126 D […] whom I have not been […] kteří mi nebyli představeni . (HT, introduced . (p. 328) p. 154) 127 The fist […] banged […] and I was Pěst […] dopadla […] a vyvolala mé jarred into silence. (p. 177) zmlknutí. (VŠ, p. 19) 128 But here he was kept in like a […], ale on tu musil zůstat jako školák schoolboy […] (p. 328) […] (HT, p. 153) 129 D […] Pat was kidnapped […] (p. […] Pat…byl unesen […] (VŠ, p. 16) 183) 130 D […] New Yorker who was […] Newyorčana, kterého unesli nějací kidnapped […] by some Afghanistan afgánští bandité […] (VŠ, p. 21) bandits. (p. 179) 131 […] men […] were knocked down […] muži […] padali na podlahu […] […] (p. 179) (VŠ, p. 22) 132 […], was laid around the […], byl založen na charakteristice […] characteristics […] (p. 124) (HT, p. 82) 133 They will be laid before you tomorrow Budou vám předloženy zítra […] (HT, […] (p. 327) p. 151) 134 D What was left of you they’d feed to Co z vás zbude , předhodí krokodýlům. alligators. (SR, p. 53) (ZH, p. 189) 135 So I was left with the would be A tak jsem byl opuštěn s rádoby periwinkle, […] (p. 179) koňadrou, […] (VŠ, p. 22) 136 As soon as the cigars were lighted , […] jakmile byly zapáleny doutníky, […] (p. 74) […] (VŠ, p. 111) 137 D Is it lit? (p. 392) Je zapálená? (VŠ, p. 86) 138 D […] many lives are lost when a […] tolik lidí přijde o život , když hoří theatre catches fire? (p. 409) divadlo? (HT, p. 54) 139 Yet not all was lost . (p. 280) Všechno však nebylo ztraceno . (VŠ, p. 28) 140 […] reparation had been made . (p. […] záležitost pěkně urovnal . (VŠ, p. 279) 28) 141 […] that it was made of paint. (p. 130) […], že je namalován barvami. (HT, p. 91) 142 I desire that everything be made plain Snažím se, aby vám všechno bylo […] (p. 406) naprosto jasné […] (HT, p. 51) 143 […] as if it had been made up from […] jako by bylo zhotoveno z individual contributors from the chorus jednotlivých příspěvků účinkujících ve of a musical comedy. (p. 246) sboru muzikálu. (ZH, p. 302) 144 D […] the costumes […] are […] se vyrábějí […] kostýmy. (HT, p. manufactured . (p. 409) 55) 145 […] a point that is marked by no […], místu, neoznačenému pomníkem, monument […] (p. 375) […] (VŠ, p. 47)
56 146 […] a comparison that is not meant to […] přirovnání, o kterém se nebudeme go further. (p. 253) dále šířit. (VŠ, p. 82) 147 […] not a chance must be missed . (p. […] nesměla […] propást jedinou 394) příležitost. (VŠ, p. 90) 148 […] with a sigh that was mistaken for […] s povzdechem, který byl mylně […] (p. 311) vykládán jako […] (HT, p. 47) 149 […] about having been mistaken for a […], jak si jej spletli se zlodějem. (VŠ, burglar. (p. 253) p. 83) 150 D […] I’ m mistaken in my man, […] […], pak se ve vás mýlím . (ZH, p. 187) (SR, p. 51) 151 D […] Pat he would be named , […] Byl by se jmenoval Pat, […] (VŠ, p. (p. 183) 15) 152 D After him would the bye be named . Hošík by se jmenoval po něm! (VŠ, p. (p. 183) 15) 153 […] it was […] a daring thing to have […] to byla […] odvážná věc, been named Mary. (p. 394) jmenovat se Mary. (VŠ, p. 89) 154 My cosmopolite was named E. Můj kosmopolita se jmenoval E. Rushmore Coglan […] (p. 176) Rushmore Coglan […] (VŠ, p. 17) 155 Her services were needed at once, […] […] její služby byly žádány okamžitě (p. 408) […] (HT, p. 54) 156 His arms were occupied with bundles. Náruč měl plnou balíčků. (HT, p. 7) (p. 363) 157 The broad jalousies were opened wide, Široké žaluzie byly otevřeny dokořán […] (p. 72) […] (VŠ, p. 108) 158 The dinner was ordered . (p. 394) Hosté si objednali večeře. (VŠ, p. 89) 159 Stuffy Pete was overcharged with the Buclík Pete byl přeplněn kaloriemi caloric […] (p. 309) […] (HT, p. 44) 160 By and by the restless mood was Pomalu setřásl neklidnou náladu. (ZH, overcome. (p. 294) p. 213) 161 […] they were almost overpowered […] budou přehlušeny velkým by a great clapping of hands […] (p. potleskem […] (VŠ, p. 19) 177) 162 Artists had been paid more for Umělcům už bylo zaplaceno víc za portraits. (p. 127) portréty. (HT, p. 85) 163 He is to be painted as Jupiter […] (p. Chce , abych ho namaloval jako 130) Jupitera […] (HT, p. 90) 164 […] most of the […] paths are […] většina […] pěšin je hlídána patrolled by their agents, […] (p. 406) agenty, […] (HT, p. 50) 165 […] potatoes which were not yet […] neoloupané brambory, chystané k peeled for breakfast. (p. 395) snídani. (VŠ, p. 91) 166 His duty was performed . (p. 75) Splnil svou povinnost. (VŠ, p. 112) 167 He was permeated with the curse of Vyzařoval prokletí zdomácnělosti. (HT, domesticity. (p. 364) p. 8)
168 When “Dixie” was being played […] Když hráli „Dixii“, […] (VŠ, p. 19) (p. 177) 169 I will tell you how it’s played . (p. 232) Povím vám, jak se to hraje . (ZH, p. 274) 170 […] the game of Fox in the Morning […] „hon na lišku“ skončil, […] (VŠ, p. had been played out , […] (p. 71) 107)
57 171 Expression on these subjects were Popud k rozuzlení těchto problémů precipitated […] by the third corner to přišel od třetího stolu, od našeho. (VŠ, our table. (p. 177) p. 19) 172 […] every creature on earth is preyed […] pozemští tvorové se rádi navzájem upon by some other creature. (p. 251) pozorují. (VŠ, p. 79) 173 […] this day […] is well proclaimed Tento den […] je požehnáním pro nás to each of us. (p. 310) všechny. (HT, p. 46) 174 […] he must be prompted to do his […] je nutné ho pobídnout , aby konal duty. (p. 364) svou povinnost. (HT, p. 10) 175 His hat was pulled low, […] (p. 372) […]; s kloboukem hluboko naraženým do čela […] (VŠ, p. 44) 176 […] a fire that was seldom quenched. […] zřídkakdy uhasitelný oheň. (VŠ, p. (p. 76) 113) 177 He and I were raised here in New Vyrostli jsme spolu v New Yorku […] York […] (p. 260) (ZH, p. 82) 178 Loud voices and […] uproar were Hlasy […] nabývaly na síle a rozruch raised […] (p. 184) vzrůstal. (VŠ, p. 16) 179 […] any hopes that may not be […] naději, která se možná nevyplní , realized , […] (SR, p. 52) […] (ZH, p. 188) 180 He was often rebuffed but never Stalo se, že byl často odmítnut, nikdy offensively. (p. 248) však hrubě. (ZH, p. 303) 181 D […] and is waiting to know whether […] a čeká na zprávu, zda bude přijat he will be received […] (SR, p. 51) […] (ZH, p. 187) 182 […] as to how he would be received . […] z toho, jak bude přijat . (ZH, p. (SR, p. 52) 188) 183 […] and was at once received in the […], a byl okamžitě uveden do library. knihovny. (ZH, p. 252) 184 Blythe had been re christened Blythovi říkali „belzebub“ […] (VŠ, p. “Beelzebub” […] (p. 76) 113) 185 […] on […] face was recorded a little Do tváře […] byla vepsána malá library of […] thoughts […] (p. 252) knihovnička […] myšlenek […] (VŠ, p. 81) 186 They were recognized . (p. 311) Už je tam znali . (HT, p. 47) 187 The Gentle Riders were recruited Vznešení jezdci byli rekrutováni z from the aristocracy […] (p. 323) aristokracie […] (HT, p. 105) 188 The glasses were refilled. (p. 76) Sklenice byly znovu naplněny . (VŠ, p. 114) 189 The artist had been requested to […] Umělec byl pozván , aby[…] (HT, p. (p. 132) 93) 190 […] order was restored , […] (p. 133) […] byl obnoven pořádek […] (HT, p. 95) 191 D You’re to be restored to favor. (p. Budeš rehabilitován ! (VŠ, p. 48) 375) 192 […] sadness that was revealed in their […] zármutek, odrážející se v deep shadows […] (SR, p. 52) hlubokých stínech […] (ZH, p. 189) 193 And my glee was roused because I had Moje radost byla vyburcována caught Mr. Kipling napping. (p. 176) přesvědčením, že jsem pana Kiplinga nachytal na švestkách. (VŠ, p. 18) 194 […], it was said , […] (p. 133) […] jak se vyprávělo […] (HT, p. 94) 195 It was said that […] (p. 125) Vyprávělo se , že […] (HT, p. 83)
58 196 […] portraits were scattered […] (p. […] portréty byly rozptýleny (HT, p. 125) 83) 197 D His ship has just been scuttled , […] Zrovna mu potopili loď […] (ZH, p. (p. 225) 252) 198 […] who was not seasoned to […] […], který nebyl zvyklý na […] liquids. (p. 324) alkohol. (HT, p. 107) 199 […] he was seated at her side. (p. 328) […] tak se […] posadil vedle ní. (HT, p. 153) 200 A group of boarders were seated on Skupina nájemníků seděla na schodišti the high stoop […] (p. 180) […] (VŠ, p. 11) 201 D He was seen once afterward in Jednou prý byl viděn v Texasu, […] Texas, it was thought, […] (SR, p. 50) (ZH, p. 186) 202 D By the time dinner is served , […] (p. Až bude prostřena večeře, […] (ZH, p. 295) 213) 203 Dinner was served to Goodwin […] Večeře byla Goodwinovi […] (p. 74) naservírována […] (VŠ, p. 111) 204 […] they could be served . (p. 311) […] se to ocitlo na stole. (HT, p. 47) 205 D […] when your marriage day is set Až bude určen den vašeho sňatku, […] […] (p. 250) (ZH, p. 306) 206 Buttons that had been sewed upon Knoflíky, které mu […] přišily […] […] by kind Salvation fingers […] (p. pečlivé prsty Armády spásy, […] (HT, 309) p. 44) 207 Even Aileen had not been shot at with Ani Aileen by se nemohla pochlubit a pistol. (p. 279) tím, že po ní někdo střílel pistolí. (VŠ, p. 27) 208 The greatness […] was shown by the […] velikost se projevila skutečností, fact that […] (p. 133) že […] (HT, p. 94) 209 She was shown directly into his private Okamžitě byla uvedena do soukromé office. (p. 410) kanceláře pana Vydry. (HT, p. 57) 210 Murray […] was shrunk into his dingy […] Murray zachumlán v ošumělých a and ragged suit […] (p. 372) potrhaných šatech […] (VŠ, p. 44) 211 Bogle’s is situated in that highway Bogleova restaurace je situována na […] (p. 275) oné dálnici […] (VŠ, p. 23) 212 […] the line […] was not smoothed […] vráska se neztratila . (ZH, p. 303) away . (p. 247) 213 D […] the money for which brandy […] peněz, vydávaných za rumové balls are sold . (p. 409) pralinky! (HT, p. 55) 214 […] days […] were spent in […] dny […] připadly na běžné preliminaries. (p. 128) přípravy. (HT, p. 87) 215 […] and the wiles of jewellers had not […] a odráželo se na něm umění been spent upon him in vain. (SR, pp. klenotníků. (ZH, p. 189) 52 3) 216 D […] like a frog that had been […] jako žábu, na kterou někdo šlápl stepped on , […] (SR, p. 53) […] (ZH, p. 189) 217 D I’ m stewed , Remsen. (p. 324) Jsem nadrátován , Remsene. (VŠ, p. 28) 218 In that vault are stored the anti V tom trezoru jsou uloženy climaxes […] (p. 397) antiklimaxy, […] (VŠ, p. 93) 219 D If the bye we never had is strayed Když chlapec, kterého jsme nikdy […] (p. 184) neměli, se ztratí […] (VŠ, p. 16)
59 220 […] clothes lines were stretched . (p. […] plandaly šnůry s rodinným 393) prádlem. (VŠ, p. 87) 221 D […] of houses should not be sub […] v domech nebudou pronajímány let , but […] (p. 333) […] (HT, p. 160) 222 The needs […] were supplied by two Potřeby […] uspokojují dvě číšnice waitresses […] (p. 276) […] (VŠ, p. 23) 223 He was supposed to have stowed Rodiče se domnívali , že se ukryl mezi himself away among the banana trsy banánů na parníku, […] (ZH, p. bunches on a fruit steamer, […] (SR, p. 186) 50) 224 D […] the sentence was suspended . […] byl odsouzen podmíněně. (VŠ, p. (p. 373) 45) 225 […] anticlimaxes that should have […] antiklimaxy, které by vždy měly been tagged to all stories […] (p. 397) být připojeny ke všem příběhům […] (VŠ, p. 93) 226 […] he was taken by surprise. (p. 132) […] byl […] překvapen . (HT, p. 93) 227 That week’s wash was not taken in for Usušené prádlo tam pak viselo dva two years. (p. 393) roky. (VŠ, p. 87) 228 D On the back of the boy’s left hand Hoch měl na levé ruce vytetovaného was tattooed a flying eagle carrying a letícího orla s kopim v drápech. (ZH, p. spear in his claws. (SR, p. 50) 187) 229 I’m tempted to […] (p. 130) Jsem v pokušení […] (HT, p. 91) 230 A useless strip […] was tied beneath Pod bradou měla uvázanou zbytečnou her chin, […] (p. 252) stužku […] (VŠ, p. 81) 231 D I’ m not tied down to anything that Mne nepoutá nic, co by nemělo alespoň isn’t 8,000 miles in diameter. (p. 179) 12 756 km v průměru. (VŠ, p. 21 2) 232 […] when reserve is thawed . (p. 177) […] uvolňování zábran rezervovanosti. (VŠ, p. 19) 233 He was once seen in Texas, it was Jednou prý byl viděn v Texasu, […] thought , […] (SR, p. 50) (ZH, p. 186) 234 Will it tire you to be told again […] (p. Nebude vás nudit, zopakujeme li , že 276) […] (VŠ, p. 24) 235 I was told by a sculptor from Mauch Sochař z Mauch Chunk mne kdysi Chunk that […] (p. 176) poučil, že […] (VŠ, p. 17) 236 […] the stories that have been told in […] příběhům, na světě vyprávěným. the world. (p. 397) (VŠ, p. 93) 237 His collar had been torn away ; […] Měl utržený límec, […] (VŠ, p. 45) (p. 373) 238 D It was torn down then. (p. 259) Potom budovu zbourali. (ZH, p. 82) 239 Music […] that could be tortured Hudba […] vyluzovaná z žesťů […] from brass […] (p. 329) (HT, p. 155) 240 He […] was trampled upon and Byl pošlapáván a postrkován […](HT, shoved forward […] (p. 328) p. 153) 241 […] debt was to be transferred into […] dluh má být převeden do […] the hands […] (p. 133) rukou […] (HT, p. 94) 242 […] had been cunningly trimmed a […] byl […] důmyslně vystřižen vista, […] (p. 73) průhled […] (VŠ, p. 109) 243 It had been neatly typewritten ; […] Psal je vždy pečlivě na psacím stroji (p. 394) […] (VŠ, p. 89) 244 Now her gloves are tucked in. (p. 394) Konečně si svékla rukavice. (VŠ, p. 89)
60 245 […] team was tugged […] by Pevné Remsenovy svaly přiměly […] Remsen’s tough muscles. (p. 325) pár […] (HT, p. 109) 246 […]; if the comparison be used here […]; pokud mohlo toto přirovnání být […] (p. 295) použito I v tomto případě, […] (ZH, p. 215) 247 […] the Park is rarely used , […] […] býval park ještě opuštěn , s except by unimportant people […] (p. výjimkou několika lidí, […] (HT, p. 325) 108) 248 D You ’re wakened every morning by Každé ráno vás probudí příjemný zpěv the sweet singin’ of red birds with červených ptáčků s nachovým chvostem seven purple tails, […] (SR, p. 47) […] (ZH, p. 184) 249 His face and hands had been recently Muž měl obličej i ruce čertsvě umyté washed […] (p. 295) […] (ZH, p. 215) 250 D […] five cops had to be whistled […], že jich muselo přijít pět […] (VŠ, for, […] (p. 255) p. 84) 251 Their offences were wiped out . (p. Jejich provinění rázem vymazal . (HT, 330) p. 156) 252 D […] pride […] will be wiped out, […] bude […] namyšlenost […] […] (p. 178) smazána […] (VŠ, p. 21) 253 […] this […] scene can be witnessed […] tento […] výjev se odehrává every evening […] (p. 177) každý večer […] (VŠ, p. 19) 254 2x […] cap which could not be worn […] čapkou, jakou by si nenasadil while automobiling except by a lecjaký motorista, ale jen osobnost. personage. (pp. 324, 325) (HT, pp. 106, 108) 255 […] hall in which to be worshipped. […] svatyni, ve které by mohl být (p. 392) uctíván . (VŠ, p. 87) 256 […] shoes were wrecked […] (p. 246) Boty […] byly rozedrané […] (ZH, p. 302) 257 […] a few words that […] were […] několika vět, napsaných […] written by him […] (p. 411) mužem […] (HT, p. 58)
61 4. Analysis of frequency data
4.1 The English language
I have analysed altogether twenty short stories by the American writer O.Henry
(1862 1910). In these, I detected 208 different verbs which were used in proper passive voice. Now I will classify the verbs with regard to their numbers in individual categories. First of all, from the most general point of view, there are several verbs which repeated themselves throughout the short stories. The most numerous figure of occurrences was found in the verbs allow (4 instances) and name (4 instances). Nine verbs were repeated three times: call, cover, fill, find, go, make, mistake, receive and tell. There were also some others, for example deliver, occupy, say which were repeated only twice (see Table 1). Out of the total of 208 verbs in the passive there were 26 verbs which were used twice throughout the short stories. When the verbs with more frequency are resumed, they make nearly 18% (37 verbs) of all 208 verbs, which means that 18% of all verbs used in proper passive voice tended to reoccur in the passive and thus are inclined to passivization. This shows that the passive voice is not only connected with semantics but also it is a matter of syntactic properties of individual verbs.
Some of the repetitions can be found within one story (e.g. admit ) where the topic is responsible for repetition and sometimes even the same clause is deliberately repeated by the author (e.g. wear ) in the course of description, which is the author’s peculiarity. In the rest of the repetitions which occurred in different short stories it can be argued that the most frequent verbs ( allow, name ) are inclined to appear in the passive voice in English since the agent is of secondary importance as the meaning of the verbs is concerned: the verb allow primarily tries to communicate what has been allowed and possibly to whom (we do not say I allow you to … unless we want to
62 specifically focus attention on the person of “allower” which is a minority situation),
The verb name is clearly an example of the unimportance of the doer, if not a contrastive emphasis is in play, and concentration on the patient. Also in other repeated verbs it can be accounted for the repetition in terms of the verbal semantics. For example the verb cover is usually associated with inanimate agents which do not have the potential to cover something out of their own will, which consequently means that the passive voice is preferred. In the further analysis of the data, I will make the figure of all 258 occurrences, in which the total of 208 different verbs appeared, the source value.
4.1.1 Expressed agent
Out of the total of 258 occurrences of the total 208 different verbs, 56 cases, i.e.
22%, had the agent expressed in some way, for example:
(1) You will be arrested by one of our agents. (no. 10) (2) His arms were occupied with bundles. (no. 156) (3) They had been awakened by the noise of a pistol shot. (no. 13) (4) He was blockaded in a tangled mess of vehicles and horses . (no. 22) The number of agentive constructions is slightly higher than I expected on the grounds that omission of an agent is considered to be the major function of the passive voice.
This, apart from other things, suggests that the second major role of the passive, i.e. the shifting of a point of view, is employed. This higher figure can be also partially explained by the personal style of writing of the author as well as the time period when his works appeared. O.Henry lived most of his life in the nineteenth century; however, he started to write and publish his short stories at the turn of 19 th and 20 th century. As his stories were going with times, the vocabulary and syntax were naturally influenced.
The language of the nineteenth century is characterized by overt politeness and respectful phrases, including the passive voice which is perceived as formal, literary and
63 old fashioned nowadays, especially in direct speech. The fact that the passives are found in dialogs quite often supports the assertion about particular period stylistics.
As far as the individual means of agent expression are concerned, proportionally, the leading position accrues to the by phrase which constitutes over 60% of the agentive constructions. The rest of the expressed agentive forms is distributed evenly among the agentive structure introduced by preposition with (21.5%); other prepositions partake in the agentive structures by nearly 18%. With regard to the by phrase there has to be one further division and calculation made: Approximately 65% of the total distribution of the phrase is taken up by human agents and the remaining 35% is devoted to non human agents (here I include animals as well).
These figures show that far most frequent means of agent expression is the by phrase, nevertheless the immediately following and in no case insignificant means is the preposition with, the relative frequency of which was not mentioned in the literature I worked with. Since the preposition with introduces an instrument, the agent thus expressed should be inanimate, however, I have encountered one exception to this rule
(the sidewalk was blockaded with sightseers (no. 23)). In a few cases the preference of with to a different preposition is conditioned rather by internal syntactic demands of a verb ( filled with, covered with, connected with ). With regard to other prepositions that transpired in the short stories’ agentive phrases I will present here a synoptic table which summarizes the individual occurrences.
AGENT Other prepositions than by and with Frequency Around (no. 132) 1 Because (no. 193) 1 From (no. 58, 63, 143) 3 In (no. 22, 113, 192) 3 On (no. 50) 1 To (no. 231) 1
64 As can be seen, an agent is expressed via prepositions different from by and with very rarely. This detailed overview shows that the most favoured prepositions for the introduction of an agent are from and in. Both these are local prepositions which are followed for the most part by an inanimate agent, for example:
(5) Thus a caged man acts when he is housed in a jungle of doubt. (no. 113) (6) […] as if it had been made up from individual contributors from the chorus of a musical comedy . (no. 143) (7) Once you had seen her eyes, and comprehended the great sadness that was revealed in their deep shadows and hopeless expression […]. (no. 192)
The other ones ( around, on, to ) are local prepositions taking inanimate agents as well, except for the causal preposition because which is opening an agentive subordinate clause:
(8) And my glee was roused because I had caught Mr. Kipling napping. (no. 193)
4.1.1.1 Nature of the agent phrase
The character of an agent was evenly distributed between short and long phrase, where short phrase stands for a maximum of two words. The short phrase typically comprised a noun, often modified by an adjective, for example:
(9) The Park is rarely used, except by unimportant people . (no. 247) (10) Her soul was filled with a delirious joy . (no. 83)
Rarely is it formed by a single word, for example:
(11) He was taken by surprise . (no. 226). (12) The hallways were suddenly filled with sound . (no. 84)
By the same token, the basis of the expanded agent was construed by a noun phrase:
(13) Buttons that had been sewed upon by kind Salvation fingers. (no. 206) (14) On that occasion his breast was covered from shoulder to shoulder with croses, stars, golden roses, medals and ribbons . (no. 49) (15) My meditations were interrupted by a tremendous noise and conflict . (no. 125);
65 sometimes combined with a prepositional phrase with of , for example:
(16) He was permeated with the curse of domesticity . (no. 167) (17) […] its cause was connected with the slowly moving hands of the time piece . (no. 43) or created by a whole subordinate sentence, for example:
(18) The greatness of was shown by the fact that by noon the next day order was restored. (no. 208) (19) […] a point that is marked by no monument save that groove on the pavement worn by tens of thousands of waiting feet . (no. 145)
In a few cases, the agent was reserved for a name, for example:
(20) […] an up hill charge that was disputed by the Spaniards and afterward by the Democrats. (no. 66) (21) If the transients were entranced by the fascinating Aileen , […]. (no. 76)
These findings are related to the use of the passive voice as a means of shifting attention since the expressions in the agent phrase were in 99% constructed with nouns, which points at different arrangement of sentence elements.
4.1.2 Unexpressed agent
78% (202 out of 258 occurrences) of the total number of passive verbs are agentless, like for example:
(22) I’m called the Llano Kid in the Rio Grande country. (no. 34) (23) He and I were raised here in New York. (no. 177) (24) He was often rebuffed but never offensively. (no. 180) (25) That week’s wash was not taken in for two years. (no. 227)
Quirk et al. (1974: 807) state that “four out of five English passive sentences [i.e. 80%] have no expressed agent”, which is testified by my findings as well. This result confirms that the most important function of the passive is the avoidance of an agent expression. Although not explicitly stated, the agent is not usually completely undetectable. Rather on the contrary it was traceable in most cases, in 146 cases, i.e. in
66 72% of all agentless verbs, the agent could be deduced, either from previous context or logically from semantic properties of the verbs like for example in :
(26) The picture was completed. (no. 42) (27) I am instructed to pursue every clue that presents itself in this matter. (no. 121) (28) Madame Timotea Ortiz, the proprietress of the hotel in which the game of Fox in the Morning had been played out (no. 170)
In addition to the fact that the agent is in the majority of cases implied, it is also human. People as the covert doers, actors and causers occupy the leading position. The most frequently repeated verbs are simultaneously ones with implied human agent, specifically allow and name. Both these verbs semantically require a human agent so that the activity which they denote is performed. This allegation that the semantic nature of a verb plays an important part can be further proved right by the fact that in all four repetitions when the verbs allow and name were used in different situations and contexts they always maintained their implied agentive character.
Full 25%, i.e. 51 verbs out of the total 202 cases with unexpressed agent, are agentless constructions where the agent cannot be tracked down, for example:
(29) And on Mrs. James Williams’s face was recorded a little library of the world’s best thoughts. (no. 185) (30) Prince Michael’s shoes were wrecked far beyond the skill of the carefullest cobbler. (no. 256) (31) When Keogh and White reached their destination, the gay winter season was well begun. (no. 18)
The unknown doer proved to be quite a frequent situation. On one hand, the elementary semantic definition of a verb is “a word denoting action or state” (Dušková 1988: 165) which would suggest that ‛a verb’ implies an agent inherently. On the other hand, the fact that I called the agent in these 25% of verbs as unknown does not necessarily mean that it does not exist. It only points to the reality that the agent was not trackable for me, either because of the ambiguousness, abstraction and poly possibility as far as the
67 implied agents are concerned (when pride is wiped out (no. 252), it is impossible, without any further specifications or hints, to determine more closely the cause or causer of the ‘wiping out’). In other cases, there could be two distinctive agents determined, in particular one human and one non human. Again, if not specified an activity can be very often carried out by a person as well as with a thing (e.g. the verb tattoo implies a ‘maker of tattoos’ as well as a ‘needle’ or ‘ink’ for the agent position, for instance).
The remaining five verbs, 2.5% of all agentless passive voice phrases, do not have any mark in the Table 1 as far as the agent is concerned, from which follows that their agent is unexpressed yet implied, but non human. These verbs with implied non human agent are as follows: break up, hedge, hem in, jar and stew. For example:
(32) The fist banged and I was jarred into silence (no. 127) has the most probable reading that of a ‘fist’ or a ‘bang’ or possibly ‘surprise’, by all means something non human, that jarred the storyteller into silence.
I have to comment on the case of a verb phrase hold up, to which I assigned half human and half non human agent; the example says:
(33) I’ve been held up for my story with a loaded meal pointed at my head twenty times. (no. 111), which, in my opinion, points at two different active readings of equal plausibility: ‘a loaded meal pointed at my head has held me up for my story twenty times’ or equally possible version of agent assignment ‘somebody (a person) with a loaded meal pointed at my head has held me up for my story twenty times’. The human doer is maybe a little bit “added” into the lexical equipage of the sentence and little more hidden, since a gun, in this case a meal, has full potential to put people in motion, however there is always some human agent behind the pointing of a gun.
68 4.1.3 Tense
Tense of the passive constructions is an interesting phenomenon to be explored since the application of tense refers to extralinguistic properties of reality and can indicate much about the function of the passive voice. Out of the total 258 occurrences of the 208 different verbs that I noted in Table 1, the majority, as I have supposed, belongs to the past tense: over 49%, i.e. 128 out of altogether 258 occurrences, are expressed in the past tense. Examples of this phenomenon can be:
(34) The great bulk of the Captain was heaped against the arm of the bench. (no. 106) (35) My meditations were interrupted by a tremendous noise and conflict. (no. 125) (36) It was charged that not only had he given away priceless concessions, but that the public debt was to be transferred in to the hands of the English. (no. 37) (37) His pictures in the government office were demolished . (no. 55)
Such frequency makes the past the most widely associated tense with the passive voice.
The reason for this is obvious, as the passive is usually avoided in dialogs, but it is primarily used in descriptions where the person or thing described are in the centre of our attention. We can describe things as they are as they were at the time when the plot of a story took place. From a semantic point of view, the past tense coveys invalid statements that ceased to hold or lost their validity for some reason (Bělíček 2005: 118).
This is the case in O.Henry’s short stories which are predominantly narrated in the past tense an event is viewed as having already passed and the author retails what once
(this is not meant to indicate that an event happened a long time ago) happened.
The rest 50% of register are shared by, respectively, present tense (18%, 46 occurrences), infinitive form (15%, 39 occurrences), past perfect (11%, 28 occurrences), present perfect (3.5%, 9 occurrences) and future tense (3%, 8 occurrences). The overall incidence of perfect tenses is 14.5% (37 occurrences) as compared to the incidence rate
69 of basic tenses, which makes over 70% of the whole, especially due to the past tense.
The proportion of future and present perfect tense is fractional. The share of infinitive makes for the remaining 15%, which corresponds to the joint use of perfect tenses.
The present tense, as the second most widely applied tense, accounts for the second possibility mentioned above, that is for the description of things what they are like (as opposed to what they were like) which is employed in general characteristics of people, generally valid conclusions, conditions or states of mind, for example:
(38) Bogle’s is situated in […] Eighth Avenue. (no. 211) (39) Especially for the vagrant feet of youth are the roads of Manhattan beset with “pitfall and with gin”. (no. 20) (40) I ’m stewed . (no. 217)
The present tense is semantically considered as an unmarked form, opposed to the marked past and future tenses (Bělíček 2005: 115). In the short stories, the present tense subserves to sketch in the contour of the narration, to create the generally valid background against which a story is planted.
The third position occupied by infinitive constructions is largely connected with two specialized structures, one of them being the modal verb can/could , which syntactically requires an infinitive following , for example:
(41) Nothing could be compared with them. (no. 41) (42) In the car was […] an old gentleman with […] a Scotch plaid cap which could not be worn while automobiling except by a personage. (no. 254)
There are nine central modal auxiliary verbs which are used to express modality in English (Biber et al. 1999: 483): can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must. The most frequently occurring modal verb in the short stories is could. Since a task of a modal in sentence is to express modality, can/could stands for ability, possibility, permission, wasted opportunity, or in negative for impossibility. Here the aspectual and tense complement is necessary for closer determination. According to
70 Quirk et al. (1974: 807) the verb phrases containing auxiliaries that have more than one meaning, e.g. shall, will and can may acquire a shift in meaning when the active and passive versions are compared. Quirk et al. (1974: 807) state the following example:
(i) John cannot do it. (ii) It cannot be done (by John).
In the active sentence can would normally be interpreted as expressing ability, whereas in the passive sentence it is interpreted as expressing possibility. This holds valid also in the following example from O.Henry’s short stories: This could not have been accomplished , which suggests the impossibility whereas the active construction They could not have accomplished this refers rather to the inability. The clarification is a matter of context.
The other one structure associated with the use of infinitive is the official phrase is to be , for example:
(43) Goodwin was not to be disputed . (no. 65) (44) Goodwin was a powerful friend to new administration, and one who was not to be carelessly dealt with . (no. 51)
Also in other cases the use of infinitive implies high English and the passive constructions are examples of class language, for example
(45) We happened to be born there. (no. 27) (46) In every town he caused to be erected statues of himself. (no. 77)
Biber et al. in their corpus research arrived at a conclusion that in fiction the most common combination of tense and aspect in the passive is the perfect passive in the past tense (1999: 483). The relatively high score of past perfect tense (when compared to the representation of the remaining perfect tenses) is explicable in the same terms as the wide use of past tense. Since the past perfect tense only refers even one step further back in the line of the story action. O.Henry lays emphasis on precise
71 depiction of a situation and exactly suggests which action preceded another one. It is important for him to highlight that for example the coach passengers had been first assigned to their seats by the conductor and only then the journey began (no. 12).
Nowadays the use of the past perfect is declining and its presence is usually considered as abundant and unnecessary. Generally, one can logically deduce which event happened first: whether a person first sits down or a vehicle starts off for a trip. Its overuse in history is related to different, more complicate and formal, speech patterns.
Finally, the least significant amounts of distribution are manifested by the future tense. On the whole, its use is limited in O.Henry’s short stories in either voice. His storytelling is hardly ever oriented into the future. One example can be found in
(47) By reference to the almanac a large amount of territory will be discovered upon which its rays also fell. (no. 60)
With regard to the present perfect tense, the situation is alike; the means
“designed to provide statements about present states that have arisen as a result of past actions” is in short stories with mainly past tense used very sporadically (Bělíček 2005:
174). An example follows:
(48) I suppose you have been informed of the subsequent facts. (no. 120)
The notion of tense can be also viewed from an analytical perspective. Manfred
Sandmann (1954: 172 3) proposes that a verbal role can be characterized by two major constructions, the outer one and the inner one. The former is represented with the syntactic role of a verb with regard to other parts of a sentence and the latter verbal construction is described as “the way in which verbal time itself is constructed”
(Sandmann 1954: 173). This one is of interest for me, as Sandmann (1954: 173) states that verbal time shows a rich structure and speaks of real anatomy of verbal time. He
72 asserts that a finite verb never refers to a mathematical moment or a point in time but to a phase (Sandmann 1954: 173). To explain this he uses the example
(49) The hunter kills the dear in which he shows the phase distribution: “the action of ‘killing’ starts in an actor ( the hunter ), but is fulfilled only in the thing acted upon ( the deer )” (Sandmann 1954: 173).
He therefore suggests that the whole phase represented in the construct The hunter kills the dear may be divided into two sub phases, of which the first is called causational or active or subjective , and the second affective or passive or objective (Sandmann 1954:
173 4). These sub phases can be detected in every active sentence. In the passive voice the time phase exists as well, only is it reported in the reverse order.
Thus an active construction follows the catachronic way from the origin to the goal, while the essence of a passive is of a representational nature and is created by an antichronic construction, which is followed from the goal of an action backwards to its origin:
(50) The deer is killed by the hunter.
Sandmann (1954: 173) further distinguishes between real and potential time, with the former being always referred to by the verb itself and the representation of the real time being always bound up with the representation of the manner in which the time is spent.
Similarly, it is possible to analyse the passive examples from the short stories, e.g. in the antichronic reading of
(51) The prince had been escorted to the door by the butler (no. 78),
‘the prince’ as well as ‘the door’ stands for the affective sub phase of the verbal phase and ‘the butler’ represents the causational sub phase. The action of escorting starts in the butler and is fulfilled in the prince and through the door . Overall can be concluded that, from the viewpoint of real temporal phases of an action, the passive voice has
73 antichronic connotations and can be split into two mutually transitional sub phases. In the process the verb is perceived as the central element of a clause since the labels of an actor and acted upon subject are pre conditioned by its semantic character.
74 5. Functional and semantic analysis
5.1 The English original
In this section, various functions of the passive voice, that I encountered throughout the short stories will be analysed in detail. The conclusions may in several aspects overlap with the previous section of frequency analysis as I have tried to suggest reasons for the individual numeral results as well. Not only deal I with the function and the meaning of the passive voice, but I also focus on the questions “Why did the author use the passive? And what would have been changed if the sentence was in the active?”
Answering these questions in each case and comparison with active turn provides better understanding of the function of the passive voice. All the quoted examples employed in this part, that are derived from the compilation 69 Short Stories by O’Henry edited by
G. F. Maine, specifically from the twenty explored short stories (see Appendix), are marked by their corresponding number in Table 2..
5.1.1 Passive constructions with unexpressed agent
The crucial difference between a short passive and an active clause is that the information expressed in the subject of the active is omitted in the passive. There may be a variety of reasons why a writer might wish to omit such information.
Functionally the short passive turn is chosen where the agent is unimportant and offers a redundant information since the verb, as Dušková (1988: 260) says, implies a human doer at a deeper level, for example the verb name. In the case like
(52) My cosmopolite was named E. Rushmore Coglan. (no. 154), any agent would be needlessly additional and repetitive. These constructions which do not require any agent specification are translated into Czech in two ways, either by reflexive passive which is obligatorily agentless or by expressed general human agent.
75 Psychologically, since there is one element added into the sentence structure of the non agentive passive, namely the auxiliary verbal form be, which facilitates greater focus placed on the verb phrase itself. In the following active variant,
(53) People will hear from him next summer at Coney Island, the verbal element has only a representative meaning, as it stands for ‘attract attention of people’, let it be through hearing or seeing, which causes the meaning of the actual concrete verb “to hear” to dissolve and makes it rather marginal, with the core of the message being elsewhere than in specification of the channel. On the other hand, the passive transform
(54) He will be heard from next summer at Coney Island (no. 107) presents the verb hear as a ‘meaning full’ word, with the unusual construction attracting the attention of a reader, it takes more time to read the part concerned and the overall result is rather formal, even prophetic, promissory or forewarning. Since the pronoun he is at the beginning of the sentence, it has a more thematic value than him in the active version, which consequently causes the verb hear to sound more contrastively and belong to the rhematic information in the sentence. Another fact is that the agentless passive phrase very often occupies the final position in clause, which is reserved for new, rhematic information. Biber et al. add that it is a verb which most of the time conveys the new information (1999: 939). For example:
(55) He had discovered that one of the necessaries of life had been forgotten . (no. 94) (56) As I was in the rooms when the shot was fired , […]. (no. 86) (57) I do not allow gentlemen to sit by me to whom I have not been introduced . (no. 126)
Jan Firbas (1992: 7) formulates that a finite verb conveys irretrievable information, which becomes an element with the highest degree of communicative dynamism, under certain condition. He maintains that a finite verb can serve as the most
76 dynamic element in a sentence or clause only if it operates in the absence of successful competitors (Firbas 1992: 7). In particular, the competitors could be “an element expressing a phenomenon to be presented or one expressing a specification” (Firbas
1992: 7). In other words, a finite verb completes the development of communication if it is the only irretrievable element in a sentence, which is very often the case of short passives
(58) Thus an animal acts when it is caged . (no. 33) (59) As soon as the cigars were lighted , the American cleared the way by inquiring whether […]. (no. 136)
The second possibility arises from irretrievability of a subject. If the subject is the most important element (is context independent) in the passive clause, it then represents the presentative function. The verb presents a phenomenon in the subject position to appear on the scene. For example:
(60) Quite a number of new houses have been built in our town (Firbas 1992: 62). He closes:
These observations by no means belittle the role played by the passive in perspectiving the sentence away from the information conveyed by a subject in pre verbal position. But they are a reminder that it depends on the interplay of FSP factors whether the passive participates in perspectiving the sentence away from the subject or towards it. At the same time they do not disprove the well known fact that in a majority of cases the passive participates in the perspectiving the sentence away from the subject. (Firbas 1992: 62)
There is a special case of passive constructions which are more or less interchangeable with active verbs. Dušková (1988: 262) as well as Huddleston (1971:
99 100) mention this situation, I will remind that Huddleston accounts for these verbs in terms of ergative verbs ( the book was sold well – the book sold well ) whereas Dušková simplier compares an interchangeable passive verb to intransitive active verb of the same meaning. For example in the passive sentence,
77 (61) And my glee was roused because I had caught Mr. Kipling napping. (no. 193), the passive construction can be replaced by active verb roused without any substantial loss of meaning. The sole difference I can detect between the two versions is the more perfective or rather perfected nature of the passive variant was roused.
I have noticed that the passive voice, due to its impersonal nature and message, has less authoritative effect than the active form. For example, the clause
(62) this remarkable scene can be witnessed every evening in numerous cafés (no. 253) is purely of informative character and does not imply any pressure laid on the reader to actually visit such a place. It is just a suggestion spread in front of us, readers, and the choice is wholly upon us. Whereas the active version with the added subject
(63) you can witness this remarkable scene every morning in numerous cafés is more direct, invasive and thus sounds more pleading and urging. I have to remind at this point that I do not try to treat the passive and the supplied active version as equivalent in any case. The voice variants cannot be considered as fully equivalent, especially in cases with a covert agent (Huddleston, Pullum 2002: 1430 1).
Also, generally valid is the assertion that passive turn is chosen when greater emphasis and interest is taken in the object (which is made a subject) than in the subject at the pre passive level (Firbas 1992: 62). This can be proved right almost in all passives with unexpressed agent, to mention several examples:
(64) Now her gloves are tucked in. (no. 244) (65) His hat was pulled low; he sat quiet and a little indistinct. (no. 175) (66) […] when “Dixie” was being played a young man sprang up. (no. 168)
The author’s primary interest in the last instance, for example, is to communicate that it was the melody of a song called “Dixie”, not any other one, which lifted the boy up from his chair. The subject here is the most important clausal element.
78 Well known class of passives consists of constructions in which it is difficult and sometimes even impossible to determine any agent. Quirk et al. (1974: 807) claim that once the agent is unrecoverable, it may be impossible to conduct the passive to active transformation. Dušková (1988: 260) says that these cases occur frequently in professional style, especially in natural science discipline; however, I have found similar structures also in the genre of a short story. For example,
(67) Without wishing to excite any hopes that may not be realized, […]. (no. 179) (68) Rita’s cough is almost gone. (no. 101) (69) The evening was at the period when reserve is thawed. (no. 232)
In (69) for example, the most probable actor or causer would be the late night time or maybe alcohol, anyhow, we can only speculate. In the following case, the passive voice has a prognostic meaning, directed into future, where things are always uncertain so it is logical that an agent is unknown so far:
(70) Some day all this petty pride in one’s city or state or section or country will be wiped out, and we’ll all be citizens of the world. (no. 252)
The most utilized function of the passive which is mentioned by Biber et al. on the grounds of their corpus analysis is the service for “cohesion and contextual fit through ordering of information” (1999: 935). This can be seen in the following example where the passive voice enables fluent joint not only between clauses, but also between the two sentences:
(71) These houses are in the shopping districts, and are mainly tenanted by young working girls. As it is they are forced to seek companionship outside. (no. 91)
The reasons for the suppression of the agent range from generalizations to specifications. Some situations suppress the omitted agent because its nature is generic and therefore unimportant and uninteresting. For example,
79 (72) […] if countenances are to be believed (no. 19) or (73) […] that business could be built up (no. 30)
Others are concerned with specific events rather than with generalizations (Biber et al. 1999: 939). For example,
(74) She was shown directly into his private office (no. 209).
The agent is specific but its identity is not at issue and does not need to be stated. The latter type can be found in the short stories more often, also the verbs are rather meaningfully specific and concretely oriented, for example the verb hem in
(75) […] while the cab was hemmed in (no. 112).
5.1.2 Passive constructions with expressed agent
In the passive voice containing converted subject the reasons for its preference are different. Biber et al. suggest that it is reasonable to expect that the reasons for the choice of passive with an expressed agent will be similar to factors influencing pure word order variation. Their assertion is based upon the fact that the long passive (as opposed to short passive) preserves the information of the corresponding active clause, but presents it in a different order (1999: 940). Further, two such factors are especially important: length of subject v. agent phrase and givenness of subject v. agent phrase. In long passives, there is a clear tendency for the subject to be shorter than the agent phrase.
It is often the case that the actor is expressed via a too long phrase which, as
Jespersen (1933: 12) argues, could not easily be the subject. This can be observed in the following example:
(76) The concluding air was “Dixie,” and as exhilarating notes tumbled forth they were almost overpowered by a great clapping of hands from almost every table. (no. 161)
80 The underlined section shows the subject at the pre passive level. The use of the passive here guards the “weight management” of the sentence (Biber et al. 1999: 935). This sentence, of course, could have been written in the active voice, nevertheless, its interpretation would have been slightly different then. The subject phrase would attract needlessly too much attention and the main message, that of “overpowering noise”, would have be overshadowed and made secondary. In addition, very long subject would be in conflict with the principle of end weight (tendency for long and heavy clause elements to be placed at the end of a clause ) (Biber et al. 1999: 942) Since it is natural to express given information briefly (e.g. by pronoun substitution), this principle of end weight works together with the principle of end focus, which is a tendency to place new information towards the end of the clause (Quirk R., Greenbaum S. 1973: 410) . Other examples of this would be:
(77) They had been awakened by the noise of a pistol shot in the Hotel de los Estranjeros . (no. 13) (78) […] when it was backed up by the muzzle of a breech loader . (no. 14)
Concerning the givenness of subject versus agent phrase Biber et al. conclude that subjects, generally, varies substantially more in the information status than agent phrases, since about 90% of the agent phrases bring in new information which means that the subject has a higher level of givenness than the agent phrase (1999: 941). The use of the long passive agrees with the information principle, most commonly the subject contains given information and the agent new information:
(79) The two weeks’ stubble on his face was gray and brown and red and greenish yellow as if it had been made up from individual contributors from the chorus of a musical comedy (no. 143).
81 This clause naturally opens with a reference to the preceding context and only then it moves on to the new point being made. The choice of the passive provides a smooth continuation.
Pragmatically, the long passive bears one major constraint. It says that the subject of the verb phrase cannot be less familiar in the discourse than the agent expression, in other words, the constraint excludes the new + old combination as for the two noun phrases are considered. Huddleston and Pullum (2002: 1444) emphasize that it is discourse familiarity what matters, not addressee familiarity. For example,
(80) A press conference will be held by the President at 3 p.m . is perfectly natural assuming there has been no mention of the president in the prior discourse. The President , although addressee old, is discourse new, and hence the constraint is met (Huddleston, Pullum 2002: 1444).
Both forms of the passive voice can be found predominantly in expanded compound and complex sentences as opposed to the situation where it constitutes part of a simple sentence. The passive voice is a language means which is employed in luxuriant stylistics rather than in everyday speech. The ascendancy of the passive in expanded sentences was overwhelming. About 23% of the incidence of the passive voice was realized in a direct speech. This figure corresponds to the incidence rate of an agent phrase which I find interesting. It testifies among others of two different main functions of the passive voice, one being associated with the style of storytelling, i.e. wordy descriptions of the surroundings and other types of background information, and the other function, represented by the use of passive in dialogs and direct speech, exemplifies formal and polite style of speaking, influenced by the time period
(discussed above). Biber et al. claim that the passive verbs that are commonly used in
82 dialogs tend to be stative in meaning and often come close to adjectival functions (1999:
480). My findings are that the verb allow appeared solely in direct speech instances:
(81) Why am I not allowed to accept this offer? (no. 5) (82) But I’m allowed to meet her with a cab at the Grand Central Station to morrow. (no. 6) (83) He intended […] that tenants should be allowed to use them for reception rooms. (no. 7) (84) We have 600 girls on the waiting list who will in time be allowed to accept positions […]. (no. 8)
Other such verbs are consider and go. All meanings of these verbs are stative, e.g.
(85) the old restaurant’s gone (no. 102) and they could be alternatively analyzed as the copula be followed by a predicative adjective. Predominance of active verbs in dialogs is correlated with the high frequency of personal pronouns, particularly of forms with exclusively human reference (Biber et al. 1999: 939 40). Presenting actions in relation to agents is then a natural consequence of the focus on human beings.
5.1.3 Combination of aspect and voice
English verb phrases can be marked for complex combinations of aspect and voice. That is, perfect aspect, progressive aspect, and passive voice often occur together in various combinations, presenting more specialized verbal meanings (Biber et al.
1999: 482). The most common combination in the short stories has been the perfect aspect used in the past tense. Such combinations typically retain the time orientation
(‘past with past relevance’) of the past perfect aspect while demoting the agent through the use of the passive voice:
(86) […] that the wiles of jewellers had not been spent upon him in vain. (no. 215)
The progressive aspect which can be found in my sample refers to a situation or an activity in progress in a particular time:
83 (87) […] when Dixie was being played, a dark haired young man sprang up. (no. 168)
The ‘in progress’ meaning is combined with the change of focus and receding into the background associated with the passive voice.
The Czech translation often violates the aspectual principle, as in the following example:
(88) men were knocked down muži padali na podlahu (no. 131).
Here the verb knock down represents a special type of perfective verbs which are called momentary verbs since the activity depicted takes only one phase and cannot be temporarily extended. Therefore, to knock somebody down is one off matter. The proper translation should have preserved the perfective nature of the original verb at least by eliminating the progressive aspect which is used inappropriately: muži padli na podlahu. Naturally, even better would have been to keep the impersonal periphrastic passive voice in translation as well, since it actually indicates an intervention of some unspecified force, which made the men fall on the ground as in:
(89) muži byli sraženi (na zem / podlahu) .
5.1.4 Semantics
Semantically, the passive voice has several meanings and it serves various purposes. Biber et al. have noticed that the use of “passive conveys an objective detachment from what is being described” (1999: 477). This shade of interpretation is valid for the examples of the following type:
(90) It cannot be denied that… (no. 56) (91) It’s done. (no. 67) (92) But beneath the hard crust is found a delectable and luscious food. (no. 96)
The passive structures are implemented instead of the active transforms,
(93) I denied that…
84 (94) I have done it 8 (95) But beneath the hard crust I find a delectable and luscious food , where the added agent calls for personalization of the meaning. The last case, for example, is a perfectly valid general assertion when the passive is used, whereas the active shifts the sense to a single inference of one person.
This ‘objectivity’ shade of interpretation bears relation to the formal marking of the passive. The official tone, where nobody nominally but an institution is responsible, can be traced in:
(96) A police captain was dismissed from force. (no. 61) (97) Colonel Emilio Falcon was dispatched from the capital upon this important mission. (no. 63)
The explicit construction I dismiss or I dispatched would be too direct and personal an involvement on the part of the signatory or speaker (Huddleston, Pullum 2002: 1446). It is interesting to note that the verb dispatch occurs exclusively in the passive voice, although it is grammatical to form an active voice as well. Reference to ‘the police’ is usually omitted in an example like
(98) Two or three who were thus examined. (no. 79), where it is easy to infer. I even venture into an assertion that in case of dispatch the passive form is the more natural sounding one of the pair.
As Biber et al. have found out, in the storytelling and in fiction generally, often
“the focus of a story is an event involving an affected person” (1999: 477). This is shown in examples as
(99) Blythe had been re christened “Beelzebub”. (no. 184) (100) Pat was kidnapped. (no. 129)
8 When transforming the expression It’s done, it was necessary to shift the original present tense into present prefect so that the semantics of the phrase was preserved: I have done it. This suggests that the passive voice can function as a means of expressing the perfectivity.
85 Here, the ‘performer’ is unimportant with respect to the information in the message.
5.2 The Czech translation
In the Czech translations there are basically four possibilities for treating the
English passive phrase. First, the passive voice can be preserved as such, i.e. translated via periphrastic passive. Second, since there are two options in Czech to choose from when the passive voice is concerned, the reflexive passive can be used instead. Third, a translator can transform the sentence ‘back’ into the active voice, and add or restore the agent in the process to its subject position. Last, the passive construction can be totally avoided in translation, which is then substituted by various stylistic means, for example the original passive is replaced by a different, “new” verb and an adjective:
(101) His collar had been torn away – měl utržený límec (no. 237),
or the verb is in Czech very often completely avoided:
(102) the stories that have been told in the world – příběhům, na světě vyprávěným (no. 236).
5.2.1 Ways of translating the passive voice
When the English text and Czech translation are compared, the results are as follows: 37% of the total passive constructions has been preserved as such in translation, i.e. the passive voice as well as the appropriate verb has been maintained; for example,
(103) The Gentle Riders were recruited from the aristocracy. Vznešení jezdci byli rekrutováni z aristokracie. (no. 187) (104) Here’s a note I was asked to hand you Byl jsem požádán , abych vám jej odevzdal. (no. 11) (105) […] most of the paths are patrolled by their agents […] většina pěšin je hlídána agenty. (no. 164)
26% of the total passive structures has been turned into active voice during the translation, as in the clauses:
86 (106) All that’ s included in the fall toto vše patří k mému pádu. (no. 119) (107) The game of Fox in the Morning had been played out „hon na lišku“ skončil. (no. 170) (108) Even Aileen had not been shot at with a pistol. Ani Aileen by se nemohla pochlubit tím, že po ní někdo střílel pistolí. (no. 207)
24% has been translated by an entirely different construction, verb, tense, mood, etc. or completely omitted like e.g.:
(109) […] the line was not smoothed away […] vráska se neztratila (no. 212) (110) […] a fire that was seldom quenched […] zřídkakdy uhasitelný oheň (no. 176).
The smallest figure of 13% belongs to the number of reflexive passives in Czech which have served to translate the original periphrastic constructions, e.g.:
(111) […] he was seated at her side […] tak se posadil vedle ní (no. 199) .
The number of preserved passives is quite high, if the tendency of the Czech language to use active voice is taken into consideration. This shows that the translator probably treated the passive voice as a period pattern and a peculiarity concerning the author’s personal style of writing and tried to preserve it in plenty of occurrences.
Together with the reflexive passive, the total share of the passive voice constructions in
Czech translation is over 60% which is indeed an unusual quantity. The typical passive construction that is translated by means of reflexive passive is the phrase
(112) I was born […] – narodil jsem se […] . (no. 26)
In the next example,
(113) That business could be built up . Dal by se z něho vybudovat docela slušný obchod (no. 30),
it can be seen that the reflexive passive is a good choice where the translator does not wish to think up a doer to fill in the subject position.
87 In the case of the formation of an active voice out of a passive construction this change has been possible in structures with expressed as well as implied agent, which has in Czech been added to the sentence or made the subject. Example of the added doer can be:
(114) Thus an animal acts when it is caged Takhle si počíná zvíře, když je lidé dají do klece (no. 33)
The general agent is derived from the situational context, as only a human person is able to cage an animal. An example showing the passive to active transformation with expressed agent phrase is:
(115) […]whose steps were flanked by two green lights […] u jejíhož schodiště zářila po stranách dvě zelená světla (no. 89) .
Here, the Czech free word order allows the agent to appear at the end of the clause; however, it still represents the subject.
Since the basic rule of English sentence structure requires every sentence to have both subject and predicate, the subject is always present or at least implied in English which sometimes calls for a filler for cases where the subject is not needed. Dušková
(1999: 178) distinguishes a semantic difference between it in it was said and in it jumped and bit me. The former it is a “purely formal element with no referential or semantic role, employed solely to fill the position of the subject” (1999: 178), whereas the latter fulfils referential and pronominal function. In Czech this interpretation holds true as well with the only difference that the agent is implied in the first expression: vyprávělo se; skočilo to po mně a kouslo.
Constructions like
(116) I was told by a sculptor that … (no. 235)
88 do not exist in Czech language at all, so there has to be a different way of translation employed. In majority of cases such English structures with the object expressed by personal pronoun at the pre passive level correspond in Czech to the active version, with the agent gathered from context and added to the sentence or re extracted from the agentive phrase:
(117) Sochař z Mauch Chunk mne kdysi poučil, že… .
5.2.2 Tense shifting
Further, when Czech translations are compared with the original, there are divergences as far as the tense in constructions is concerned. One change that is valid for all passive constructions in past perfect tense in English is its translation into Czech by simple past tense, as for example in:
(118) Buttons that had been sewed upon by kind Salvation fingers Knoflíky, které mu přišily pečlivé prsty Armády spásy. (no. 206) (119) […] they had been awakened by the noise of a pistol shot. […] byli probuzeni výstřelem z pistole. (no. 13)
This shift is caused by the syntactic properties of the Czech language which does not form the past perfect tense. The difference between the past and the pre past level can be indicated by other means, usually via preposition, conjunction or adverbial ( předtím ).
Sometimes there is no syntactic indication but common sense as for the distinction of preceding following status of actions in Czech:
(120) A teď Phillips přivedl zimomřivého hosta, kterého vybral z řady mužů, žebrajících o nocleh. (And now Phillips wafted in the shivering guest who had been haled from the line of mendicant lodgers, no. 105).
Another frequent situation occurs when past tense in English is expressed by present tense in Czech. This happens in sentences which bear some generally valid assertion, for example,
89 (121) Humans were denied the speech of animals Lidem není dopřáno dorozumívat se se zvířaty (no. 57).
The Czech language tends to generalize what is generally true by means of present tense, which is not always desirable, since it alters the original meaning. In the above example, the author meant to bring forward the fact that ‘once upon a time’ people were denied the speech of animals, which now results in the fact that dogs cannot let their masters know what is worrying them. Even so, then, this applies under the circumstances of storytelling – the English language sticks to the course of telling the plot in the past tense, whereas in Czech the author is disposed to transform pieces of a story into present tense and thus make them more immediate and of action, e.g.:
(122) And to indicate that that the inquiry was ended he added . – A na znamení, že vyšetřování je u konce, dodal. (no. 74)
One more case where this change can be observed is a standard situation of the consecution of tenses in indirect speech introduced by a statement verb, e.g.:
(123) The Prince noted that its cause was connected in some manner with the slowly moving hands of the time piece. (no. 43), which is then obligatorily followed by a verb posed in past tense, which situation is always translated into Czech through present tense:
(124) Princ si povšimnl , že neklid nějak souvisí s ručičkami časoměru, pomalu se pohybujícími.
Not only may the tense shift happen in the above direction (past → present) but also vice versa: the original present tense is coded in Czech with past tense, e.g.
(125) But I am not defeated. – Nevzdal jsem se však. (no. 53)
Here the scheme is reversed compared to the above ‘past to present’ shift. For in some cases, the translator prefers to maintain the cohesion of a narration with regard to his
90 translation. Sometimes, the past tense in Czech is chosen instead of the present, because of the fact that the perfective character which the original passive has imbedded in itself, needs to be preserved. As Rusínová et al. (1996: 318) state, the Czech language does not allow synchronous use of the perfective aspect and the present tense e.g.
(126) He felt like a cur that is cornered by his tormentors. Měl pocity psa, kterého pronásledovatelé zahnali do kouta. (no. 46)
The reason for this lies in the nature of perfectivity as it expresses limitation of action’s duration in terms of the wholeness of action, where the action is finished since it has been accomplished, the aim has been reached and there is no point in continuing in it
(Rusínová et al. 1996: 319).
Slightly different point of view is adopted in the following analysis. It deals with the preservation of a modal in translation. So then, in many cases the shift of tense is replaced by the change of mode. Especially, the original past tense is translated by means of a conditional in Czech, e.g.:
(127) […] a baggage with which his flight was burdened cokoli, co by mu ztěžovalo útěk (no. 31) . (128) […] or the thing in which it was carried […] či ta věc, v níž měly být uloženy (no. 38).
This shift in modality works also in the opposite direction, more concretely, a conditional phrase is translated via future tense in Czech, e.g.
(129) […] feeling confident that it would be delivered to him. – […] a byli přesvědčeni, že mu bude bezpečně doručen. (no. 54) (130) […] parlors of these houses should not be sub let . […] salónky v domech nebudou pronajímány . (no. 221)
As follows from my sample, the Czech language employs future tense more often than English does. The future substitutes for the past as well as the present tense.
Here is one more example:
91 (131) People are more impressed by a Kodak. Na lidi udělá větší dojem fotoaparát. (no. 118)
Again, the choice of the translator can be best explicated in terms of emphasizing the perfective nature of the original passive construction.
Since the present perfect tense ranges among the ones which do not have a precise counterpart in Czech, it is natural that it has to be expressed in some other way.
The very rare number of present perfect passive structures has been translated by various means: past tense, infinitive form, or present tense. For example,
(132) […] his ship has just been scuttled – […] právě mu potopili loď (no. 197) , is a variant which most closely preserves the original meaning, since it sketches out the perfectivity with regard to the presence in the adverbial právě. In my opinion, in this case I consider the Czech active interpretation to be a more suitable and appropriate one since it depicts the action and suspense of the moment.
5.2.3 Alternative translations
In this last part of my analysis I will have a look at constructions which have been translated in an alternative way; where the original has been followed only semantically, not at the level of formal sentence arrangement. The passive constructions have been not only turned into active ones, or into reflexive passives, but rather have been totally omitted and avoided. I will present here a classification together with an evaluation of the cases. I include also my animadversion as far as the Czech altered translations are concerned.
With regard to proportion, the translator’s own creativity has been implemented in 24% of the all 258 passive occurrences. As I have suggested above, the passive voice including the verb carrying it has often been entirely omitted. For example:
92 (133) With the effect of a schoolmaster entering the play room of his pupils was that blow administered . Úder měl stejný účinek jako vstup učitele do třídy. (no. 3)
In the Czech version there is neither a mention of the verb administer , nor is its meaning saved in any other verb. This situation can be found in numerous cases and it brings about an alteration of meaning. For example in the pair:
(134) I told him it was considered a faithful likeness. Řekl jsem mu, že to je věrná podoba. (no. 44), the Czech interpretation loses the conditioned meaning, and assigns the agency directly to the speaker who draws the conclusion. While in the original the agent who considers things is (theoretically) unknown to a reader, it can be represented by the person of the speaker but also by a group of artists (the topic in question is a portrait).
Another possibility is the use of a verb different from the original text. At the same time, the meaning is preserved. Examples are
(135) I ’ve been blessed with – (kolik) jsem nezažil (no. 21) (136) […] you were admitted to dine […] směli jste pojíst (no. 4) .
Here the original verbs bless and admit are replaced by verbal forms of experience and may, respectively. The semantic impact is not a striking one, since the Czech verbs accurately communicate the intended meaning.
Different verb is used also in the second variant of this possibility, which is characterized by deterioration of the semantic value of the original verb due to the
Czech choice of an unmarked verb. For example in the passage
(137) […] five cops had to be whistled for […] že jich muselo přijít pět (no. 250)
the original meaning, consisting in the blowing one’s whistle to call for other mounted policemen who were wandering around, is entirely lost. What is left is the basic frame
93 of a vague coercive measure that has been employed to make the police officers appear on site. The choice of verb is not the happiest one also in the following example:
(138) By and by the restless mood was overcome Pomalu setřásl neklidnou náladu (no. 160). In Czech the verb setřást is in semantic contradiction to pomalu, the former implying a rapid intense movement, whereas the latter meaning “slowly”. The enumeration of the inaccurate translated excerpts could continue by the piece
(139) […] near which were gathered some twenty girls (no. 99), in which the Czech verb in the part
(140) […] u nichž postávalo asi dvacet děvčat even changes and shifts the meaning of the passive semantics of ‘being gathered’, rather unpromptedly. The Czech verb comments on the consequent situation which is only the result of the process of gathering. Definitely, the use of Czech shromáždilo se would have been more appropriate here.
Next variant for the translator has been the use of the construction be + adjective, which is in Czech interchangeable with the passive voice, and in English it is difficult to distinguish between the two. Here are some examples:
(141) Is it lit? Je zapálená? (no. 137) (142) His eyes were firmly imbedded […]. Jeho oči byly pevně zasazené […]. (no. 116).
Even more reduced is the translation by means of solely an adjective. The whole original passive phrase is substituted by an adjective which can occur in the attributive position or participates in a post modifying clause. Examples of the former would be:
(143) […] potatoes which were not yet peeled for breakfast. […] neoloupané brambory, chystané k snídani. (no. 165) (144) […] ghost that had been dispossessed […] jako nějaký vypuzený duch (no. 64);
94 the latter situation can be exemplified by
(145) […] wit that can be churned out of California claret […] důvtipem, vyvolaným kalifornským červeným vínem (no. 39) .
The listing of alternative ways of translating the passive phrase can be ended by the group of other instances which cannot be easily classified. For example,
(146) […] the old restaurant is gone […] stará restaurace je pryč (no. 102); (147) […] when the shot was fired […] když už jsem byl za výstřelu (no. 86); (148) […] as a dog was intended to do […] jako správný pes (no. 123).
95 Summary
The passive is traditionally described as a formal and impersonal choice.
Especially the passive form comprising be and the past participle is perceived as literary, as opposed to the expressive and colloquial form conjugated with get instead of be (Curme 1931: 445). The formality is consistent with the distribution among registers, with high frequencies in academic writing and with dialogs in fiction at the opposite extreme (Biber et al. 1999: 943). Quirk et al. found out that the “major stylistic factor determining the frequency [of the passive voice] seems to be related to the distinction between informative and imaginative prose rather than to the difference of subject matter and of spoken and written English” (1974: 808). Although they assert that the passive voice is noticeably more frequently used in informative writing than in imaginative prose (Quirk et al. 1974: 808), I have dealt with a sample containing passives quite frequently, notably in informative passages.
The most general function of the passive voice proved to be the shift of a viewpoint. Since the passive “involves a restructuring of the clause”, thus it is not a simple order variation (Biber et al. 1999: 935). The passive construction “demotes the agent of the verb, while giving topic status to the affected patient” (Biber et al. 1999:
477). Especially short dynamic passive forms leave the initiator of an action unexpressed because the agent is unknown, redundant, or irrelevant (i.e. of particularly low information value). Its omission also means that the verb phrase is more often in clause final position, characteristic of new information.
The choice between the active and the passive verb is related to the presentation of given and new information, which is also connected with the use of short versus long passives (Biber et al. 1999: 476). Typically, the short passive makes it possible to eliminate the participant that would have been expressed in the subject of corresponding
96 active construction, which is exploited for many reasons. Since the agent is most typically human, it suggests itself to characterize the short passive constructions as impersonal. Although these two passive types differ with respect to the given/new division, as for the expression of given information they are alike. They are characterized by the tendency to place given information in subject position. This is, however, true of subjects in general and is not limited to passive constructions (Biber et al. 1999: 943).
On the other hand, the long passive preserves all the information that would be expressed in the corresponding active construction. Because of this difference between the short and the long passive, the latter “should be considered as competing with the corresponding active construction rather than with the short passive” (Biber et al. 1999:
943). Here, the winner is the active voice as the active construction is the more frequent choice in describing a situation involving an agent, an action, and an affected participant, presumably because it represents a natural way of viewing things (from originator to goal). The affected participant is chosen as subject if the context makes it a more natural starting point than the agent, especially if this is given in the context and is less informative than the affected participant (Biber et al. 1999: 943).
The passive voice as a means of stylistics influences the tone of a sentence and contributes to its meaning. As can be seen in the following example:
(149) He was permeated with the curse of domesticity (no. 167), the chosen passive contours the overall passive meaning, as the context of this excerpt is the description of a couch potato. The possibility to omit an agent is made used of and the construction thus suggests that he , passively and without his own effort or volition, became extremely lazy. The passivity is apparent in comparison with the Czech translation which is active and not so telling:
97 (150) Vyzařoval prokletí zdomácnělosti .
The verb vyzařovat can bear the passive undertone of “unintentionally radiate”, nevertheless, the fact that it is posed in the active voice causes the inescapably more active and agentive nature of the phrase.
The author lays emphasis on the notion of preceding and following, and on the resultative nature of actions. That is why he uses past perfect tense very often.
Semantically it is actually a present perfect aspect but related with the past tense of the narrative line:
(151) His face and hands had been recently washed. (no. 249)
In this example the sense of the utterance is ‘past with present relevance’ but the stylistic preference governs the whole of the plot telling to be united in one and the same tense which is in this case the past tense.
98 Conclusion
The aim of the present thesis has been to explore the use of the passive voice from the semantico syntactic point of view, with the main focus set on the English language. Since the research sample is rather small, it means, that it cannot serve as a ground for general conclusions. However, my hypotheses postulated at the beginning proved correct, particularly the overall preference of the active to passive voice in Czech when compared with English, or more specifically, the prevalence of short passive forms, which confirms the basic functions of the passive voice. These have been the expression of verbal action without the necessity to specify the agent that performs it, and to mediate the shift of perspective from the actor to the acted upon subject. Semantically the passive voice is, above all, a formal means of objective detachment, avoidance of personal involvement and in fiction, it serves its purposes especially in underlying descriptions which frame the plot.
In Czech, where the translator could operate with two types of the passive forms, he preferred active, reflexive and other means of expression in the majority of cases. The periphrastic passive has been preserved in 37% of cases, which I ascribe to the wider range of possibilities that are available in Czech (word order, reflexive passive, various pseudo passive constructions). Overall, the translations proved the tendency to transform the passive structures into active ones with the necessary agents added, thought up, presumed and deduced from the context. Whereas in English the passive facilitates cohesion and is obligatorily employed in maintaining the rules of functional sentence perspective, in Czech the active voice can be utilized in this respect.
The English language disposes of only a limited number of possible clause structures and associated sets of participant roles. These restrictions determine that an
‘agentive’ role cannot be expressed by an object or complement, but only by the subject,
99 or by the agent of a passive clause (Quirk R., Greenbaum S. 1973: 411). Hence, the importance of the passive voice as a means of reversing the normal order of ‘agentive’ and ‘affected’ elements can be seen. Consequently, the adjustment of a clause structure to conform to end focus and end weight principles is achieved.
The scope of my analysis has comprised a lot of various, though interrelated, perspectives. I have examined the English passive structures from a quantitative as well as a qualitative point of view. The exploration of qualities included the semantics of the long and short passive phrase, communicative functions of the passive as well as the study of its purposes with regard to functional sentence perspective. Attention has been devoted to the agentive complementation of the passive structures, and further to the modal modification of a verb phrase. What is more, I compared the implementation and stylistic roles that the passive plays in English with the roles that it plays in the Czech language in corresponding translations.
During the process of analysis, my primary aim has been to explore, with the aid of the sample of short stories, the manifold functions that the passive can bear. I did not mean to deduce general conclusions about the English passive voice, but rather to find out all the assorted particular uses in which it can be employed and to account for the varied purposes that it can serve from both a syntactic and a semantic point of view.
That is why I have reached a lot of sub conclusions which are not meant to be generalized. Therefore, I will present here a full list of functions of the passive voice that I have encountered in my sample.
100 Functions and uses of the passive voice SHORT PASSIVE Function Example OMISSION OF AN AGENT → unimportant for the message It was a daring thing to have been named Mary. (no. 153) → unknown His eyes were firmly imbedded in his face. (no. 116) → redundant We happened to be born there. (no. 27) → avoidance of personal responsibility A police captain was dismissed from force. (no. 61) → focus on the affected patient The ranchman was dragged away. (no. 69) COMMUNICATIVE DYNAMISM → new information in a verb The picture was completed. (no. 42) → new information in the passive subject 9 A group of boarders were seated on the high stoop. (no. 200) EMPHASIS → on a verb (be + lexical verb = 2 Order was restored. (no. 190) elements) → on the passive subject Dinner was served to Goodwin. (no. 203) → on completion (suggests difficulty in By and by the restless mood was the process of perfection) overcome. (no. 160) → on passivity of verbal meaning He was permeated with the curse of domesticity. (no. 167) LONG PASSIVE EMPHASIS → on an agent The mobs even attacked the Casa Morena, but were driven away by the military. (no. 72) → on a patient […] like a cur that is cornered by his tormentors. (no. 46) COMMUNICATIVE DYNAMISM → new information in an agent 10 […] as if it had been made up from individual contributors from the chorus of a musical comedy. (no. 143) STYLISTICS → long pre passive object They were almost overpowered by a great clapping of hands. (no. 161) BOTH TYPES OF THE PASSIVE
9 The rules of functional sentence perspective determine two basic schemes: in the first one attention is drawn to the subject of the passive (i.e. the pre passive object) since it is more important than the doer. This is a predominant feature of the short passive, which leaves the doer unexpressed for various reasons, and generally greater attention is taken in the affected patient. 10 The second basic scheme is used with an opposite intention, i.e. to emphasize the doer. Naturally, this is an exclusive feature of the long passive.
101 → cohesion I claim descent from the late Tommy Tucker, who was forced to hand out. (no. 92) → marked word order The sidewalk was blockaded with sightseers. (no. 23) → antichronic way of perception […] a few words that were written by him. (violation of time line) (no. 257) → objectivity It cannot be denied that […]. (no. 56) → detachment It’s done. (no. 67) → formal, official tone Colonel Emilio Falcon was dispatched from the capital upon this important mission. (no. 63) → politeness I wanted to be forgiven. (no. 93)
My research has shown that the functions and implementations of the passive voice are abundant which makes it a valuable stylistic means, especially useful for its primary ability to avoid the expression of an agent. Nevertheless, the passive turn is employed rather in formal jargon. It is often felt to be heavier than the corresponding active since it adds one element of complexity to the verb phrase (Quirk et al., 1974:
805). In general, it can be concluded that the passive voice is necessarily used in two cases: when the agent is unknown and thus unrecoverable, and as a device of alignment with the FSP linearity principle, since it enables the element carrying the highest degree of communicative dynamism to close a clause.
102 Bibliography
Analysed Texts
Henry, O. 69 Short Stories. Glasgow: Collins Classics, 1954.
. Harlemská tragédie a jiné povídky. Trans. Stanislav Klíma. Ostrava: Morava, 199 .
. Jaro na jídelním lístku. Trans. Stanislav Klíma et al. Praha: Práce, 1988.
. The Skylight Room and Other Stories. Moscow: Higher School Publishing House,
1972.
. Vrtkavá štěstěna aneb jak se Gladys činila a jiné povídky. Trans. Stanislav Klíma.
Praha: Melantrich, 1981.
. Zpověď humoristova. Trans. Stanislav Klíma. Praha: Melantrich, 1972.
Theoretical texts
Bělíček, P. English Semantics: The Semantic Structure of Modern English. Prague:
URANIA Publishers, 2005.
Biber, D., et al. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English . Harlow: Longman,
1999, 475 83, 935 43.
Chomsky, N. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax . Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1965.
Curme, G. O. A Grammar of the English language, Vol. 3: Syntax . Boston: Heath,
1931.
Daneš, František. Malý průvodce po dnešní češtině . Praha: Orbis 1964.
Dušková, L. Studies in the English Language. Part 2. Praha: Karolinum, 1999.
. Mluvnice současné angličtiny na pozadí češtiny . Praha: Academia, 1988.
Fillmore, Ch. ‛The case for case’ in Univerals in Linguistic Theory . Bach, E. and
Harms, R. (eds.) New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.
Firbas, J. Functional Sentence Perspective in Written and Spoken Communication .
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.
103 Grepl, M., Karlík, P. Skladba češtiny . Olomouc: Votobia, 1998.
. Skladba spisovné češtiny . Praha: SPN, 1986.
Havránek, B., Jedlička, A. Česká mluvnice . Praha: SPN, 1981.
. Stručná mluvnice česká . Praha: Fortuna, 2002.
Hladká, Z., Karlík, P., eds. Čeština – univerzália a specifika 5 . Praha: Lidové noviny,
2004.
Huddleston, R., Pullum, G. K. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language .
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002, 230 2, 1426 47.
Huddleston, R. The Sentence in Written English . Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1971.
Hurford, J. R., Heasley, B. Semantics: a coursebook . Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1983.
Jespersen, O. A modern English Grammar on Histrorical Principles Part 4, 5 .
Heidelberg: Carl Winter UP, 1931.
. Essentials of English grammar . London: George Allen & Unwin, 1933.
Leech, G., et al. An A Z of English grammar and usage . Walton on
Thames: Nelson, 1991.
. Semantics: The Study of Meaning . Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981.
Miller, J. Semantics and Syntax: Parallels and connections . Cambridge: Cambridge UP,
1985.
Novinářský studijní ústav. Kapitoly z odborné stylistiky . Praha: Orbis, 1955, 58 60.
Palmer, F. R. A linguistic study of the English verb. London: Longmans, 1965.
Quirk, R., et al. A Grammar of Contemporary English . Harlow: Longman, 1974,
801 11.
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S. A University Grammar of English . London: Longman, 1973.
Rusínová, Z., Karlík, P., and Nekula, M., eds. Příruční mluvnice češtiny . Praha: Lidové
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104 Sandmann, M. Subject and Predicate. A Contribution to the Theory of Syntax.
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105 Appendix
List of the discussed short stories and their Czech titles
A Cosmopolite in a Café: Světoobčan v restauraci (Vrtkavá štěstěna aneb jak se Gladys
činila a jiné povídky )
A Double Dyed Deceiver: Dvojnásobný podvodník (Zpověď humoristova)
A Harlem Tragedy: Harlemská tragédie (Harlemská tragédie a jiné povídky )
A Madison Square Arabian Night: Příběh z Tisíce a jedné noci na Madisonově náměstí
(Zpověď humoristova )
A Midsummer Knight’s DRAM: Rytířův sen letní noci (Vrtkavá štěstěna aneb jak se
Gladys činila a jiné povídky)
According to Their Lights: Podle vlastních zásad (Vrtkavá štěstěna aneb jak se Gladys
činila a jiné povídky )
After Twenty Years: Po dvaceti letech (Zpověď humoristova)
Between Rounds: Mezi koly (Vrtkavá štěstěna aneb jak se Gladys činila a jiné povídky )
Brickdust Row : Ulice cihlové moučky (Harlemská tragédie a jiné povídky )
Elsie in New York: Elsie v New Yorku (Harlemská tragédie a jiné povídky)
Mammon and the Archem: Mamon a Amor (Zpověď humoristova)
Master of Arts: Mistři umění (Harlemská tragédie a jiné povídky)
Memoirs of a Yellow Dog: Paměti žlutého psa (Vrtkavá štěstěna aneb jak se Gladys
činila a jiné povídky )
Money Maze: Utajené finance (Vrtkavá štěstěna aneb jak se Gladys činila a jiné
povídky )
Sisters of the Golden Circle: Sestry Zlatého kroužku (Vrtkavá štěstěna aneb jak se
Gladys činila a jiné povídky )
The Badge of Policeman O’Roon: Odznak policisty O’Roona (Harlemská tragédie a jiné
106 povídky)
The Brief Début Of Tildy: Tyldin krátký debut (Vrtkavá štěstěna aneb jak se Gladys
činila a jiné povídky)
The Caliph, Cupid and the Clock: Kalif, Amor a hodiny (Zpověď humoristova)
The Country of Elusion: Země úniku (Vrtkavá štěstěna aneb jak se Gladys činila a jiné
povídky )
Two Thanksgiving Day Gentleman: Den díkůvzdání dvou gentlemanů (Harlemská
tragédie a jiné povídky)
107