View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by UC Research Repository Passive be damned: The construction that wouldn’t be beaten __________________________ A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics at the University of Canterbury by Stu Allan University of Canterbury 2009 ________________________ In language there are no licensed practitioners, but the woods are full of midwives, herbalists, colonic irrigationists, bonesetters, and general-purpose witch doctors, some abysmally ignorant, others with a rich fund of practical knowledge – whom we shall lump together and call shamans. –Dwight Bolinger, quoted by Steven Pinker (1994, p. 399 ) 2 Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………………….…… 7 Chapter I: Unstable foundations……………………………………………………….. 8 1 Introduction….………………………………………………………………………………………… 8 2 Foundations of voice……………………………………………………………………………….. 9 2.1 Sentence slots………………………………………………………………………………….. 10 2.2 Valency, transitivity, and definitional challenges…………………………………… 15 2.3 Is voice a property of verbs or clauses?.................................................. 17 3 Understanding passivisation……………………………………………………………………… 18 3.1 Structural-rule approaches…………………………………………………………………. 18 3.2 Lexical-rule approaches……………………………………………………………………… 22 3.3 Functional approaches……………………………………………………………………….. 25 3.4 Conceptual approaches……………………………………………………………………… 26 4 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………… 26 Chapter II: The English passive………….……………………………………………... 27 1 Introduction….………………………………………………………………………………………… 27 2 The nature of the English passive…………..…………………………………………………. 28 2.1 Passive auxiliaries……………………………………………………………………………… 28 2.2 Lexical verb marking………………………………………………………………………….. 36 2.3 Noun-phrase rearrangement and the by -phrase…………..………………………. 39 2.4 Active / passive correspondence…………………………………………………………. 46 2.5 A diagnostic tool……………………………………………………………………………….. 49 3 Classifying the English passive………………………………………………………………….. 51 3.1 Actional or stative……………………………………………………………………………… 52 3.2 Agentive or non-agentive…………………………………………………………………… 55 3 3.3 Multiple passives……………………………………………………………………………….. 57 3.4 Passives in other lexical categories……………………………………………………… 58 4 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………. 59 Chapter III: Is there a universal passive?....................................................... 61 1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………. 61 2 Cross-linguistic findings……………………………………………………………………………. 62 2.1 Are passives fossil constructions?........................................................... 62 2.2 The search for a definition of passive………………………………………………….. 63 3 Cross-linguistic theories of passivisation……………………………..…………………….. 69 3.1 Is passive a promotional or demotional rule?.......................................... 69 3.2 Affectedness and control……………………………………………………………………. 73 4 Pieces of the typology puzzle……………………………………………………………………. 75 4.1 Basic or derived voice………………………………………………………………………… 75 4.2 Personal or impersonal voice………………………………………………………………. 79 4.3 Pragmatic voice…………………………………………………………………………………. 81 5 Fuzzy edge typology………………………………………………………………………………… 82 5.1 Scales, squishes, clines, gradients, or continuums………………………………… 83 5.2 Conceptual space………………………………………………………………………………. 85 5.3 Mapping voice constructions………………………………………………………………. 88 6 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………. 90 Chapter IV: Passive resistance………………..………………………………………… 91 1 Introduction….………………………………………………………………………………………… 91 2 Hypocritical advice…………………………………………………………………………………… 92 2.1 Passive voice should be avoided………………………………………………………… 92 2.2 Frequency of passives………………………………………………………………………. 93 3 Why passives are damned………………………………………………………………………… 95 3.1 Passive voice versus passitivity………………………………………………………….. 97 4 3.2 Lack of clarity and grace…………………………………………………………………… 98 3.3 Misuse…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 10 4 4 Why passives resist…………………………………………………………………………………. 10 7 4.1 Different perspectives of the same event……………………………………………. 10 8 4.2 Detransitivisation……………………………………………………………………………… 11 7 4.3 Topicalisation…………………………………………………………………………………… 119 4.4 Impersonalisation…………………………………………………………………………….. 12 6 5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………… 133 Chapter V: Reading passives…………………………………………………………….. 13 4 1 Introduction….………………………………………………………………………………………… 13 4 2 Readability……………………………………………………………………………………………… 13 5 2.1 What is readability?.............................................................................. 13 5 2.2 Measuring readability……………………………………………………………………….. 13 7 2.3 The readability of passives………………………………………………………………… 14 4 2.4 Dependencies and efficiencies…………………………………………………………… 14 7 3 Sentence interpretation……………………………………………………………………………. 14 8 3.1 Collecting information……………………………………………………………………….. 149 3.2 Parsing and interpretation…………………………………………………………………. 15 3 3.3 Interpreting passives online………………………………………………………………. 16 3 4 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………. 170 Chapter VI: Building on the literature……………..………………………………….. 17 2 1 Introduction….………………………………………………………………………………………… 17 2 2 Ways of knowing…………………………………………………………………………………….. 17 3 2.1 Views of reality…………………………………………………………………………………. 17 3 2.2 Research methods in reading studies………………………………………………….. 17 3 2.3 From a positivist to an interpretive position…………………………………………. 17 5 2.4 Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………….. 17 6 5 2.5 Limitations……………………………………………………………………………………….. 177 3 Ideas emerging from the literature……………………………………………………………. 178 3.1 Defining passive……………………………………………………………………………….. 178 3.2 Mapping voice constructions………………………………………………………………. 179 3.3 Appropriate use………………………………………………………………………………… 179 4 Case studies…………..……………………………………………………………………………….. 179 4.1 Case 1…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 18 0 4.2 Case 2…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 18 1 4.3 Case 3…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 18 2 4.4 Case 4………………………………………………………………………………………….. 184 4.5 General discussion……………………………………………………………………………. 18 5 Chapter VII: Conclusions…………………………………………………………………. 18 8 1 Findings………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 18 8 1.1 The roles of passives…………………………………………………………………………. 188 1.2 The readability of passives…………………………………………………………………. 190 2 Future directions……………………………………………………………………………………… 191 2.1 Definitional issues…………………………………………………………………………….. 19 1 2.2 Frequency issues………………………………………………………………………………. 19 1 2.3 Syntactic issues………………………………………………………………………………… 19 3 2.4 Readability issues……………………………………………………………………………… 19 4 References……………………………….……………………………………………………. 19 7 Appendices……………………………………………………………………………………. 219 A Case study survey form…………..……………………………………………………………… 219 B Sample case study text…………………………………………………………………………… 223 Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………..…….. 231 6 Abstract This thesis brings together two different lines of research, the nature of passive voice, the nature of readability. Commonly, languages have a range of tools for detransitivisation, topicalisation, and impersonalisation, of which passivisation is one (Givón, 1981). Passives have important roles in our language, and prescribing against their use lacks a full understanding of these roles. Much of the concern around passives from writers, editors, and teachers is no more than folklore that has not clearly analysed various writing and reading problems. Many awkward sentences are not awkward because they use passives but because they are wordy, clumsy, or pretentious. Most criticisms have little basis in linguistic theory, and rarely is there more than passing mention of the important role that passives play in communication. Some uses of passives are inappropriate, being vague, ambiguous, or even deceitful. These inappropriate uses of passive voice give the construction a bad name. They have become ammunition for prescriptive grammarians to fire at all uses of passives, often with weak analysis and minimal reference to linguistic theory. ‘Avoid passives’ has become a mantra. I tentatively suggest that there is unlikely to be a cost to processing passives. Given the speed at which the brain processes clauses, any differences in readability (if they exist) must be miniscule. Consequently, I suggest that any differences are unimportant relative to the benefits that appropriately used passives bring to readability. Furthermore, appropriately used passives may actually improve readability, especially when there is greater interest in the passive subject than the active subject, and when the passive serves to connect clauses or sentences. 7 Chapter I Unstable foundations Language has grown up like any big city: room by room…house by house, street by street…and all this boxed together, tied together, smeared together. –Fritz Mauther, quoted by Simon Blackburn, (1984, pp. 7–8) 1 Introduction Voice is an ambiguous term. On one hand, voice is a writer’s persona, which is about tone, point of view, and rhetorical stance (Schriver, 1997). On the other hand, voice is a grammatical concept, a property of verbs, along with tense, aspect, mood, number, and person (although I revise this concept in section 2.3). It is voice as a grammatical concept that this thesis studies, particularly passive voice 1. The Chicago Manual of Style (2003, p. 176) states: Voice shows whether the subject acts (active voice) or is acted on (passive voice) – that is, whether the