The Passive Voice Essays -- Research Paper Language Papers

The Passive Voice The side language has two voices--the active agent and the peaceable. The active voice and the supine voice differ in that a dormant verb phrase has an additional auxiliary BE followed by an EN participle. In a sense, the English passive is inflexible when compared to the passive formation of otherwise languages. For example, some languages use word order, verb inflections, and impersonal constructions to form the passive voice. In their book, The Grammar Book ESL/EFL Teachers Course, Celce-Murcia and Larson-Freeman demonstrate how the Bantu passive voice differs from the English passive voice. Kingarwanda, a Bantu language, can make even a locative role phrase the subject of the passive as in On the batch was eaten a sandwich by John, which would not be acceptable in English (221). Furthermore, propositionalization is another grammar issue which differs from language to language. In the Kingarwanda sentence, On the plenty was eaten a sandwich by John, the c enter of attention or the issuing of the sentence is the phrase On the bus. Since languages have different rules which govern topicalization, some(prenominal) languages may not accept On the bus as the topic of a sentence. In the book, Clear and Coherent Prose, William Vande Kopple discusses topicalization in the English language. Kopple states that the English language uses topicalizers to fulfill special functions in essays (41). Several of these functions are instruction the readers attention on a specific part of a sentence, expressing attached or old information at the beginning of a sentence, marking changes in topics, and lastly, setting contrasts between one topic and another (41). Since on that point are differences in topicalization and the formation of the passive voice, no... ...I must make my students cognisant of these differences. Moreover, I want my student to understand both the active and the passive voice and be able to choose which voice to use in their w riting. Works CitedAghbar, Ali. The forward-looking York Times Editorial Corpus.Alexander, L. G. Longman of English. New York Longman Inc.,1988.Besnier, N., and Edward Finegan. Language Its expressionand Use. New York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989.Celce-Murcia, M., and Diana Larson-Freeman. The Grammar Book An ESL/EFL Teachers Course. Massachusetts Newbury House Publishers Inc., 1983.Kaplan, J. P. English Grammar Principles and Facts. New YorkPrentice-Hall, 1989.Kopple, William Vande. Clear and Coherent Prose A FunctionalApproach. Boston Scott, Foresman and Company, 1989.Lyles, B. A grassroots Grammar of Modern English. New YorkPrentice-Hall, 1989.