Syntactic and semantic features of passive sentences in treasure island by robert louis stevenson

Basing on the description and analysis of collected data of passive sentence examples in “Treasure Island” with descriptive and contrastive methods used in combination with the qualitati

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF PASSIVE SENTENCES IN “TREASURE ISLAND” BY ROBERT LOUIS

STEVENSON

(Đặc điểm cú pháp và ngữ nghĩa của các câu bị động trong tác phẩm

“ Đảo Giấu Vàng” của Robert Louis Stevenson)

NGUYEN THU THUY

Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Van Dong

Hanoi, 2020

Nguyen Thu Thuy

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Nguyen Thi Van Dong

Date:………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the process of completing this graduation paper, I have received a great deal of assistance, guidance and encouragement from my supervisor, my teacher,

my friends and my family

First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor - the leader of the foreign language department, Mrs Nguyen Thi Van Dong, who has given me suggestions on how to shape the study and has continuously encouraged

as well as given me valuable advice with constructive comments during the process

of writing this graduation paper

Next, I would like to express my gratitude to all lecturers in the Faculty of English for their lectures and instructions which help me a lot in completing this study

I also would like to express my sincere thanks to my friends who have always shared with me their interests, concerns and supports for this study

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family who has facilitated me to complete this study

Ha Noi, October, 2020

Student

Nguyen Thu Thuy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Error! Bookmark not defined TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

ABSTRACT v

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 65

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the study 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Methods of the study 2

1.5 Scope of the study 4

1.6 Significance of the study 4

1.7 Structure of the study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Previous studies 6

2.1.1 Previous studies oversea 6

2.1.2 Domestic previous studies on passive structures 7

2.2 Theoretical background 8

2.2.1 Overview of voice and passive voice in English 8

2.2.2 Language style in novels Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER 3: COMPARISON BETWEEN SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF PASSIVE SENTENCES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IN “TREASURE ISLAND” 18

3.1 Features of English and Vietnamese passive sentences in “Treasure Island” in term of syntax and semantics 20

3.1.1 General view of syntactic and semantic features of passive sentences in “Treasure Island” 20

3.1.2 Passive voice in semantic analysis 28

3.1.3 Agents and Patients in passives 28

3.1.4 Passive constructions in syntactic analysis 35

3.1.5 Passive constructions with “bị” and “được” 36

3.2 Similarities of English and Vietnamese passive sentences 45

3.3 Differences between English and Vietnamese in passives 46

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 60

4.1 Recapitulation 60

4.2 Concluding remarks 61

4.3 Limitations of the current research 61

4.4 Implications for English learners and translators in learning and translating passive sentences 62

REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

ABSTRACT

Passive sentence has been considered an interesting field from semantic and syntactic perspectives It is one of the issues that has never been studied exhaustively Being interested in passive sentences, this thesis naming “ Syntactic and semantic features of passive sentences in ‘Treasure Island’ by Robert Louis Stevenson” in order to help Vietnamese learners and translators of English have better understanding of English passive sentences Basing on the description and analysis of collected data of passive sentence examples in “Treasure Island” with descriptive and contrastive methods used in combination with the qualitative and quantitative approaches, this study aims at pointing out some various forms of English and Vietnamese passive sentences as well as finding out the similarities and differences between them From those, the athor would like to show difficulties and suggest some solutions for Vietnamese learners and translators of English in translating and learning English passive sentences and to help them master English passive sentences and thus improve their language acquisition

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Adj : Adjective Adj.P : Adjective phrase

NP : Noun Phrase

O : Object Pre.P : Prepositional Phrase

S : Subject

VP : Verb phrase

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2: Passive verbs in different tenses

12

Table 3.2 : Semantic roles of subjects in passive voice 56

Table 3.3: Rate of passive structures in Vietnamese materials 60

Table 3.5 : The form of “be” passive in different tenses in “Treasure

Island”

71

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study

Passive sentence is a topic which is researched by many linguists and concerned nowadays Passive sentence has an important role in English, especially

in academic works where the actions take place without mentioning the doer In Vietnamese, vice versa, active form are preferred In English, passive sentences are acknowledged and used as a grammar point for teaching English, but Vietnamese people do not often use the passive voice, and they usually change it into the active voice Or even when the passive sentence is used, the word order of passive structure in Vietnamese is different from that in English

Today, there is still a controversy of whether passive voices exist in Vietnamese or not but nobody can deny the role of passive meaning in Vietnamese Although there are a lot of pages, books, chapters which have been written about the passive sentence, many readers still have trouble explaining its usage in understandable ways This result has caused some misunderstanding and making mistakes when they learn and translate English passive sentences into Vietnamese and vice versa, especially in properly understanding English literary works

The translation process is quite complex as it requires translators to put a lot

of thoughts on a variety of aspects beyond the materials to be translated The materials are not only written in different languages, but they also represent different cultures, differ greatly in terms of linguistic, literary and socio-culture conventions For this reason, the author concerns a good deal with the translation of literary works

Among those linguistic conventions, passive sentences, in the author’s mind, seem to cause a great deal of trouble when translating them from the source language text into the mother tongue and vice versa This is also the case when the author read the novel “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson Then the author’s mind raised a question whether there exist any differences between passive sentences in English and Vietnamese and whether those differences, if there are any, decide on the passive sentences in terms of syntactic and semantic or their meaning and structure are determined by other factors All these account for the author’s decision to have a closer look at passive sentences in English and Vietnamese and assign the paper the title “syntactic and semantic features of passive sentences in ‘Treasure Island’ by Robert Louis Stevenson

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The aim of the study is to help Vietnamese learners and translators of English passive sentences to learn and them in an effective way from semantic and syntactic perspectives

To achieve the above-mentioned aims, the following objectives can be put forward:

- To identify the syntactic and semantic features of passive sentences in English and Vietnamese

- To make a comparison between the syntactic and semantic features of passive sentences in English and Vietnamese in “ Treasure Island”

- To give some suggestions for better learning and translating English passive sentences into Vietnamese for the Vietnamese learners and translators of English

3 What are the implications for learning and translating English passive sentences into Vietnamese for the Vietnamese learners and translators of English?

1.4 Methods of the study

In order to complete this study, some effective and flexible combination of several research methods will be applied for finding out the syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese passive sentences

Firstly, the descriptive method is used in the first stage To give a deep and detailed description of functional and structural features of English passive sentences These features are illustrated by a list of English passive sentences taken from the reference grammar books written by contemporary influential linguists in English as Quirk,R.et, Bauer, L (1983), Plag, I (2003) and Mgr Marie Gajzlerová (2007) and in “Treasure Island”

The second qualitative research is used because according to Ary et al (2002), the goal of qualitative research is the depth of understanding rather than the numerical data Moreover, “dataanalysis in qualitative research is often done concurrently or simultaneously withdata collection through an iterative, recursive, and dynamic process” (Ary et al,2010, p 481) It means that the researcher also did the data analysis whilecollecting the data In addition, “qualitative data might be quantitized by counting frequency a particular word is used or the number of times

a particular theme is identified” (Ary et al, 2010, p 564) That is why the researcher useda frequency list to expose the data in this study This kind of study is also calleda mixed method because the data collection is qualitative but the data analysis isquantitative (Ary et al, 2010, p 564)

In addition, at the end of research, the comparative and contrastive method is used to find out the expressions of passive sentences in "Treasure Island" and also made to identify the operating mechanism of passive sentences in English in order that effective measures can be put forth to deal with the problems possibly arisen in learning and translating English passive sentences

1.5 Scope of the study

In this study, the thesis only focuses on synatctic and semantic features of English passive sentences extracted from “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson

The passive sentences analyzed in this study are those formed by two words with the data source mainly from“Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson, not from the dictionaries However, the theory of passive sentences are extracted from the reference grammar books by Quirk, R & Greenbaum, S (1985), Charteris-Black, J (1999), Mgr Marie Gajzlerová (2007), Lone Secher Wingreen Christensen (2014) and“Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson Moreover, the study collects data regarding features, the use and the translation of English passive sentences with reference to Vietnamese from the novel through survey questionnaires, so the survey questionnaires designed in this research focus primarily on the use of English passive sentences with reference to Vietnamese and

on reliable data and information for research from students’ habits in using English passive sentences The participants of the research eighty five first – years students

at Haiphong University who acted as significant means to collect the students’ most common mistakes This thesis aims only at providing some suggestions for improving the learning and translating process of English passive sentences

1.6 Significance of the study

The first significance of this research lies with the learners and translators

of English They are provided with information on structures in relation to passives

in both languages With the assistance of the research, they can minimize and find ways to overcome their difficulties by themselves because any learners and translators must have problems with structures in the process of learning and transalting English

Second, it can also make some contribution to contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese passive sentences, which is beneficial to those who study and translate English into Vietnamese as well as to anyone who is interested in either Vietnamese or English passivenes or both

1.7 Structure of the study

The study consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1, the Introduction states clearly the reasons for doing the study and the aims, the objectives, the research questions , the methods ,the scope of the study, the significance of the study as well as the study structure

Chapter 2, the Literature review, gives a critical review of the previous studies relating to the research problem under investigation and presents the theoretical background employed as tools for conducting the whole thesis

Chapter 3, Findings and discussion, passive sentences in “Treasure Island”

by Robert Louis Stevenson, describes and analyzes the syntactic and semantic features of passive sentences in the novel in order to provide some possible suggestions for improving learning - translating process of English passive sentences for Vietnamese teachers and students of English

Chapter 4, Conclusion,gives the summary of the study Furthermore, this chapter also presents the limitations of the research and some suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides an overview of the theoretical background as well as relevant knowledge and summaries of previous research’s findings and conclusion associated with the theme of the investigation In other words, the review is to explain several related terms and definitions as to passives, passive structures, syntax, semantic, translation These later would further highlight the features conducted of the study as well as suggest an array of possible implications for learning English expressions with passives in general and translating for Vietnamese students at the Hai Phong University in particular

2.1 Previous studies

2.1.1 Previous studies oversea

As regards English passives, they have been described by such a lots of grammarians as representatives of different schools such as:

Randolph Quirk, et al (1985) dealt with active–passive transformations, get–passives, voice constraints and the passive gradient According to them, the voice constraints are related to verbs, objects, agents, meanings and frequencies He proposes a six-class passive ‘scale’ which is reduced to a three-class passive

‘gradient’ in Quirk et al (1985) going from ‘true’ or ‘central’ passives (verbal) to

‘pseudo-passives’ (adjectival) via ‘semi-passives’ (semi-verbal, semi-adjectival)

John Sinclair, et al (1990) described English passives from the practical point

of view They made a comprehensive study of such subcategories as tenses, agents, processes, verb types, get –passives and have - something –done structures

M.A.K.Halliday (1994) first discussed when and why passives are deployed Then he went further to introduce different types of passives such as passives with direct participants, passives with indirect participants, passives with analytic causatives or Agents of the second order, and passives with secondary verbal groups What is more, he specifies three processes in the passives, which are material (effective or middle passives), mental (effective or middle passives), and relational (effective or middle passives)

Collins (2005) presents a departure from this generally accepted approach initiated by Chomsky Rather than relying on transformations, Collins proposes an analysis that sees both active-voice and passive-voice as having the same underlying structure with regards to external argument structure He asserts that the passive participle suffix does not differ from the past participle suffix, citing their identical morphology in English

To achieve a situation whereby the external argument merges in the same location in both active and passive constructions, Collins suggests that the passive involves “smuggling” This entails the movement of a constituent ‘x’, held within a larger constituent ‘y’, across a potential barrier to x He introduces a Part-Phrase, containing the participle and direct object; all of which, in the passive, raises to a second new phrase, Voice-Phrase, which has by as its head

2.1.2 Domestic previous studies on passive structures

In passive syntax, Hoàng Trọng Phiến (1980) states that “in Vietnamese the opposition between passive and active voices is not done through purely grammatical ways but through lexico - grammatical ways”

According to the author, the syntactic structure of a Vietnamese passive sentence are as follows:

- The subject of the passive is the object of the alternative active

- The predicate of the passive includes an auxiliary “bị” and “được” and a transitive verb

- The agentive subject are optional to be present in the passive

(Hoàng Trọng Phiến, 1980: 166-67) With regards to the point which is related to the syntactic function and meanings of “bị” and “được”, I consider the fact that these words are grammatically important and to some extent have lexical meanings does not exclude their function

as markers of passive relations if we look at this issue from the grammaticalization viewpoint

Diệp Quang Ban & Nguyễn Thị Thuận (2000) also support the existence of passive sentences in Vietnamese They argue that the passive voice in Vietnamese

is not marked in the form of verbs but in the form of a special syntactic construction with established grammatical and semantic characteristics Accordingly, they specify the following characteristics of Vietnamese passive constructions:

- The appropriate grammatical means for expressing passiveness in Vietnamese are function words (được, bị) and word order

- Verbs participating in passive constructions are transitive verbs which have semantic relations with entities expressed by noun phrases as subjects before được,

Hoàng Văn Vân (2000) argues for the existence of the category of “voice” in Vietnamese in terms of semantics and syntax He asserts that the presence of “bị” and “được” makes a clause marked, and the position of participants causes the Goal/Medium to coincide with the unmarked Theme in a passive clause

Nguyễn Thị Ánh (2000) argued that Vietnamese is a topic prominent, not subject prominent language and there are no typical grammatical categories of Passive constructions

Having the same idea, Cao Xuân Hạo (2003) added “bị” and “được” are true notional transitive verbs in Vietnamese, not formal words in forming Passive sentences

2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.1 Overview of voice and passive voice in English

2.2.1.1 Concept of voice and passive voice in English

Voice is a linguistic category that defines the relationship “between the participants and the event indicated in the verb” (Nida 1964:200)

In an active clause, the subject is the agent responsible for performing the action, whereas in a passive clause, the subject is an affected entity, and the agent may or may not be specified (Baker 1992: 102)

“Voice is a grammatical category of verbs that is related to what thing or person is acting and what thing or person is being acted upon" (Crystal, 2002)

According to Hornby (2005), voice, in terms of grammar, is the form of a verb that shows whether the subject of a sentence performs an action (the active voice) or is affected by it (passive voice)

“In grammar, the voice (also called diathesis) of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc.) When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice When the subject is the patient, target or undergo-er of the action, it is said to be in the passive voice.” (“English Passive Voice”, 2009)

In English, the concept of voice is considered as a grammatical category The verb form which indicates whether the subject (person or object) of a sentence does something or something has been done on the subject called the voice There are two voices in English: active and passive In English the passive voice is the form

of a transitive verb whose grammatical subject serves as the patient, receiving the action of the verb

More specifically, passive voice is the voice used to indicate that the grammatical subject of the verb is the recipient (not the source) of the action denoted by the verb (Farlex, Inc., 2010)

A sentence that begins with the subject or the object to determine whether the sentence was categorized as active or passive voice sentences For example, when a sentence has one auxiliary verb, such as am, are, is, been, being, be, and past participle of verbs like written, driven, drawn, known, learnt, broken, discovered, the sentence is a passive voice

Passive voice is not a derivative of active voice, which is the outcome of people’s different meaning expressions Passive voice describes the whole process

of certain events from the patient’s point of view It is a marked form of voice There are three markers in passive voice, be, -ed and by, which has its meaning and significance respectively Typical passive could be classified into two categories, passive with agent and passive without agent, or, agentive passive and non-agentive passive In the agentive passive, the agent will not appear but will be implicit in the context

These are some passive-voice definitions:

“The passive voice serves to show that person/thing denoted by the subject

of the sentence is not the agent (doer) of the action expressed by the predicate verb but is the object of this action The subject of a passive verb does not act but it acts upon, it undergoes an action” (Gordon, E.M., 1972:25)

The concept of voice in English and Vietnamese shares the common feature

of the semantic roles of the sentence subjects If the agent is in the subject, the sentence is active If any component except the agent is the grammatical subject, the sentence is the passive The difference is in the fact that English voice is related to verb forms while the Vietnamese voice is related to lexical and grammatical means 2.2.1.2 Passive voice structures in English

In general, English passive voice is used to focus on the action rather than the agent of the action because who or what is performing the action is not known

or not important The agent can be absent from the sentence and the patient is always located in the front position Therefore we don’t need to describe who performs an action in some cases but the action must be performed

In formal approaches, the active voice, being unmarked, tends to be negatively defined as not being passive – when indeed it is defined at all As for the passive voice, it tends to be assimilated to the ‘BE + past participle’ construction or, less strictly, to clauses or sentences which contain a combination of either BE, or GET, or some other verb ‘commutable’ with BE, and a past participle For instance, Sweet (1892: 112) notes that “ in English the passive is formed by combining the finite forms of the auxiliary verb to be with the past participle of the verb’ Visser (1973: 1788) states that ‘a ‘passive’ construction must necessarily consist of a form

of to be + past participle’

In Quirk et al (1985: 159 sq.), a ‘true’ passive clause is one whose VP contains a combination of BE or GET and a past participle A more inclusive definition is proposed by Jespersen (1933: 85), for whom the English passive is formed with an auxiliary, generally be, but often also get or become…, and the second past participle

In the grammar of English, the form of Passive voice is a popular category,

in which the object of the verb is in the position of subject This can help us identify passive voices There are three markers in passive voice: be, - ed, and by, which has its meaning and significance respectively

• The basic structure is:

Be + past participle ( P2) (+ by + Agent)

Passive voice with Modal verbs such as can, may, might, could, ought to, should, had better, used to, etc may precede the verb “be” Modals and Auxiliary in the passive voice:

S + Modal verb + be + P 2 + by + Agent

In passive sentences, the thing receiving the action is the subject of the sentence and the thing doing the action is optionally included near the end of the sentence In a passive clause, we usually use a phrase beginning with “by” + Objective pronoun if we want to mention the agent – the person or thing that does the action, or that causes what happens

The main verb is always in its past participle form The passive verbs can occur in different verb tenses (except present perfect progressive and past perfect progressive) The passive verb forms can be systematized as follows:

Table 2: Passive verbs in different tenses

M + be + being + P2

Perfect Have/Has +

been + P2

Had + been + P2

Will/Shall + have been + P2

M + have been + P2

(“A practical English grammar” – Thomson and Martinet: 1986: 265)

• There are several criterias to classify the formation of English passive voice In terms of sentence pattern, passive transformations are allowed to three following structures: S-V-O (-A); S-V-Oi-Od (-A); S-V-O-C(-A)

* Formation from S-V-O (-A) pattern:

- The object is a noun phrase: It is usually possible for the Od of the active sentence to become S of the passive

E.g.: She cut the cake → The cake was cut (by her)

- The object is a finite clause We use this structure when we can’t say or don’t mention to the speaker There are two passive structures when the O is a finite clause

E.g.: People thought John had paid too much

→ It was thought that John had paid too much

or: John was thought to have paid too much

- The object is a non - finite clause (infinitive and ing-participle) The passive analogue is rare with these verbs However, the exceptions are with a few

verbs notably like advise, insist, recommend, suggest, agree, arrange, determine, demand, decide, etc the passive can be expressed by a finite clause “ V + that +…

should + P2”

E.g.: He decided to sell the house

→ He decided that the house should be sold

(Thomas & Martinet, 1986: 264)

* Formation from S-V- Oi -Od (-A) pattern

Many verbs carry two objects (Od and Oi) One is usually a concrete or abstract thing, the other is usually a person or sometimes both of two objects are things

- The Oi is a noun phrase (NP), Od is a finite clause: there are two ways of the passivation by the S of the passive being either Oi (more common) or Od in the corresponding active sentence

E.g.: John convinced me that he was right

→ I was convinced (by John) that he was right

(Quirk & Greenbaum, 1972: 371)

- The Oi is a NP, the Od is a non - finite clause (to infinitive): the S of the passive sentence is with the Oi only

E.g.: They urged the council to reduce the rate

→ The council was urged to reduce the rate

(Quirk & Greenbaum, 1972: 371)

- The passive sentence starts with Oi when Oi is a noun phrase, Od is a prepositional phrase: Intransitive verbs whose Od must be introduced by a preposition normally allow one passive, with the Oi as S:

E.g.: We reminded him of the agreement

→ He was reminded of the agreement

(Quirk & Greenbaum, 1972: 371)

- Idiomatic expressions consisting of “V+ NP+ Prep + NP” such as make allowance for, make fun of, take advantage of, make use of, keep pace with, pay attention to, take account of, take note of, etc…: There are two passive

forms , passive sentences can have the subject of either NP

E.g.: They had made good use of the house

→ Good use had been made of the house

→ The house had been made good use of

(Quirk & Greenbaum, 1972: 371)

* Formation from S-V- O - C (-A) pattern

In this pattern, the O of active sentence is always a NP, which usually becomes the S of the passive sentence The differences in this structure are in various complement types:

 The object complement (Co) is a NP:

E.g.: She made him a good husband

→ He was made a good husband by her

 The object complement (Co) is an adjective phrase:

E.g: He made the girl much happier

→ The girl was made much happier by him

(Quirk & Greenbaum, 1972: 371)

- The object complement (Co) is an infinitive clause (to-infinitive clause):

The verbs such as like, want, love, wish that takes O in the to-infinitive

clause form their passive with the passive to-infinitive

E.g.: She wants someone to wash the dishes

→ She wants the dishes to be washed

- Be supposed to do may be used in two meanings as follows:

a Suppose in the passive can be followed by the present infinitive of any verb but this construction usually conveys an idea of duty and is not therefore the normal equivalent of suppose in the active: It’s someone’s duty to do something

You are supposed to know how to drive = It is your duty to know/You should know how to drive

b Suppose in the passive can similarly be followed by the perfect infinitive

of any verb This construction may convey an idea of duty but very often does not:

You are supposed to have finished = You should have finished but He is supposed to have escaped disguised as a woman = People suppose that he escaped etc

In reverse, with the verbs such as recommend, beg, order, urge that contain

an O in the to-infinitive clause, the passive can be formed in two ways:

+ By making the main verb passive:

E.g.: Mary was urged to buy the tickets well in advance

+ By structure: verb + that + … Should

E.g.: He urged that the tickets should be bought well in advance

 The object complement (Co) is a bare – infinitive clause:

Some verbs of perception take the bare infinitive in the active such as: feel, hear, notice, observe, see, smell, watch… In the passive, the bare infinitive is

replaced by the to – infinitive:

E.g.: I hear them shouting something

→ They were hurt by something

However, the causative verbs have, make, let take a bare-infinitive in their

infinitive clauses but “make” takes to-infinitive

E.g.: They had/let/made Bob teach Mary

→ They had Mary taught by Bob

→ They let Mary be taught by Bob

→ Bob was made to teach Mary

(Quirk & Greenbaum, 1972: 365)

- The object complement is an –ing participle clause: this is often found in

the passive transformation especially with verbs such as like, dislike, hate, remember, forget, find

E.g.: I watched Bob teaching Mary

→ Bob was watching Mary

→ I watched Mary being taught by Bob

- The object complement is an -ed participle clause

E.g.: The tourists found the chairs occupied

→The chairs were found occupied (by the tourists)

(Quirk & Greenbaum, 1972: 367)

• Special passive structures:

- Become passive and Get passive have one common feature that is to express the gradual changes, often enhanced by modification with more and more, increasingly, etc : “Get passive” is used in informal speech and writing to express: misfortune, accomplishment, arrangement, and work completed

E.g.: Our technique is becoming increasingly specialized

(Quirk, R et al: 803)

- Verb-ing form with passive meaning: (Need – Want – Deserve – Require) This structure with passive meaning can have two forms with each verb:

“V + Ving” or “V + passive infinitive”

E.g 1: The batteries in this radio need changing / need to be changed

(Murphy, 2000: 115) E.g 2: I do not think his article deserves reading/ deserves to be read

(Swan.M,2000: 280)

- The causative structure: Have/ Get + O + P2 The causative structure ‘s

usage is similar to that of Be – passive, consist of two forms: “Have something

done” and “Get something done” They are found more in informal languages and

in all tenses In the imperative “get’ is more natural than “have” We use this

structure to present actions we arrange for other people to do for us It also describes something that unfortunately happens to someone

E.g.: Jill had /got the roof repaired yesterday

We are having the house painted at the moment

I’ve just had/got my car serviced

Get + O + P2 is found more in informal language It can be found in all tenses In the imperative “Get” is more natural than ``Have”

E.g.: Get your hair cut

- The pseudo – passive: is a sentence active in form but passive in meaning under certain circumstances Pseudo – passive is the typical non –agent passive structure, that means the doer is not mentioned In other words, there is no By – phrase in this special structure

E.g 1: The book didn’t sell well, so it wasn’t reprinted.( The book was not sold well)

E.g 2: These clothes can wash well (These clothes can be washed well)

CHAPTER 3:

COMPARISON BETWEEN SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF

PASSIVE SENTENCES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IN

However, this is obscured by the fact that the written representation of

short passive sentences may be written in different ways, which is presented in the novel

In this study, the author would like to put passive voice on the view point of syntactic and semantic analysis to provide deeply this category in English and Vietnamese After that the contrast is made to find out similarities and differences

of passive voice in both languages

3.1.1.1 Be - passive

Passive voice is known to be expressed by the combination of the auxiliary verb “be” with the verb in past participle (Vpp) The tenses of “be” in passive structures are presented as the following:

Table 3.1 :Tenses of “be” in passive structures

Present S + am/is/are + Vpp

That hill in the centre of the island is called the Spy Glass.’

The march is being televised now

Progressive

Past S + was/were + being +

My computer was being used

by

Present S + have/has + been Papers have been used for ages

Perfect

Past S + had + been + Vpp The bag had been left at home

Future S + will + have + been

The dishes will have been washed

The other tenses are not mentioned because they are hardly ever used in the passive

3.1.1.2 Get – passive

In English, a passive sentence is formed with “get” and a past participle The

verb “get” can function in a manner very similar with “be” In Oxford Guid to

English Grammar, Eastwood (1994, p 136) notes: “We sometimes form the passive

with get rather than be”

He got bitten by mosquitoes

The example above has get – passive structure used without a by – phrase If the sentence lacks a by – phrase, it is easy to make confusion between a get – passive with get before a past participle and a get preceding adjectives and meaning

“become” Considering this point, let’s look at these examples as following:

He got irritated at his stupid dog

He got frightened by his stupid dog

In the two examples above, it causes ambiguity to distinguish between a past

participle and an adjective To identify the past participle we can insert “very” before irritated Adjectives admit “very” but participles do not Besides, by –

phrase is also used to identify the passive in this case

The Get – passive is also used to express an action or change not a state, whereas passive sentences with “be” usually denote a state In other words, the verbs in get – passives are often dynamic According to Carter and McCarthy, get – passives cannot replace be – passives with non – dynamic verbs For example:

The bed had not been slept in

but not * The bed had not got slept in

3.1.1.3 Passive voice with modal verbs

According to John Eastwood in Oxford Guide to English Grammar (1994, p

136), the passive is also known to be expressed by combination of modal verbs

followed by be with past participles:

Modal + Be + Past Participle For example:

The problem can be solved immediately

Violent actions should be banned in schools

A modal verb can combine with the perfective and passive together:

Modal + have been + Past Participle

The window should have been cleaned yesterday

My bicycle must have been stolen

There are modal verbs in modern English: will/would, shall/should,

can/could, may/might, ought to, must, have to, used to, dare, let, need Especially, need forms a passive sentence by preceding an active – ing form of verb or a

passive infinitive

The table needs repairing/ The table needs to be repaired

Fishes in the bow need feeding/ Fishes in the bow need to be fed

3.1.1.4 Passive voice with to - infinitives and gerunds

To – infinitives and gerunds usually appear in the passive and come in the

same pattern as the active form For example:

I expected to be invited to the party

It is terrible to be bitten by dogs

In the second example, we can rewrite it by using a gerund phrase without changing the passive form of the verb “bite”

Being bitten by dogs is terrible

Sometimes, the passive meaning is remained while the active is used in a sentence like this:

You are not to blame for what happened (= no one should blame you)

The reason for this case is that “to blame” is used in a passive sense with the meaning of responsibility for something bad happened

We also have perfect tenses of to – infinitives and gerunds Let us see two examples below:

He is said to have been sacked for a week

I am annoyed at having been made a fool of

3.1.1.5 Transitive verbs or intransitive verbs

In so many research works about passive voice, grammarians affirm that in passive voice, all verbs are transitive Why do they say so? Why intransitive verbs

do not appear in passive sentences? They are related to objects When we use the passive, the subject is hidden there is always an object, which means the verb is always transitive

Transitive verbs always take objects and answer a question beginning with 'what' or 'whom' When the writer uses the passive, the subject is hidden and the focus is on the object

I paid the bill last week - What did you pay?- The bill

→ The bill was paid last week

The object of a transitive verb can be a noun, a pronoun, a clause For

example:

1 Tom sold his house (noun)

2 He sold it (a pronoun)

3 He asked his friend to help him (a clause)

A transitive verb usually takes a direct object; that is, the verb transmits action to an object For example:

He sent the letter (letter is direct object of sent)

She gave the lecture (lecture is direct object of gave)

A transitive verb can also have an indirect object that precedes the direct

object The indirect object tells to or for whom the action is done, although the words to and for are not used In the following examples, there is a difference between the direct and indirect objects The direct object “letter” receives the action

“sent” The indirect object “Robert” is the person to whom the letter is sent:

He sent Robert the letter

The direct object “lecture” receives the action “gave” The indirect object

“class” is the group to whom the lecture is given:

She gave her class the lecture

There are 3 kinds of transitive verb: monotransitive, ditransitive and complex transitive verbs

Monotransitive verbs are verbs that take only one object For

example:

She studies Russian

Ditransitive are verbs that take two objects For example:

My mother gave me a pen

Complex transitive verbs are verbs that take an object and an object complement or an object and an obligatory adverbial For example:

Her son painted the floor red

Each kind of transitive verbs will be specifically presented in the next

sections

In contrast, an intransitive verb is simply defined as a verb that does not take

a direct object There’s no word in the sentence that tells who or what receives the action While there may be a word or phrase following an intransitive verb Such

words and phrases typically answer the question “how”, “when” and “where” Most intransitive verbs are complete without a direct object as in:

She grew up

It rained

Intransitive verbs can be followed by a prepositional phrase or an adverb to add to the thought being expressed, but they can never be followed by a noun, which would act as the object of the sentence For instance:

He grew up on a ranch

She grew up to be a farmer

“On a ranch” is a prepositional phrase, not a direct object The word “on” is

a preposition that introduces the prepositional phrase adding to the sentence meaning by answering the question “Where did he grow up?” The same can be said

of “to be a farmer”, which is yet another phrase

We can recognize an intransitive verb because it never has a passive form For example, ‘bite’, which is transitive, can be used passively The intransitive verb

‘fall’, however, cannot:

The dog bit me

→ I was bitten by the dog

I fell off my bike (prepositional phrase: ‘off my bike’)

* The bike was fallen off

There are some transitive verbs which cannot be made passive, which generally are called middle verbs For example:

The shirt costs 20 dollars

Twenty dollars are cost by the shirt I like this place

The place is liked by me

Some verbs have multiple meanings and can be transitive or intransitive, depending on the context in which they are used Here are some examples:

He grows his own fruit and vegetables (transitive)

My son is growing (intransitive)

The truck runs on diesel gasoline (intransitive)

My uncle runs a restaurant (transitive)

I'm reading (intransitive)

I'm reading an article in the TIME magazine about sharks (transitive)

I.3.5.2 Transitive verbs

Monotransitive verbs are verbs that take only one object There are some kinds of objects: noun phrase objects, prepositional objects, finite clause objects, non – finite clause objects…

a) Noun phrase objects:

Animate/inanimate subject + verb + concrete object He drank a cup of

coffee

The verb may be a phrasal verb: verb + adverbial particle + object When the object of these verbs is a noun, it is placed either before or after the adverbial particle If it is pronoun, it is only placed before the particle

Animate/ inanimate subject + verb + abstract object I understood the

problem

→ The problem was understood

Animate subject + verb + animate object

The police have arrested one protester

→ One protester has been arrested

Inanimate, abstract subject + verb + animate object

The results of the competition shocked the candidates

→ The candidates were shocked by the results of the competition

a) Prepositional objects:

The prepositional object may be a noun, pronoun, gerund, or a (w)h – clause

Look at these examples in active voice:

People shouted at

the prime minister’s speech him

speaking what the prime minister spoke

And in passive voice, the subjects may be:

The prime minister’s speech

The subject of the passive construction corresponds to the prepositional object

A new project is suggested to us

The prepositional passive does not very frequently occur It is limited in numbers of verbs which take only one object such as:

Verbs of saying: speak about/of, comment on, suggest to, talk about/ of The

quote was much commented on

Verbs of contempt: laugh at, sneer at, jeer at, mock at, frown at

My behavior is laughed at

Other groups of verbs: look for/at/upon/after, approve of, account for, reply

on/for, think of/about, send for

It was such an important thing to be thought of

c) Finite clause objects:

Finite clauses typically begin with “(w)h” or “that” There are subtypes of verb phrases in “(w)h” or “that” clauses:

Indicative verbs: I think that he won’t come

→It is thought that he will not come

Putative “should”: I recommend Peter that he should be confident →Peter is

recommended to be confident

Subjunctive verbs: Laura agreed that the cat was dirty

→It is agreed that the cat was dirty

Verbs that take putative “should” and subjunctive verbs are: command,

demand, regret, request, ask, authorize, decree, permit, urge, require …

d) Non – finite clause objects:

Non – finite clause objects have two types: with subjects and without subjects

Non – finite clauses without subject contain several classes of verbs, either

participles or infinitives (deserve, need, require …) It is rare to see these verbs in passives Sometimes introductory it with certain verbs (agree, decide, feel) to form

the passive:

I agree to join this event

→ It is agreed (by me) to join this event

Non – finite clauses with subjects have two subtypes: to-infinitive with

subject and bare infinitive with subject

+ To-infinitive with subject: Clara was seen to do it

+ Bare infinitive with subject:

(i) Verbs of perception: hear, see, watch, help, let, make He was heard to do

this task

(ii) Verb + object + V-ing:

→ She was seen waiting

(iii) Verb + object + ed-participle:

The old man found the chair occupied

→ The chair was found occupied by the old man

3.1.1.6 Ditransitive verbs

Ditransitive verbs are verbs taking two objects The category of ditransitive verbs depends on types of object

a) Indirect + direct noun phrase object:

There are a number of verbs which take two objects: a direct and an indirect object Either direct object or indirect object may become a subject of a passive sentence For example:

He passed Paul the ball

→Paul was passed the ball

The verbs have two objects which can be replaced by prepositional constructions “to” or “for” Thus, ditransitive verbs have two ways to express For example:

He gave Mary ten dollars

or He gave ten dollars to Mary

→ Ten dollars was given to Mary

or Mary was given ten dollars

These verbs include: give, bring, hand, grant, offer, owe, promise, show,

teach, tell

b) Verb + noun phrase + preposition phrase + object:

This construction constitutes a special type of complex object: the verb and the two phrases form a very idiomatic unit For example:

Pretty girls are always taken notice of

There are some common idioms: put an end to, set fire to, do away with, take

note of, keep an eye on, keep face with, catch/ lose sight of…

c) Noun phrase + finite clause object:

“That” – clause: sometimes “that” is omitted For example:

They found that they had gone wrong side

→ It was found that they had gone wrong side

“(W)h” – clause:

He did not ask me whether they were coming

d) Prepositional phrase + that – clause object:

Some verbs take the preposition “to” and followed by a “that” clause: admit,

complain, mention, acknowledge, declare, explain, remark, report, say, signal, suggest For example:

The neighbor complains to me that my son makes noise at night

→ It is complained to me that my son makes noise at night

3.1.1.7 Complex transitive verbs

a) Object + noun phrase complement:

They voted him president →He

was voted president

b) Object + preposition + noun phrase complement:

These verbs take the preposition “as” to form complex transitive verbs:

accept, class, consider, know, treat, use, describe, believe, call, declare, set, find, imagine, like … For example:

We considered him as the hero of our city

→He was considered as the hero of our city

“To be” may be inserted before a noun phrase complement

My mother believed Paul to be a genius

→ Paul was believed to be a genius

Introductory “it” is also used effectively in this case to be the subject of the passive For example:

It is believed that Paul is a genius

c) Object + adjective phrase complement: We painted the floor red

→ The floor was painted red

There are some verbs which can be constructed with “to be” or “as” (given above), whereas some verbs like “paint” in this example do not

d) Object + prepositional adjective phrase complement: The doctor reputed

him as hopeless

→ He was reputed as hopeless

3.1.2 Passive voice in semantic analysis

To deal with this section, it is necessary to discuss the notion of Figure and Ground which is used by Talmy (2000) to account for the expression of spatial relation in language and the reason of applying this method to analysis the passive

Figure and Ground originally refers to the relationship in terms of spatial order, in which some aspects of a visual scene “stand out” against their background (c.f Taylor, 2002, p 10) The Figure – Ground organization relates to the ways in which people conceptualize a situation

On Wikipedia, Figure – Ground organization is defined as a type of perceptual grouping which is a vital necessity for recognizing objects through vision In Gestalt psychology - a theory of mind and brain of the Berlin School,

“Figure and Ground” is known as identifying a figure from the background The

Gestalt psychologists studied all sorts of perceptual organization - the ways that humans organize information about what they see, hear, etc What they found was that there are two main visual components necessary for a person to see an object properly; a figure (the object) and the ground (the background or surroundings in which the object occurs) Thus, when you look at a picture on a wall, the picture is the figure and you can distinguish it clearly from its surroundings, the wall (ground)

Concerning passive and active voice, the two sentences, may display the speaker’s expression about the same event, but from the point of view of Figure and Ground’s notion, they differ dramatically from the speaker’s prominent view, which originates from the attention they have once the event being reported

The subject selection in active as well as in passive sentences is based on directing attention to either the agent or patient In active sentences, the Patient serves as the Ground, while in passive sentences, the Agent does that job, i.e serving as the Ground Based on Gestalt Theory, the following sections are to provide an analysis of the passive sentences using notions of Figure and Ground

3.1.3 Agents and Patients in passives

Halliday (1994, p 168) states that in clauses containing Agents, i.e doers, the clause is in passive voice if the Medium, i.e the key figure through which the process is actualized, and without which there would be no process at all, serves as subject and the Agent as the adjunct He claims that there are two major reasons for

choosing passive voice First, it is to get the Medium as Subject, and therefore as unmarked Theme, and second to make the Agent either (i) later news, by putting it last, or (ii) implicit, by leaving it out For example:

1 Tom broke the glass

2 The glass was broken by Tom

In the first example, the Agent, Tom, is the focal point, serving as the Figure

The speaker pays attention to the Agent that, whether intentionally or

unintentionally, does something to the Patient, the glass In the second sentence, the

subject expresses the Agent, thus being construed as the syntactic figure In the first one, the Agent contains the most prominent information that the speaker is focusing

on The speaker, uttering this sentence, manages to answer the question of who broke the glass or of what Tom did to the glass

The two sentences above describe exactly the same event, in which there is a man called Tom who has broken a glass However, they do not represent the same meaning expressed by the speaker In the first sentence, the speaker presents the scene in terms of what Tom did to the glass The focus of the speaker is what Tom did And the Figure is Tom since our attention naturally flows to the Figure, and a feature of a scene becomes the Figure precisely because we focus attention on it

While in the first, Tom is focused, drawing the speaker’s attention, serving as the Figure, the glass in the second does that task Altering “the way we think, or

conceptualize a situation” results in different linguistic expressions (c.f Taylor,

2002, p 10 – 11) Therefore, once we have a different structure, it is clear that the speaker must have seen the situation with a different conceptualization, resulting in another utterance with a different structure

It is clear that the subjects of (1) and (2) are different from each other, and it

is the speaker who chooses that selection Tomlin (1997, cited in Hilferty, 2000) states that subject selection in active and in passive sentences is cued by directing attentional resources to either the Agent or the Patient Speakers will produce active sentences if the Agent is more salient than the Patient and reverse in passive sentences

3.1.3.1 Agents in passives

a) By – agent

Whether we include the agent or not depends on how important the information we focus on is For example:

This gift was sent yesterday

This gift was sent yesterday by DHL express

In the first example, we have no agent because we do not need to know who

delivered it In the second example, we see by DHL express which indicates the

company delivering the letter

Some prepositions which are called “semi – agent” can also be used such as:

at, with, about, over, to…

When we describe how something is done, the object is called “the instrument”, introduced by “with” or “by + V – ing”

The box was opened with a knife (a knife is an instrument)

b) Passive voice without agents

The agents are not mentioned if they are unknown, generalized, obvious, unimportant, or in an impersonality case

Unimportant agent:

I was suggested to apply for a job in a cooperated company

In this case, we do not need to add an agent “by somebody” because it is not important to the meaning of the sentence

Generalized agent: we, you, they, one, someone, something, etc Smart

phones are widely used in developing countries

Obvious agent:

He has been arrested for an hour

In this case, the agent “by the police” is obvious So we do not need to add Sometimes agentless case occurs if the agent has already been referred to before

Unknown agent:

The vase was broken (the speaker didn’t know who broke the vase) In this

example, we do not know who broke the vase So the agent is omitted