英语语法课程介绍
曹志希
教师简介：http://202.192.143.141/zdjpkc/engtszy/show.asp?id=672
课程简介：QQ群名称：英语语法2015秋 账号：346437234
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英语话语法等教学任务书2015秋.pdf
语语法课程表2015秋.pdf
岭南师范学院英语语法教学大纲.pdf
英语语法教学日历2015-2016第1学期.pdf
英语语法教案首页和分页1-16.pdf
• 英语语法课程资源链接
英语语法教学大纲和教学日历等教学文件2015-2016
http://202.192.143.141/zdjpkc/engtszy/sho
w.asp?id=2300
课程网站
http://202.192.143.142:8080/suite/solver/classView.do?
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Passive Voice
1 Active-voice sentences and passivevoice sentences
Rules of change into the passive
• Most of the SVO / SVOO / SVOC patterns can be made
passive.
• Rules of transformation are as follows:
Voice constraints
• Not all the active sentences can be made passive.
Some transitive or stative verbs.
• for example,
Do not occur in the passive.
This plane holds about 150 people.
These students lacked experience.
• Transitive verbs with reflexive or reciprocal objects do
not passivize:
He hurt himself when he fell from the ladder.
We should help each other.
• Some "verb + noun" combinations, which have the
force of an intransitive verb, can never take the
passive.
• The medicine soon took effect.
The plant will soon take root.
• There is no active transformation for the following seemingly passive
sentences:
He is gone. = He has gone.
The moon is risen now.
-- The moon has risen now.
Conversely, with some verbs only the passive is possible:
She was born in Shanghai.
She/s reputed to be the best singer in Europe.
2 Passive voice of phrasal verbs
（1） Passive voice of basic phrasal verbs
(a) verb + preposition:
Iook after, look into, talk about:
The children are well looked after.
This matter is being looked into.
（b） verb + adverb particle: set up, put off, bring about:
When was the hospital set up?
The sports meet is to be put off.
A new outburst of revolutionary enthusiasm will soon
be brought about.
(c) verb + adverb particle ~ preposition: do away with,
face up to, put up with:
That sort of thing should be done away with.
There's no running away from the facts
They just have to be faced up to.
Such a state of things cannot be put up with.
(2) Passive voice of "verb + noun +
preposition"
He took great care of his books.
→ His books were taken great care of.
He took great care of his books.
→ Great care was taken of his books.
3 Passive voice of non-finite verbs
(1) Passive infinitive
I am proud to be thus chosen.
I hope to be nominated.
If the infinitive does not share the subject with the main
clause, the logical subject of the passive infinitive must be
expressed:
It is impossible for lost time to be made up.
To fetch water before breakfast seemed to them
a rule never to be broken.
In some contexts, the infinitive can occur either in the
active or in the passive without any difference in
meaning,
e.g.
•
There is so much work to do / to be done,
• But in some other cases, for instance, in the construction of
"there was nothing to see / to be seen", the active infinitive
and the passive mean differently.
• Compare:
There was nothing to see.
( = There was nothing for one to see. )
There was nothing to be seen.
( = The thing being looked for was not there. )
•
Sometimes, usage requires the active infinitive rather
than the passive, even though the logical subject of the
infinitive is the recipient of the action:
This house is to let.
You are not to blame for what happened.
A lot remains to do.
(2) Passive-ing participle
When the logical subject of the –ing participle is the recipient
of an action, the –ing participle should occur in the passive,
e.g.
The problem being discussed is of vital importance.
I object to being kept waiting.
I insisted on him / his being invited.
• Compare:
He wants to be invited.
He enjoys being flattered.
He likes to be consulted / being consulted.
He forgot to be photographed.
(= He forgot that he had to be photographed. )
He forgot being photographed.
( = He forgot that he had been photographed. )
If a passive non-finite verb functions as
prepositional complementation or as object of a
phrasal verb, it can only be an –ing form.
Cases where the passive is used
The use of the passive is determined by factors as follows:
(a) The passive is used when we are more interested in the event
itself than in the agent,
e.g.
Hundreds of passengers were killed in the crash.
Everything under the sun is sold on the bazaar from hairpins to
camels.
(b) The passive is used when the agent is unknown or when
we wish to make a statement sound impersonal perhaps out
of modesty or tactfulness,
e.g.
This book was published in the 16th century.
This proposal was generally considered as not very practical.
(c) The passive is used and the agent with "by" is
expressed when we wish to stress the doer of the
action.
e.g.
Who invented the telephone?
→ It was invented by Graham Bell.
• In many cases, the choice between the active and the passive
depends on the semantic intention implied by the context.
e.g.
It rained heavily last night. The rain destroyed the flowers.
A. The flowers are all gone. What happened to them?
B: They (The flowers) were destroyed by the rain.
All this boils down to one point: active and passive forms are
structurally interchangeable, but semantically only one form is possible
in a specific context.
Two related types of passive sentences
•
There is a kind of active sentence which may be
transformed into two possible passive forms.
e.g.
People believe that he is ill.
→ It is believed that he is ill. (type I )
→ He is believed to be ill. (type II )
Active constructions expressing passive
meanings
• There are verbs that can be either transitive or intransitive and which
can be active in form but passive in meaning.
• The following two points may be noted.
• The first of these, which occurs chiefly in the present progressive, is
found in some of the daily expressions and professional jargons
known as remnants of Old English.
The house is building.
The book is printing.
The dinner is cooking.
Verbs used in this way can also be made passive. Compare:
The house is being built.
The book is being printed.
The dinner is being cooked.
•
The second type occurring frequently in the simple present is
only found when the subject is represented as having certain
inherent qualities which promote, hamper, or prevent the realization
of the idea expressed by the predicate verb.
e.g.
Tomatoes bruise easily.
My voice doesn't carry well.
Nylon dries quickly.
The door won't lock.
•
By the side of the active constructions under discussion
there exist corresponding passives, but they have a
demonstrably different meaning.
Compare:
His novels don't sell.
His novels are not sold.
• When we say that his novels don't sell, we suggest that they
have certain inherent qualities which prevent or adversely
affect their sale, that they definitely do not belong to the
category of best-sellers;
• When we say that his novels are not sold, we make a mere
statement of fact about them.
Ergative作格动词（active in form passive in
meaning）
（1）状态变化：age, begin, bend, bleach, break, bum, burst,
change, close, continue, crack, darken, decrease, diminish,
disperse, double, down, dry, empty, end, fade, finish, grow,
improve, increase, open, quicken, rot, shatter, shrink, shut,
slow, split, spread, start, stick, stop, stretch, tear, thicken,
upset, widen, worsen, etc.
(2) 烹饪、运动、位移：bake, broil, cook, defrost, fry,
melt, roast, simmer, quicken; balance, drop, move,
rest, rock, shake, spin, stand, steady, swing, turn; back,
crash, drive, fly, park, reverse, run, sail, etc.
(3) 固定搭配：catch (an article of clothing), fire (a gun,
rifle, pistol), play (music), ring (a bell, the alarm), show
(an emotion such as fear, anger), sound (a horn, the
alarm), etc.
(4) Multy-word ergative:
(a) v.+ adv: back up, block up, blow up, book in, break off, break up,
buck up, build up, bum up, check in, check out, cheer up, close down,
dry up, get off, heat up, hurry up, line up, move on, open up, peel off,
pull through, rob off, shut up, sign up, slow down, spread out, start off,
thaw out, warm up, wear down, wind up, etc.
The noise woke me up.—I woke up.
You’ll soon wear your clothes out.—your clothes will soon wear out.
(b) V.+ prep/adv: blow off, get down, get through, get up, move
down, move up, poke through, stick in, stick on, etc.
He peeled the skin off the potato/He peeled off the skin of the
potato.—The skin peeled off the potato.
Or:
The skin of the potato peeled off.
Passive constructions or "linking verb +
complement" constructions
• -ed participles can be used either as part of a passive
construction or as adjectives (and their comparatives}
functioning as complement of a linking verb.
Compare:
-ed as adjective
-ed as part of a passive
construction
I am (very) annoyed with him.
I am {very} interested in chess.
I was annoyed by
mosquitoes all night.
I was interested in
what you told me.