Voice in English and Arabic Passive Supervised by: Prof. Walid M Amer Prepared by: Hasan M Mohsen

Voice Voice is defined as "the grammatical category expressing the relationship between, on the one hand, the participant roles of the NP argument of a verb and, on the other hand, the grammatical relations born by those same NPs " (Trask: 2008: 299). Voice is a syntactic pattern which indicates the verb-subject relationship. It is a modification of the verb to show the relation of its subject to the action expressed (Al-Jarf, 1994).

Voice Two sentences can be different in voice and yet convey the same basic meaning. In many languages the most familiar voice contrast is between active and passive constructions. The active and the passive are merely two forms of the same verb: both express action.

Passive in English Passive is "a construction in which an intrinsically transitive verb is construed in such a way that its underlying object appears as its surface subject" (Trask: 2008: 201). The boy broke the cup. The cup was broken by the boy.

Passive in English In the passive voice, the subject of the verb is the receiver of some action or state indicated by the verb, and the doer of the action becomes the object of the preposition.

Use of passive in English when the agent (the person who does the action) is unknown, unimportant or obvious from the context: Jane was shot. (We don’t know who shot her.) This church was built in 1815. (Unimportant agent) He has been arrested. (Obviously by the police) 2. to make more polite or formal statements: The car hasn’t been cleaned. (more polite) *(You haven’t cleaned the car. – less polite)

Use of passive in English 3. when the action is more important than the agent, as in processes, instructions, events, reports, headlines, new items, and advertisements: 30 people were killed in the earthquake. 4. to put an emphasis on the agent: The new library will be opened by the Queen.

Agent To say who did the action that we are talking about, i.e. to refer to the agent, we use the preposition by and the name (by Peter), noun phrase (by the teacher) or pronoun (by him) at the end of the sentence. We usually only refer to the agent when it gives us some important information which otherwise would be missing from the sentence. Our house was designed by a famous architect.

Active to Passive To change a sentence from the active voice to the passive voice: 1. The object of the active voice sentence becomes the subject of the passive voice sentence. Agatha Christie wrote this book. This book was written by Agatha Christie. 2. We change the main verb of the active voice sentence into the passive voice. The tense remains unchanged. 3. The subject of the active voice sentence becomes the agent of the passive sentence. It is placed after the past participle and it is preceded by the preposition by.

By or With? In the passive voice, we use: by with the agent to refer to by whom the action is being done. The door was opened by Mr. Blake. (Mr. Blake = agent) with to refer to the instrument, object or material that was used for something to be done. The door was opened with a key. (a key = the object that was used) The omelette was made with eggs, cheese and peppers. (eggs, cheese and peppers = the material that was used)

In English, voice is shown by the use of auxiliary words and the past participle of the verb followed by the by-phrase, the agent may be omitted or preceded by e.g.: An apple is eaten by the boy. An apple was eaten by the boy The car is being repaired. The money has been paid. The money will be paid by the customer. It can be done. It has to be done. It will be written by Mary.

Passive in Arabic In the passive voice, the subject of the verb is the receiver of the action or state indicated by the verb. The doer of the action is not explicit to us, as in: ضُربت الكرة كُسرت النافذة

Passive in Arabic In Arabic, unlike English (and many other languages), the passive voice is not formed with passive auxiliary and passive participle. Passivization is made by altering the vowels of the active verb: Active Passive /kæssæræ/ (broke) > /kussiræ/ (was broken)

Passive in Arabic In Arabic, voice is shown by mutation (change of vowel in the verb). In imperfect verbs, the vowel following C1 is changed to /u/ and the vowel that follows C2 is changed to /i/ as in (1). In perfect verbs, C1 is followed by /u/ and C2 is followed by /a/ as in (2). Active Passive كَسَرَ كُسِر َ يَكتُبْ يُكْتَب

Passive in Arabic If C2 consists of /uu/ or /ii/ in the present active verb, they change to /aa/ in the passive as in (3) and (4), and if the final consonant consists of /ii/ or /uu/ in the active, they change into /aa/ in the passive as in (5) and (6): Active Passive يَقول يُقَالْ يُضيف يُضَافْ يَشتري يُشْتَرى يَتلو يُتْلَى

عُنِي بالطفلِ، جُنَ الرجل، أُغمِيَ عليه Some Arabic verbs only occur in the passive such as: عُنِي بالطفلِ، جُنَ الرجل، أُغمِيَ عليه

Equivalence from English The Arabic equivalent to English passive verbs is as follows: Present simple: X is used for يستخدم Past simple: An apple was eaten اكلت التفاحة Modal pattern: The money will be paid ستدفع النقود It can be done يمكن عمله It has to be done ينبغي عمله

Equivalence from English The Arabic equivalent to English passive verbs is as follows: Present prog.: The car is being repaired السيارة قيد الاصلاح، اصلاح السيارة جار Past prog.: The problem was being discussed كانت المشكلة قيد المناقشة Present perf.: The party has been cancelled لقد الغيت الحفلة The money has been paid. لقد دفعت النقود past perf.: She said that the party had been cancelled قالت إن الحفلة قد الغيت

Equivalence from English The Arabic equivalent to English passive verbs is as follows: Modal perfect: The apple could have been eaten. من المحتمل ان تكون التفاحة قد اكلت Other passive structures: I was taught how to ride a bicycle. لقد عّلمت (تعلمت) كيف اركب الدراجة She was told that she got the job. لقد أ خُبِرت (بلغها) انها حصلت على الوظيفة He was asked how long he would stay at the office. لقد سُئِل كم سيبقى في المكتب ·

Equivalence from English The Arabic equivalent to English passive verbs is as follows: Other passive structures: The medicine must be kept away from children. ينبغي ان يحفظ (حفظ) الدواء بعيدًا عن الاطفال · I was advised to take this medicine. لقد نصحت بتناول هذا الدواء He has been known to come to work on time. لقد عرف عنه انه يأتي الي العمل في الموعد المحدد · The children were found playing in the street. لقد وجد الاطفال يلعبون في الشارع

Equivalence from Arabic The English equivalent to Arabic verbs that only occur in the passive is generally active: عُنِي بالطفل He took care of the little boy. The little boy was taken care of. جُن الرجل The man went crazy أُغمي على المريض The patient fainted.  سُقط من يده (ندم) He regretted; He felt sorry for what he did.

Equivalence from Arabic The English equivalent to Arabic verbs that only occur in the passive is generally active: غُشي عليه He fainted. أولع بالفن He was fond of art. أُصبت بالصداع I had a headache.

Equivalence from Arabic The English equivalent to Arabic verbs that only occur in the passive is generally active: تعّلقت بعملي I am attached to my work. انكسر الزجاج The glass broke. انقطع الحبل The rope broke. اندلعت النيران The fire broke out.

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References Al-Jarf, R. (1994). A Contrastive Analysis of English and Arabic Morphology for Translation Students. Gaza. Jabbari, M. J., & Kafipour, R. (2011). Long Passive Formation in English and Arabic A Pragmatic Approach. European Journal of Social Sciences, 193-200.