The paper studies the use of the passive voice in academic texts written in Mainland Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish) by their native speakers and by adult Polish learners of those languages. The corpus consists of 37 MA theses written in Scandinavia and in Poland. A number of referring verbs were chosen for the purpose of the analysis. The results show that while there are discrepancies in the use of the passive voice in texts written by Polish and Scandinavian students, they cannot be unequivocally diagnosed as resulting from the grammatical and stylistic influence of the mother tongue.
This study investigates how different form-focused instruction (FFI) timing impacts English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ grammar development. A total of 169 Chinese middle school learners were assigned to four conditions randomly: control, before-isolated FFI, integrated FFI, and after-isolated FFI. The three experimental groups received treatments which combined form and meaning with the English passive voice as the teaching target, but learners’ attention was drawn to the passive voice with different timing. The before-isolated and after-isolated groups received the treatment before and after communicative activities, respectively. For the integrated FFI group, intervention occurred during communicative activities. A picture writing test and a written error correction test were employed to measure students’ performance. The results indicated that the three experimental groups manifested significant improvement. Before-isolated FFI produced the best immediate and delayed effects, and integrated FFI produced better immediate effect than after-isolated FFI, while after-isolated FFI produced better delayed effect than integrated FFI. The findings indicated that pedagogical sequences in FFI are important, and teachers might need to guide adolescent learners to focus on form explicitly before communicative activities.
The article deals with passive constructions in Ukrainian and German languages, their manifestation in formal syntactic and semantic structures of a sentence, researches approaches to determining the place and functions of the passive voice in texts; provides contrastive analysis of clausal topic assignment, impersonalization and detransitivation in passive constructions of various types as exemplifi ed by the material of modern fi ction. The article also describes and illustrates reasons behind an agent defocusing, proves that agent reduction and detransitivation are common features for both languages. Although clausal topic assignment is considered to be the most important function of passive voice in German, its role in Ukrainian is rather dull in comparison, which is in part caused by diff erent syntactic organization of languages under research.
Artykuł porusza problematykę nietypowej funkcji biernej staropolskich czynnych imiesłowów nieodmiennych (part. praes. indecl.), nawiązując do poświęconego temu zagadnieniu artykułu A. Grybosiowej i W. Twardzika, opublikowanego w 1975 roku. Przykłady pochodzą ze średniowiecznych i renesansowych zabytków staropolskich («Rozmyślanie przemyskie», tzw. «Ortyle Maciejowskiego», «Żywot Pana Jezu Krysta» Baltazara Opeca) i prezentują trzy dotychczas nieznane zdania z przedmiotowym użyciem imiesłowów. Omówienie dostarcza ponadto dodatkowych argumentów interpretacyjnych, potwierdzających tezę o biernym znaczeniu nieodmiennych imiesłowów czynnych.
EN
The paper analyzes the curious syntactic behaviour of certain uninflected participles (part. praes. indecl.) in Old Polish, drawing on A. Grybosiowa and W. Twardzik’s 1975 article devoted to the same subject. Examples stemming from medieval and Renaissance Old Polish texts (Rozmyślanie przemyskie, the socalled Ortyle Maciejowskiego, Baltazar Opec’s Żywot Pana Jezu Krysta) present some previously unknown sentences displaying participles with object value. In addition, the study supplies further interpretational arguments confirming the hypothesis about the passive meaning of uninflected active participles.
The present article is a corpus-based study of the get-passive in British English. The theoretical part focuses on the general characteristics of the get-passive, pointing out the differences between the be- and the get-passive. The empirical part analyzes 100 examples of passive constructions with get, excerpted from the Araneum Anglicum Minus corpus, from syntactic-semantic and pragmatic aspects. Our study shows that the get-passive proves to be a dynamic construction, occurring almost exclusively with dynamic verbs. Next, the subject of get-passives tends to have an agentive role, rather than the role of an affected participant. Finally, the analysis demonstrates that the get-passive occurs most frequently in situations with either an adverse or beneficial effect on the subject or person concerned. The article provides a syntactic-semantic analysis of English get-passives and aims to contribute to a more detailed description of this passive construction in contemporary British English.
The reflexive construction and some of the uses of passive voice in Latin: the mainspring of the creation of the Romanic pronominal. In Latin they are not strictly speaking pronominal verbs. Latin uses only verbal constructions with reflexive pronoun. The meaning is always reflexive: the subject acts on himself. This meaning is also expressed by passive voice which P. Flobert calls “intrinsèque”. On the other hand, in a few examples, the pronominal construction, as the passive voice does, signifies a process of which agent can’t be named. Such synonymy is the way to the development of pronominal verbs in romance languages.
The article compares the use of passive participles in the spoken corpus of Czech (Oral_v4) and in speeches and dialogues recorded at local council meetings (from three towns in the Czech Republic). Although the Czech passive voice is considered to be used mainly in written texts and is sometimes even labelled as bookish, passive participles are quite common both in the spoken corpus and at the local council meetings. The analysis shows that passive participle use in the said domains differs both in frequency and in relation to grammatical, syntactical and semantic categories. In the Oral_v4 spoken corpus, which consists of everyday conversation, the most frequent grammatical form of the passive participle is the neuter singular, used typically to form not the passive voice, but the resultative, together with both the verbs být (=to be, e.g. je zavřeno) and mít (=to have, e.g. má zavřeno). On the other hand, in speeches and dialogues at local council meetings, the passive participle is used mostly to form the passive voice and none of its possible grammatical forms prevails significantly.
The article focuses on the interpretation of the passive forms of the verb ἐγείρω used with reference to Jesus’s resurrection. It offers a detailed analysis of the deployment of the word in the Greek text of the New Testament as well as discusses the possibility of interpreting Greek passive forms in a reflexive way. The verb ἐγείρω appears in various contexts and it is analyzed here depending on its meaning in a given context (primarily “to raise” and “to raise someone”). When the verb means “to raise,” it is intransitive, and its passive forms should be interpreted as reflexive. When it refers to resurrection, passive forms may be interpreted in the same way, but since they refer also to other persons apart from Jesus (e.g. John the Baptist), they should be treated as passive. While Jesus – as God – could have raised himself, people could not have done the same on their own – they were raised by God. It is a theological argument, then, that plays a role here. Furthermore, it seems that when used with reference to resurrection, the verb should be treated as transitive (as corroborated by its active forms), which further justifies the interpretation of the passive forms as passive
PL
The article focuses on the interpretation of the passive forms of the verb ἐγείρωused with reference to Jesus’s resurrection. It offers a detailed analysis of the deployment of the word in the Greek text of the New Testament as well as discusses the possibility of interpreting Greek passive forms in a reflexive way. The verb ἐγείρωappears in various contexts and it is analyzed here depending on its meaning in a given context (primarily “to raise” and “to raise someone”). When the verb means “to raise,” it is intransitive, and its passive forms should be interpreted as reflexive. When it refers to resurrection, passive forms may be interpreted in the same way, but since they refer also to other persons apart from Jesus (e.g. John the Baptist), they should be treated as passive. While Jesus – as God – could have raised himself, people could not have done the same on their own – they were raised by God. It is a theological argument, then, that plays a role here. Furthermore, it seems that when used with reference to resurrection, the verb should be treated as transitive (as corroborated by its active forms), which further justifies the interpretation of the passive forms as passive.
The present paper is centered around the semantics of the Russian reflexive marker seen from the perspective of a larger and often neglected category of reflexivity. Russian, among other Slavic languages, employs a system of two etymologically related markers to encode the function of reflexivity. In the case of Russian, the reflexive pronoun себя ‘-self’ constitutes the heavy marker, syntactically independent, while the light reflexive marker has two allomorphs. The variation depends on the inflectional form of the verb. The allomorph -сь appears after vowels and the -ся after consonants. In contrast, the participle forms always appear with the -ся form. Additionally, the light marker is attached to the stem after other morphological markers, such as person, number and gender. Diachronically, the light form appeared as a clitic and used to take two cases: the accusative and the dative. Through diachronic changes, the case distinction was lost forming a single marker. Typologically, in a language employing a two-marker system, the light marker tends to be polysemous, covering a range of different functions in addition to the reflexive one, as is the case in Russian. In the following analysis we will try to show that the two most common linguistic encodings of reflexivity – synthetic and analytic – are related to each other and, in fact, represent the same category.
FR
Le présent article est centré sur la sémantique du marqueur réflexif en russe, vu de la perspective d’une catégorie plus large et souvent négligée qu’est la catégorie de réflexivité. Le russe, entre autres langues slaves, utilise un système avec deux marqueurs liés étymologiquement pour traduire la fonction de réflexivité. Dans le cas du russe, le pronom réflexif себя (soi, soi-même) est un marqueur lourd, indépendant syntaxiquement, tandis que le marqueur réflexif léger a deux allomorphes. La variation dépend de la forme flexionnelle du verbe. L’allomorphe -сь apparaît après les voyelles et le -ся après les consonnes. Par contre, les formes participes ont toujours la forme -ся. En outre, le marqueur léger est attaché à la racine après d’autres marqueurs morphologiques, comme la personne, le nombre ou le genre avec les formes participes. Du point de vue diachronique, la forme légère apparut comme un clitique et avait deux cas : l’accusatif et le datif. Avec les changements diachroniques, la distinction des cas fut perdue et un seul marquer fut créé. Du point de vue typologique, dans une langue qui utilise un système de deux marqueurs, le marqueur léger a tendance à être polysémique et à remplir plusieurs fonctions différentes en plus de la fonction réflexive, comme dans le cas du russe. Dans l’analyse suivante, nous allons essayer de montrer que les deux expressions de réflexivité les plus populaires – la synthétique et l’analytique – sont liées l’une à l’autre et qu’en réalité, elles représentent la même catégorie.
This paper deals with the Italian periphrastic passive and its auxiliaries venire and essere from an aspectual point of view, based on the Czech language. After a short summary of the main differences between Czech and Italian regarding the notion of verbal aspect and periphrastic passive, it analyses a generally expected claim that in the present tense passive constructions containing the auxiliary venire should be translated into Czech with a higher incidence of imperfective verbs than of passive constructions containing the auxiliary essere. This trend should not be found in the simple past tense or in the imperfect tense. The analysis confirms a difference in the present tense, but does not confirm its absence in the past tenses. Moreover, the difference between the two auxiliaries is even more apparent in the imperfect tense.
Imiesłowy bierne czasu teraźniejszego, które ze wszystkich języków słowiańskich były aktywnie używane tylko w języku rosyjskim od XIX wieku i są kategorią gramatyczną, która nie jest akceptowana przez wszystkich rodzimych użytkowników białoruskiego języka literackiego jako normatywna, doświadczają dwóch przeciwstawnych tendencji w rozwoju języków słowiańskich: schyłku i odrodzenia. W artykule omówiono czynniki pozajęzykowe i intralingwistyczne, które mogły wpłynąć na rozwój tej formy imiesłowa w wielu językach sło-wiańskich. Zdaniem autora dwujęzyczna świadomość słowiańsko-grecka twórców pisma słowiańskiego mogła wpłynąć na utrwalenie form w języku rosyjskim. Możliwe związki imiesłowów słowiańskich czasu teraźniejszego z imiesłowami przyśrodkowymi i biernymi języka greckiego w świetle ich wspólnego pochodzenia z imiesłowu indoeuropejskiego, procesu rozwoju imiesłowów podczas przekształcenia kategorii strony i w związku z rozwojem kategorii aspektu są analizowane w niniejszej publikacji.
BE
Дзеепрыметнікі залежнага стану цяперашняга часу, якія з усіх славянскіх моў актыўны ўжытак знайшлі толькі ў рускай мове з ХІХ стагоддзя і з’яўляюцца граматычнай катэгорыяй, якая прымаецца не ўсімі носьбітамі беларускай літаратурнай мовы як нарматыўная, на працягу развіцця славянскіх моў зведваюць дзве супрацьлеглыя тэндэнцыі: заняпад і актывіза-цыю. У артыкуле разглядаюцца экстралінгвістычныя і інтралінгвістычныя фактары, што маглі паўплываць на развіццё дадзенай дзеяслоўнай формы ў шэрагу славянскіх моў. На думку аўтара, актывізацыя форм у рускай мове магла адбывацца пад уплывам білінгвальнай славяна-грэцкай свядомасці стваральнікаў славянскай пісьмовасці. Аналізуюцца магчымыя сувязі славянскіх дзеепрыметнікаў залежнага стану цяперашняга часу з медыяльнымі і пасіўнымі дзеепрыметнікамі грэцкай мовы ў святле іх агульнага паходжання з індаеўрапейскага дзеепрыметніка, разглядаецца працэс развіцця дзеепрыметнікаў у ходзе перабудовы катэгорыі стану славянскіх дзеепрыметнікаў і ў сувязі з развіццём катэгорыі трывання.
EN
The passive participles of the present tense have been actively used only in Russian out of all Slavic languages since the 19th century and are a grammatical category that is not accepted by all native speakers of the standard Belarusian language as a normative one. During the development of Slavic languages, it has been experiencing two opposite tendencies: decline and revival. The article examines extralinguistic and intralinguistic factors that could have influenced the development of this verb form in a number of Slavic languages. According to the author, the bilingual Slavic-Greek consciousness of the creators of Slavic writing could have influenced the strengthening of these forms in the Russian language. The article analyzes possible connections of the Slavic participles of the present tense with the medial and passive participles of the Greek language in the light of their common origin from the Indo-European participle, as well as the process of development of participles during the restructuring of the voice category and in connection with the development of the aspect category.
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