English Passive Voice - Middle Voice and Passival

Middle Voice and Passival

The term middle voice is sometimes used to refer to verbs used without a passive construction, but in a meaning where the grammatical subject is understood as undergoing the action. The meaning may be reflexive:

• Fred shaved, i.e. Fred shaved himself

but is not always:

• These cakes sell well, i.e. sell these cakes
• The clothes are soaking, i.e. is soaking the clothes

Only certain verbs can be used with such meanings. However a more general construction, formerly used in English, was the passival, where the progressive aspect of a verb was used in the active voice, but with passive meaning. Examples of this would be:

• The house is building (modern English: The house is being built)
• The meal is eating (modern English: The meal is being eaten)

The passival was displaced in the early 19th century by the passive progressive (the form is being built as given above). It is suggested that the passive progressive was popularized by the Romantic poets, and is connected with Bristol usage. Only certain verbs can be used with passival-type sentences in modern English, such as the verb soak in the example given above.