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.
Read more about this topic: English Passive Voice
Famous quotes containing the words middle and/or voice:
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)
“If we would enjoy the most intimate society with that in each of us which is without, or above, being spoken to, we must not only be silent, but commonly so far apart bodily that we cannot possibly hear each other’s voice in any case. Referred to this standard, speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)