ABSTRACT

Verbal voice contrasting with the active and in some languages the middle voice. Passive constructions describe the action expressed by the verb semantically from the point of view of the patient or another non-agentive semantic role. In this process the valence of the verb when used actively is usually changed: the subject becomes a prepositional object, usually optional, and an object, usually the direct object, becomes the subject: A neighbor saw the robber; The robber was seen by a neighbor. The passive is not the basic, or unmarked voice, as it is morphosyntactically the more complex construction (the passive is usually formed by specific auxiliaries or verb affixes) and is also subject to certain restrictions. The restrictions for forming the passive depend on the language; in English, for example, middle verbs (cost, weigh) as well as sentences with cognate objects (He died a cruel death vs *A cruel death was died by him) cannot form passives.