英漢對(duì)比(第六章)

Chapter

6

Passive

vs.

Active?

Ⅰ.

Reasons

for

the

use

of

passive

in

English?

Linguistics

and

Grammarians

generally

agree

that

thechoice

of

passive

is

due

to

the

following

reasons:?

1.

Reasons

for

the

agents?

2.

Syntactic

consideration?

3.

Rhetorical

consideration?

4.

Stylistic

consideration?

1.

Reasons

for

the

agents?

(a)

The

agent

is

not

known

or

difficult

to

state,

e.g.?

(b)

The

agent

is

self-evident

from

the

context,

e.g.?

(c)

There

is

great

interest

in

the

passive

subject,

orthe

passive

subject

is

emphasized,

e.g.?

(d)

Mentioning

the

agent

is

avoided

due

to

specialreasons

like

tact

or

delicacy

of

sentiment,

e.g.?

2.

Syntactic

consideration

(as

a

cohesion-building

toolin

the

discourse)?

(1)The

passive

is

preferred

when,

in

a

successivesentences

or

clauses,

the

use

of

active

would

involvethe

change

of

subjects,

thus

disrupting

the

textualcoherence,

for

example,?

1）

He

is

a

famous

person

&

(is)

welcomed

everywhere.?

2）He

appeared

on

the

stage

and

was

warmlyapplauded

by

the

audience.?他在臺(tái)上出現(xiàn)，觀眾熱烈鼓掌歡迎。?

(2)

English

has

a

particular

reason

for

usingpassive-—

to

ensure

end-weight

or

end

focus?

When

the

performer

of

the

action

is

quite

long

orcomplex,

the

passive

is

usually

favored

as

it

canputs

the

lengthy

agent

at

the

end

of

the

sentenceand

keeps

the

sentence

balanced,

for

example,(see

students’

book

P.

88)?

3.

Rhetorical

consideration?

1）The

proper

use

of

the

passive

can

add

varietyto

a

series

of

active

sentences

as

we

can

see

fromthe

following

sentence:?

They

are

going

to

build

a

new

library

here

nextyear.

It

is

going

to

be

built

right

besides

the

officebuilding.?

We

noticed

here

that

the

passive

is

used

in

thesecond

sentence

to

avoid

monotonously

[m

"n

t

nsli]

repeating

“They

are

going

to

build…

insuccessive

sentences,”

which

certainly

would

notbe

impressive.?Some

times

the

use

of

English

passive

can

alsohelp

to

build

up

the

force

of

the

sentences,because

it

can

reduce

the

sentences

beginningwith

empty

words

like

“it”and

“there”whichmakes

sentences

sluggish(無(wú)生氣),for

example,(see

students’book

P.88)?

4.

Stylistic

consideration?

English

Linguistics

has

long

observed

that

use

ofthe

passive

is

related

to

the

impersonal

orobjective

textual

style.

Sometimes

the

writer

orspeaker

does

not

want

to

mention

the

doer

ordoes

not

want

involve

himself/herself

in

thecontext

or

to

make

any

personal

comments.

Thenthe

passive

(especially

the

agent-less

passive)

isprobably

the

best

choice.

According

to

DouglasBiber

(2000:476)

Passives

are

most

common

inacademic

writing,

accounting

for

25%

of

all

finiteverbs.

Passives

are

also

common

in

news

constituting

about

15%

of

all

finite

verbs

(ibid),

foexample,

(see

students’

book

P.

88-90)?

ⅡThe

passive

voice

in

English?

1.

Syntactic

passive?

Syntactic

passive

English

can

resort

to

manymorphological

changes,

so

there

are

many

differentforms,

namely,?

the

finite

verb

passive

form,?

the

non-finite

verb

passive

form,?

the

impersonal

passive

form(such

as

,

it

is

believedthat…),?

the

double

passive

form,

(such

as

,

the

date

isexpected

to

be

announced

soon…)

etc.?

2.

Notional

passive

(see

students’

book

P.

91)?

Ⅲ.Semantic

differences

between

Englishand

Chinese

passives?1.desirable

or

detrimental（有害的）actions??

2.

actions

or

states

??

3.

finished

or

unfinished

actions

??1.desirable

or

detrimental（有害的）actions??

English

passives

also

differ

from

their

Chinesecounterparts

in

that

they

are

relatively

more

impersonal,objective,

and

indirect.

English

passive

sentences

are

useas

an

alternative

of

active

sentences,

describing

an

eventwithout

making

any

personal

comments.

Thus

they

areequally

acceptable

in

expressing

desirable

or

detrimental（有害的）actions.?But

Chinese

passives

are

mainly

restricted

to

conveythe

meaning

of“being

unfortunate”or“being

inflicted施以”.Therefore

Chinese

passives

are

once

considered

asthe“inflicted

voice”or“inflictive

voice”(不幸語(yǔ)態(tài))?

(see

students’

book

P.

93)?

2.

actions

or

states

??English

passives

are

derived

from

thestructure

of“copula

verb+predicate”,sothey

are

able

to

express

both

the

actionsand

states.Contrarily,Chinese“被”wasoriginally

a

verb,hence,Chinese

passivesgenerally

describe

actions,especially

whenthe

agents

are

present.(see

students’book

P.93-94)?

3.

finished

or

unfinished

actions

??

Even

when

describing

actions,

English

andChinese

passives

still

differ——-the

former

candescribe

finished

or

unfinished

actions,

while

thelatter

are

generally

restricted

to

finished

actions.?

Ⅳ.

Waysto

express

Chinese

passives?

In

English,

syntactic

passives

are

more

frequentlyused

than

notional

passives.

On

the

contrary,

inChinese

notional

passives

are

more

frequentlyused

than

syntactic

passives?1.The

passive

voice“Receptor

subject（受事主語(yǔ)）+verb”has

become

an

expressive

habit

for

Chinese?

According

to

the

Chinese

mode

of

thinking,

man

is

anintegral

part

of

nature

and

human

action

is

certainlyand

inevitably

done

by

men.

Things

or

matter

can

notfinish

human

action.

The

self-evident

thinking

modecauses

people

to

conceal

the

agent

in

theirexpressions

and

focus

their

attention

on

the

object

and

behavior

itself.

As

a

result,

the

object

serves

as

asubject.?

On

the

other

hand,

although

Chinese

lexical

verbshave

no

morphological

changes,

the

same

verbforms

can

still

convey

both

active

and

passivemeanings.

Thus

with

the

limited

use

of

the

passivevoice,

the

“Receptor

subject+

verb”

hasbecome

an

expressive

habit

for

Chinese”

and

thepassive

meaning

is

mutually

acknowledged

by

thecommunicators’

sense

of

language.?

And

the

tendency

to

widely

use

receptor

subjectsresults

in

a

large

number

of

“natural

passivesentences.”

General

speaking,

the

purer

theChinese

is,

the

more

such

sentences

are,

forexample,

(see

students’

book

P.

96-97)?

2.

When

the

agent

is

unnecessary

or

impossible

tostate,

The

Chinese

always

keeps

the

active

by

usingsubject

less

sentences,

subject-omitted

sentences.(See

students’

book

P.

97)?（1）要制造飛機(jī)，就必須仔細(xì)考慮空氣阻力問(wèn)題。?（2）為什么總把這些麻煩事推給我呢？?（3）注意看看信的地址是否寫(xiě)對(duì)了。?3.When

the

agent

is

difficult

to

state,the

Chinesealways

keeps

the

active

by

using

the

general

personlike“有人”“人們”“大家”etc.(See

students’book

P.98-99)?

（1）

It

is

said

that…?

（2）

It

is

w