The category of voice

The category of voice is the system of two member opposemes (loves – is loved, loving – being loved, to love – to be loved, has loved – has been loved, etc.) which show whether the action is represented as issuing from the subject (the active voice) or as experienced by its object (the passive voice).

In Modern Ukrainian there are two voices differentiated: active and passive. The separate group includes reflexive verbs with the postfix - ся (голитися, гніватися). The passive voice can also be formed by the passive participle and non-personal form of participle ending in -но, -то (товариство організоване, товариство організовано). In Ukrainian the category of voice is characteristic only of transitive verbs.

Voice is one of those categories which show the close connection between language and speech. A voice opposeme is the unit of a language system, but the essential difference between its members is in their combinability in speech. The “active voice” member has obligatory connections with subject words and optional ones with object words. The “passive voice” member, on the contrary, forms obligatory combinations with object words and optional ones with subject words. Compare:

He loves (her).

She is loved (by him).

I want John to read (the leter).

I want the letter to be read (by John).

The category of voice also shows the links between morphology and syntax. Being a morphological category, voice often manifests syntactical relations. The voice opposites of finites indicate whether the subject of the sentence denotes the doer or the recipient of the action. Compare: She asked … and She was asked.

With regard to the category of voice verbs divide into those that have voice opposites and those which have not. The second subclass comprises subjective verbs and some objective verbs denoting actions of weak dynamic force (in which the meaning of “action” is hardly felt) like belong, become (“be suitable”), cost, fail, lack, last, own, possess, resemble, etc.

The content of all voice opposemes is the same: two particular meanings of “active” and “passive” voice united by the general meaning of “voice”. All the other meanings found in both members of the opposeme are irrelevant within the opposeme.

The form of voice opposemes in English seems to differ considerably. In the opposeme ask – am asked the “active” member has a zero grammatical morpheme and the “passive” member has a complicated positive morpheme (am … -ed). In asks – is asked both members have positive grammatical morphemes (-s) and (is … -ed). In will ask – will be asked the forms of the grammatical morphemes are still more complicated. But this variety of forms can be generalized. Then the “active” member can be regarded as unmarked and the “passive” member as marked by the combination of one of the words of the lexeme “ be ” used as a grammatical word-morpheme and the grammatical morpheme of Participle II, in the formula representation be + PII. Compare: to write – to be written.

Opinions differ as to the voice system of Modern English. Though most linguists, apparently, recognize only two voices in Modern English – the active voice and the passive voice, some speak also of the reflexive voice expressed with the help of the semantically weakened self -pronouns, as in He cut himself while shaving.

Besides the three voices mentioned above B.A.Illyish finds two more voices in Modern English – the “reciprocal” voice expressed with the help of each other, one another and the “neuter” (“middle”) voice as seen in The door opened, The numbers would not add, The college was filling up, etc.

According to B.S. Khaimovich and B.I. Rogovskaya, these theories do not carry much conviction:

1) In cases like He washed himself it is not the verb that is reflexive but the pronoun himself used as a direct object.

2) Washed and himself are words belonging to different lexemes. They have different lexical and grammatical meanings.

3) If we regard washed himself as an analytical word, it is necessary to admit that the verb has he categories of gender (washed himself – washed herself), person – non-person (washed himself – washed itself), that the categories of number and person are expressed twice in the word washes himself, etc.

4) Similar objections can be raised against regarding washed each other, washed one another as analytical forms of the reciprocal voice. The difference between “ each other ” and “ one another ” would become a grammatical category of the verb.

5) A number of verbs express the “reflexive” and “reciprocal” meanings without the corresponding pronouns, e.g.: He always washes in cold water. Kiss and be friends [24; 125–130].

According to Yu.O. Zhluktenko [5; 86], the issue concerning forms of the voice expression in the system of English and Ukrainian verb cannot be considered as a finally solved problem. The majority of grammars express the opinion that the English language has three voices: 1) the active voice, which shows that the object or the person, expressed by the subject, perform the action; 2) the passive voice, which shows that the action of the predicate is directed towards the person or the object, expressed by the subject, but this action, is not performed by them; 3) the reflexive voice, which shows, that the action is centered upon the doer of the action himself/herself.

B.O. Illyish considers that there are five voices or states in English: indicative (дійсний), reflexive (зворотний), medium (середній), passive (пасивний) and reciprocal (взаємний). O.I. Smir­nitskyj claims that the so called reflexive and reciprocal states are not the grammar forms, these are the combinations of the active state of transitive verbs with pronoun objects (займенникові додатки) and the difference between them is only in the object character (характер додатка). According to his opinion in English there are only two states: the active and the passive ones.

The Ukrainian language has four major states: 1) the active/ or the indicative state (активний або дійсний), which includes all the transitive verbs; 2) the medium (середній), which includes all intransitive verbs with the meaning of movement or state (бігти, летіти, спати, хворіти); 3) the passive state (пасивний), which includes the verbs that render the action performed upon the object (розмиватися, відбудовуватися); they usually have the ending -ся; 4) the reflexive state (зворотний), also including the verbs in -ся, which render the action, the object of which is the acting person (повертатися, роздягатися, вмиватися, чепуритися) [5; 86–87].

Besides these mentioned groups there are differentiated some smaller state groups of Ukrainian verbs. For example, the separate group of verbs renders the reciprocal action, which is happening between two, or among bigger number of acting persons, e.g.: зустрічатися, листуватися, умовлятися. Other verbs render the active-non-object/objectless action (активно-безоб’єктна дія), which is spread upon certain objects that are not mentioned by this: (собака) кусається, (кінь) брикається. The verbs with the ending -ся of the type (не) хочеться, (не) спиться, (не) лежиться are cloze to the medium state.

The Ukrainian grammarian M.A. Zhovtobrjukch finds only three states in the Ukrainian language: the active (the indicative), which includes all transitive verbs, the reflexive-medium and the passive states. The last two include verbs with the ending -ся. According to his opinion the intransitive verbs, rendering the movement or the state (іти, спати, сміятися) do not possess the category of state.

The peculiarity of the English language is the multiple meaning (багатозначність) of the verbal suffix -ся. Verbs with this suffix belong to different states, for example: a) the passive state: змінюється, затверджується; b) the reflexive: умиваюся; c) the reciprocal: змагаються, б’ються; d) the active-non-object: куса­ється, ганяється; e) the passive-non-object: (скло) б’ється, (стіл) розсувається and others [5; 87].

Some verbs in Ukrainian have only the reflexive form that is they are used only with the suffix -ся: любуватися, боятися, надіятися, сміятися and others. Also there are a lot of verbs which cannot be combined with this suffix that is they are unable to create the form of the reflexive state: лягти, сохнути, сісти, виснути, гнити, вмерти, пахнути, шуміти and others.

When we compare the building of the state forms in English and in Ukrainian (I defended him “я захищав його”, I was defended by him “мене захищав він”, I defended myself “я захищався”) then it can be easily noticed that in English the state is a more grammatical category than in Ukrainian, where it has a lexical-grammatical character. In Ukrainian we cannot build forms of different states from one and the same verb with such an ease as we do it in English. Besides in English a big number of verbs can act both as transitive and intransitive depending on the context where they are used, whereas in Ukrainian the meaning of a certain state is attached to a certain verb and determines the whole system of its forms [5; 87].

In Ukrainian the forms of the verb state are mainly synthetic ones, and in English analytical forms are prevailing.

6.1. The passive voice (state). In English the passive state of the verb is formed by combining of the help verb “ to be” in the corresponding tense form with the Participle II of the main verb, which expresses its lexical meaning: He was invited. The peculiarity of such a passive construction is that it renders two different meanings; a) the meaning of the state passiveness (пасив стану), e.g.: The house is built “будинок (є) збудований”, b) the meaning of the passiveness of the action (пасив дії) – “будинок будується”. This contradiction between the form and the content of the grammar category is especially obvious if we take into consideration other European languages, which have different forms to express the passiveness of the state and the passiveness of the action.

Thus in Ukrainian the passiveness of the state is expressed analytically. This form is built by combining the help verb бути in the corresponding tense with the past participle of the verb, expressing the lexical meaning: був розроблений, був побудований. This form is created only by verbs of the perfective aspect. They also create a widely used construction with the passive meaning with non-personal indeclinable forms in -но, -то, e.g.: будинок збудовано, статтю було опрацьовано, роботу буде розпочато and others.

The passiveness of the action is rendered in Ukrainian in a synthetic way – by the verb forms with the suffix - ся: програма затверджується, школа перебудовується.

The absence of such outer characteristic features in English is compensated by the system of other language means: 1) context;
2) the form of the auxiliary verb; 3) semantics of a participle.

One more essential characteristic feature and striking diffe­rence in building passive in English and Ukrainian is the different way of usage of the meaning of verb transitiveness to form the passive state.

The Ukrainian language forms characteristically the passive state mainly from the verbs which have the direct transitive meaning (прямо-перехідне значення), that is they transform the direct object of the active state construction into the subject of the passive construction: вони будують хату – хата будується ними.

A special and very characteristic feature of modern English language is the fact that it uses all the meanings of the verb transitiveness to form the passive: the direct transitiveness, the indirect transitiveness without the preposition and the indirect transitiveness with the preposition. In other words English passive constructions are formed with the usage in the role of the subject of any object of the active construction: the direct object, the indirect object or the prepositional object.

So in the English language we have the following typical passive constructions:

a) with the usage of the direct-transitive meaning of the verb: The house was built of stone (Будинок будувався з каменю).

Such constructions are also characteristic of the Ukrainian language.

b) with the usage of the indirect-transitive meaning of the verb: She was given a book (Їй дали книжку).

Such constructions are impossible in Ukrainian. The main peculiarity of such a usage of the passive state in English is the fact that in such cases the passive is formed from verbs which have two objects: the direct and the indirect one (to give something to somebody). The subject of the passive construction corresponds to the indirect object of the active construction whereas the direct object remains without changes and functions in the passive construction as the so called retained object (“утриманий” об’єкт).

c) with the usage of the indirect transitiveness with the prepositional form of government (керування), e.g.: The doctor was sent for (За лікарем послали).

Such forming of passive is all together uncharacteristic for other Indo-European languages.

d) Especially peculiar are passive constructions with the usage not of a transitive meaning of the verb but its circumstantial relations (з використанням не перехідного значення дієслова, а його обставинних зв’язків), e.g.: The room has not been lived in (У кімнаті ніхто не жив); This bed was not slept in (На цьому ліжкові ніхто не спав).

Here the role of the subject of the passive construction is performed not by a former object of the active construction but by the former circumstance of place: Nobody has lived in the room. Nobody slept in this bed.

In Ukrainian such a passive construction is rendered either by an active one: У цій кімнаті ніхто не жив, or by the indefinite-personal construction: У цій кімнаті не жили [5; 88–90].

6.2. The reflexive voice (state). The meaning of reflexiveness is rendered in English with the help of combining the transitive verb with the reflexive pronoun of the corresponding person and number, e.g.: he hides himself (він ховається). In grammars of the English language this combination is considered to be the analytical form of the reflexive state of the verb.

There are some other views concerning this issue. For example, O.I. Smirnitskyj denies the existence of the special grammar form of the reflective state in English and considers that in the mentioned above examples the simple combination of the verb with its object takes place.

Those who support the first point of view do not deny that the reflexive pronoun, used with the verb in this combination, is not to the same degree syntactically independent as other objects (compare: he dressed himself “він одягнувся” and he dressed the child ”він одягнув дитину”). Such a prepositional object cannot be used in the role of the subject of the passive construction (we cannot say: himself was dressed), we cannot put a question to it similarly as to the other direct object (we cannot answer the question: “ Whom did he dress?” with: himself).

Among the forms of the reflexive state in English there are differentiated two main cases:

1) the proper reflexive meaning of such forms (власно зворотне значення) if they show that the subject has as the object of its action itself, e.g.: I dress myself (я одягаюся), we wash ourselves (ми вмиваємося) etc. With the verbs that render regular, often repeated actions, the pronoun can be absent: I dress, we wash.

2) the medium-reflexive meaning (середнє-зворотне значен­ня) of these forms when they show that the action is not transferred upon some other object or person, but is closed upon the subject itself, is centered upon it, e.g.: stretch oneself (простягтися), enjoy oneself (одержувати задоволення), worry oneself (турбуватися).

In Ukrainian the reflexive state is formed in a synthetic way. The affix -ся, which is added to transitive verbs, has become abstract to such an extent that it has almost lost its former pronoun meaning себе (compare: кусався and кусав себе).

Ukrainian verbs of the reflexive (or as they are sometimes called of the reflexive-medium state) are also subdivided according to their meaning into several groups:

1) proper reflexive (власне зворотні): умиватися, взуватися, голитися, одягатися;

2) indirectly reflexive (непрямо-зворотні): готуватися (до зими), запасатися (їжею), збиратися (в дорогу);

3) reciprocal-reflexive (взаємно зворотні): боротися, змага­тися, зустрічатися, листуватися;

4) general reflexive (загальнозворотні): зупинятися, просува­тися, турбуватися, журитися, дивуватися, сердитися;

5) active-non-object (активно-безоб’єктні): кусатися, дряпа­тися, жалитися, ганятися, щипатися;

6) passive-qualitative (пасивно-якісні): рватися, гнутися, розбиватися;

7) reflexive passive (зворотно-пасивні): пригадуватися, уявлятися.

In terms of their structure English reflexive forms differ from the corresponding Ukrainian forms in a way that English reflexive pronouns are not deprived of their semantics and have not acquired the grammatical character to such an extent as the Ukrainian suffix -ся. That is why they have not merged with the verb into one whole as it happened in Ukrainian [5; 90–91].