Agentless Passives: Are sentences which have no explicit agent.

Grapes are grown in the valley.

The papers have been destroyed.

Different Kinds of Passives:

1- Simple Passives with BE…EN:

Mary was hit by John. Grapes are grown in that valley.

2- Simple Passives with GET…EN:

He got invited to the party. She got hurt in the accident.

3- Complex Passives with BE…EN:

It is rumored that he will get the job. He is thought to be intelligent. That he will get the job has been decided.

4- Complex Passives with HAVE…NP…EN:

Tom had his car stolen last weekend.

She had her purse snatched while shopping downtown.

When to use the passive:

Least number of passives per number of words --> Highest number of passives per number of words:

Conversation & Fiction --> Journalistic Writing --> Scientific Writing

The passive is often used:

1. When the agent is redundant, e.g., easy to supply, and therefore not expressed:

Oranges are grown in California.

2. When the writer wants to emphasize the receiver or result of the action:

Six people were killed by the tornado.

3. When the writer wants to make a statement sound objective without revealing the source of information (This sentences is more complicated than the other passives discussed here):

It is assumed/believed that he will announce his candidacy soon.

4. When the writer wants to be tactful or evasive by not mentioning the agent or when he or she can not or will not identify the agent:

Margaret was given some bad advice about selecting courses.

Based on the total figure, it appears that an error was made in the budget.

5. When the writer wishes to retain the same grammatical subject in successive clauses, even though the function of noun phrase changes from agent to theme:

Tom beat Joe, but he was beaten by Ali.

6. When passive is more appropriate than the active (usually in complex sentences)

The result of second language learning experiment tend to confirm the hypothesis that students learn in distinctively different ways as suggested by Bogen, Paivio, Cohen…

7. When theme is given information and the agent is new information:

Peter: What a lovely fish! – Mary: Thank you. It was given to me by Pam.

Stative Passives: function more like predicate adjectives than like passive verbs. This distinction will become clearer if we consider the following pair of sentences:

The wells were located by two engineers.

The wells are located near the edge of the reserve. --> Stative passive without an agent, without an active voice counterpart.

Change-of-state Verbs:

What is the difference between an Active or Passive sentence from the following kinds of agentless sentences that are possible with change-of-state verbs such as open, close, change, burst, increase, and decrease?

Mike opened the door. (overt agent)

The door was opened (by Mike). (implied or overt agent)

The door opened. (change-of-state verbs)

What difference is there in meaning, if any, between the passive sentences and the agentless change-of-state sentences?

When would you use the agentless sentences rather than the active or passive sentence with an explicit or implied agent?

Answers:

There are several situations in which agentless ‘change-of-state’ sentences are referred to either active sentences or passive sentences with or without expressed agent.

1. When the focus is on the change of state and the agent is irrelevant or very secondary:

The store opens at 9 a.m.

2. When the writer or speaker’s objective is to create an aura of mystery or suspense - i.e., things seem to be happening without the intervention of an agent.

We are sitting quietly in front of the fire when suddenly the door opened.

3. When the subject is something fragile or unstable (e.g., a balloon, a bubble) that it can break, change, dissolve, etc., without any apparent intervention on the part of any agent:

Left hanging on the fence, the red balloon suddenly burst and scared all of us.

4. When it is natural to expect change to occur (i.e., physical, social, or psychological ‘laws’ seem to be involved):

Mrs. Smith’s opinion of Ronald Reagan changed.

5. When there are so many possible causes for a change of state that it would be misleading to imply a single agent:

Prices increased.