SYNTACTIC CONSTRUCTIONS PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS Both English and Arabic have active and passive constructions English passives use auxiliaries, (He was injured) whereas Arabic passives are derived by internal vowel change ))يُ َك َّر ُم المتفوقون TYPES OF PASSIVE IN ENGLISH THERE ARE FIVE TYPES OF PASSIVE IN ENGLISH: 1. Agentive and Agentless passive 2. Get passive 3. Causative HAVE passive 4. Pseudopassive 5. Adjectival / Stative passives AGENTLESS AND AGENTIVE PASSIVE In the agentless passive, the agent (subject) is not mentioned: The bridge has been completed The book will be published next year The agentive passive mentions the agent preceded by the preposition (by): The children will be accompanied by their parents The work has been completed by the engineers The following idiomatic expressions include get – passives: Get married Get divorced Get washed Get started Get dressed Get engaged Get arrested Get confused Get hurt WHY DO WE USE CAUSATIVE HAVE PASSIVE? We use a causative verb when we want to talk about something that someone else did for us or for another person. It means that the subject caused the action to happen, but didn't do it themselves. Maybe they paid, or asked, or persuaded the other person to do it. For example, we can say: I cleaned my house. (This means I cleaned it myself). If I paid someone to clean it, of course I can say: A cleaner cleaned my house. But, another way is to use a causative construction. So I can also say: I had my house cleaned. We don't focus on who did the cleaning. PSEUDOPASSIVE This kind of passive has an intransitive verb, and the subject refers to the recipient of the action: History is repeated History repeats itself These shirts wash well These apples cook well Glass breaks easily This sentence reads well Sentences with this type of passive are often ambiguous. They might have two interpretations. We cannot tell whether the sentence describes the state or the action performed on something . It does not entail the existence of an external agent. PASSIVE VOICE IN ARABIC The Arabic passive can be classified into three types depending on the form of the passive verb: 1. Regular Passive: the verb is formed by internal vowel change 2. Infa’ala ) )انفعلpassive verb form which has been described by early Arab grammarians as one of (verbs of receptiveness) ()افعال المطاوعة 3. Impersonal Passive: an intransitive verb appears in its passive form Regular Passive: Internal Vowel Change انكسر الباب انفتح الشباك انغلق الشارع امتأل االناء اندفع الماء انطلق الصاروخ Infa’ala )انفعل) Passive Verb Form IMPERSONAL PASSIVE An intransitive verb appears in its passive form at the beginning of the verb phrase provided that the deputy agent ( )نائب الفاعلis: Verbal noun ()مصدر: أ ُحتفل اَحتفا ٌل عَظي َم An adverbial of time: صيم يَوم اَلخميس An adverbial of place: ُو ِقف أَمام اَلمسج َد A prepositional phrase: نُ ِظر أَليها • The passive is used to create suspense in speech /writing by deliberately delaying the mention of the agent to the very last moment. • The passive is very frequently used in formal scientific and legal writings and news reporting. It allows the writer to maintain objectivity. CONSTRAINTS ON THE USE OF SOME VERBS IN THE PASSIVE IN ENGLISH AND ARABIC 1- Sentences with reflexive verbs have no passive: Mary hurt herself We cannot say: Herself was hurt by Mary 2-The following transitive stative verbs do not passivize: (resemble, contain, possess, lack, have, cost, weigh, marry, fit) John married Alice We cannot say: Alice was married by John John has two cars We cannot say: Two cars are had by John 3- The following ditransitive verbs do not allow the indirect object to become subject in a passive sentence: ( mix , pour, fetch, make ) He fetched me the report. We cannot say: I was fetched the report. Mary made us a cake. We cannot say: We were made a cake by Mary 4- some verbs occur only in the passive: He was born in London. It is rumored that the president will resign. 5- Modals will express different meanings in active and passive: He cannot do it.(ability) It cannot be done .(possibility) 6. Some verbs only occur in passive: ُز ِكم/ ُج َّن/ اَمت ُ ِقع/ بُ ِهت/ أُغمي/ ُه ِرع/ ش َ ُد ِه أُغمي عَليه امتقع لَونه ُج َّن َجنونه CONTRAST 1. English has two passive constructions: agentive and agentless. Arabic has agentless passives only. 2. The formation of the English passive is more complex than that of the Arabic passive form of the verb. 3. Some difficulties are encountered by Arab student translators when translating English agentive passives into Arabic. Agentless passives, however, pose no difficulty. English agentive passive can be rendered into: - An Arabic active sentence - An Arabic passive sentence This poem was written by Shakespeare شكسبير َكتب َهذه اَلقصيدة هذه اَلقصيدة َكتبها شَكسبير كتب هذه القصيدة شكسبير كتب شكسبير هذه القصيدة If the student – translators opted for rendering English agentive passive into Arabic passive with an expressed agent, they would be tempted to translate literally the English by – agentive passive into an Arabic agentive phrase, producing an unacceptable construction: ُكتِبَت هذه القصيدة من قبل شكسبير Other commonly used phrases include: بوساطة/ على يد/ من جانب
