 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
50
* For details see in Syntax, § 55.
2.
He is said (believed, known, reported) to be in town.
He was seen to enter the museum.
He was seen leaving the museum.*
* For details see in Syntax, § 53.
3. The direct passive of verbs of speech, mental activity, and perception is used in complex sentences with
the formal subject it.
It was suggested
It was reported
that he was still in town.
It was said
It was believed
It was known
It was settled
that we should meet once more.
Restrictions to the use of the passive voice
1. Though in many cases there is an evident correspondence of the active and the passive voice construction
it is by no means a one-to-one correspondence. There is a certain group of monotransitive verbs which are
never used in the passive voice at all, or in some of their meanings; they are: to have, to lack, to become, to fit,
to suit, to resemble.
There are semantic reasons for this constraint, as these verbs denote not an action or process, but a state or
relation.
John resembles his father. (John looks like his father.)
He lacks confidence. (There is no confidence in him.)
Will this suit you? (Will it be suitable for you?)
The verb to hold can be used in the passive voice only with reference to human activity; for example: The
conference was held in April. However, in a sentence like The auditorium holds 5000 people the verb does not
denote human activity. The sentence means There can be 5000 people in this auditorium.
2. No passive construction is possible, if the object is a that-clause, an infinitive or a gerund.
John said that everything was all right.
John enjoyed seeing his native town.
Passive constructions with ditransitive verbs
§ 69. Ditransitive verbs take two objects, usually one indirect and one direct. Accordingly they admit of two
passive constructions.
The referee gave Mary the first prize .
Mary was given the first prize by the referee.
The first prize was given to Mary by the referee.
The subject of the first passive construction (Mary) corresponds to the indirect object of the active
construction, and the construction is therefore called the indirect passive construction. The direct object (the
first prize) is retained unchanged after the passive verb and therefore, is called the retained object.
The subject of the second passive construction corresponds to the direct object of the active construction. In
this case the indirect object becomes a prepositional one. The preposition to may be omitted.