passive (n.) (pass, PASS)

A term used in the GRAMMATICAL analysis of VOICE, referring to a SENTENCE, CLAUSE or VERB FORM where the grammatical SUBJECT is typically the recipient or ‘goal’ of the action denoted by the verb, e.g. The letter was written by a doctor. It is contrasted with ACTIVE, and sometimes with other forms, e.g. ‘middle’ (as in Greek). A full linguistic statement of the CONSTRAINTS affecting these relationships is a complex matter. In English, for example, there are active sentences that do not have passive counterparts (e.g. The boy fell, They have a car), passive sentences which have an unclear active counterpart (e.g. The house was sold), and so on. In addition, there is the problem that the central type of passive construction (using the verb to be, e.g. She was pushed) is closely related to other types of construction (cf. She got pushed, She was interested), and a boundary line is sometimes difficult to establish. Constructions such as Plums are selling well are sometimes described as pseudo-passives. Constructions such as They were interested in history, which have both verbal and adjectival properties, are sometimes called semi-passives. Passive constructions which take an agent are agentive passives (e.g. She was chased (by the dog)), as opposed to ‘non-AGENTIVE’ or ‘agentless’ passives, where there is no need for (and sometimes no possibility of) an agentive phrase being added, since the speaker does not have a ‘performer’ of the action in mind (e.g. The city is industrialized now). In GENERATIVE grammar, the TRANSFORMATION of a sentence from its active to its passive form is known as passivization. A verb or sentence which undergoes such a process is said to passivize.