In a prayer, the subject can practice the action (active voice), suffer it (passive voice) or, at the same time, be agent and patient (reflective voice). Today, our discussion will be around the changes that occur in theswitching from active to passive voice.
The first feature to be considered is the verbal predication, because there will only be the possibility of transforming the voicesif the verb is direct transitive or direct and indirect transitive.
Let's look at some examples:
- The boy lost his wallet.
- The trip was calm.
- The plane arrived on time.
In all the examples, there is the presence of an explicit subject, isn't that true? However, only example I allows the transformation between voices. Do you remember why? Exactly because only example I has a direct transitive verb.
Let's go back to example I and do the syntactic analysis of this statement:
simple subject: The guy
direct transitive verb: it lost
Direct object: Wallet
Now, visualize how the prayer will look when it is put into the passive voice:
The wallet was lost by the boy.
When we do the syntactic analysis of the prayer formed after the transformation of the voices, we will have:
Subject: the wallet
verbal phrase: was lost
liability agent: by the boy.
Note that the terms do not change or undergo only some adaptations, but the syntactic functions exercised by them are totally modified. See what happens at transition from active to passive voice:
1. The direct object becomes a subject, but as it does not perform the action, but receives it, it is called a patient subject;
2. The main verb gains a “companion”, thus forming a verbal phrase. However, it is necessary to pay attention to some factors:
The auxiliary verb must appear in the same tense and mode as the main verb, in the example, the verb lose was in the past perfect tense, so the verb to be remained in the same time and mode;
The main verb does not disappear in the voice change, but appears in the participle, which is a nominal form. Therefore, it must agree with the noun, so the verbal phrase of the example is: was lost, for referring to the portfolio.
3. In passive voice, the action is not done by the subject, but for the action to take place, it needs to be performed by someone, do you agree? So that's why there's the passive agent, who is who practices the action within the passive voice. It is generally positioned at the end of the sentence and is accompanied by a preposition.
By Mayra Pavan
Graduated in Letters
