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The examples in the first paragraph, while not grammatically passive, are functionally passive. They would be stronger in most cases if the author wrote them wi
by jkingsbery 8mo ago
The examples in the first paragraph, while not grammatically passive, are functionally passive. They would be stronger in most cases if the author wrote them with the actor as the subject. For example, yes "the bus blew up" is active, but does not answer who acted on the bus.
Being so pedantic, and then saying "but I'm not going to use the technical term voice" is particularly off-putting. If this is an article about grammatical pedentry, let's go all the way. Otherwise, the author should focus on providing useful advice.
- helicalspiral 8mo agothe article is literally going through the technical definition of passive voice
- arduanika 8mo agoSure, but he is packaging it in this superior snark. He is aggressively dismissing the very real thing that people actually mean when they say "avoid passive voice". A technical explainer on its own would be fine, but at least to my ears, this piece reads as narrow-minded and bitter.
- tptacek 8mo agoTheir snark sounds superior because they are superior. It's Language Log.
- arduanika 8mo agoHuh, I don't know much about this site. Maybe I should. From reading up on the author, it looks like this is where they invented the term "snowclone", which is pretty cool I guess. But this particular article rubs me the wrong way, for whatever reason. It just seems to miss the point.
- Sharlin 8mo agoThe phrasal verb "blow up" can be either transitive or intransitive. "The bus blew up" is a perfectly active clause. "The bus" is the subject, it did its own blowing-up. "The bus was blown up" is a passive clause. "The bus" is the object, some unnamed entity acted on the bus.
- direwolf20 8mo agogrammatically active, functionally passive, exactly as GP said
- helicalspiral 8mo agoThe author is a linguist where passive has a technical definition and implicitly wishes that people would use some other word for what they have an issue with.
- tptacek 8mo agoHow is it even functionally passive?
- direwolf20 8mo agoIt doesn't tell you who blew up the bus
- tptacek 8mo agoThe volcano erupted. Is that passive?
- direwolf20 8mo agoNo, the volcano caused the eruption. Who caused the bus explosion? You are fixated on the grammatical parse tree instead of the reality conveyed by the grammar, what happened in the universe and what information is conveyed.