Changes in the grammar of present-day English: the passive voice and its form and function

Magdalena HANUSKOVÁ

Bakalářská práce

Abstract:

The paper concentrates on the category of passive voice, especially possible changes in its form and distribution in contemporary English. Providing background for the research, the theoretical part outlines the concept of the passive voice in English, treating the phenomenon from both formal and functional aspects, defining voice as a verbal category, describing the individual elements of the passive clause structure and the active-passive correspondence, with particular interest in the variability of passive and passive-like constructions. The aim of the practical part is to observe the occurence of passives in authentic texts over time, their frequency and variable form, with special focus on the distribution of be-passives, get-passives and mediopassive constructions. The research is based on a corpus composed of samples drawn equally from years 1990 and 2010.

Abstract:

The paper concentrates on the category of passive voice, especially possible changes in its form and distribution in contemporary English. Providing background for the research, the theoretical part outlines the concept of the passive voice in English, treating the phenomenon from both formal and functional aspects, defining voice as a verbal category, describing the individual elements of the passive clause structure and the active-passive correspondence, with particular interest in the variability of passive and passive-like constructions. The aim of the practical part is to observe the occurence of passives in authentic texts over time, their frequency and variable form, with special focus on the distribution of be-passives, get-passives and mediopassive constructions. The research is based on a corpus composed of samples drawn equally from years 1990 and 2010.

Keywords

Passive voice, passive constructions, corpus, authentic texts, be-passive, get-passive, mediopassive, passive form, frequency of passives

Jazyk práce: angličtina

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 18. 4. 2013

Zveřejnit od: 18. 4. 2013

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Vedoucí: Mgr. Gabriela Zapletalová, Ph.D.

OSTRAVSKÁ UNIVERZITA V OSTRAVĚ

Filozofická fakulta

Bakalářský studijní program / obor:
Filologie / Anglický jazyk a literatura