A study on differences of using pasive voi in english and vietnamese = nghiên cứu về sự khác nhau trong cách dùng câu bị động của tiếng anh và tiếng việt luận văn tốt nghiệp đại học

vinh university
foreign languages department
===    ===

nguyÔn phan quúnh trang

A STUDY ON DIFFERENCES OF USING PASSIVE
VOICE IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
(nghiên cứu về sự khác nhau trong cách dùng
câu bị ®éng cđa tiÕng anh vµ tiÕng viƯt)

GRADUATION THESIS
Field: Linguistics


Vinh - 2011

Bùi Yến Nhi - 48A English

2
Foreign Languages Department


vinh university
foreign Languages department
===    ===

A STUDY ON DIFFERENCES OF USING PASSIVE
VOICE IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
(nghiªn cøu vỊ sự khác nhau trong cách dùng
câu bị động của tiếng anh và tiếng việt)

graduation thesis
Field: Linguistics

Supervisor: Nguyễn thị kim anh, m.a
Student:

NguyÔn phan quúnh trang, 48B - English


Vinh - 2011

4


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In completion of this thesis, first of all I would like to express my sincere
thanks and deep gratitude to my supervisor, Nguyen Thi Kim Anh for all her
experienced guidance, valuable suggestions and advice throughout this thesis.
My gratitude is also sent to all the staff at the Department of Foreign
Languages of Vinh University, who always create favorable conditions for me to
complete my study.
I am grateful to my friends, who provided me with inspiration for the
research topic and who helped me with the research data.
Finally, I am thankful to my family who constantly gave me support and
encouragement during the time my study was carried out.

Vinh, May 20th, 2011
Nguyen Phan Quynh Trang

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ABSTRACT
Unnaturalness is one of the most common mistakes that the majority of
English learners, and even some advanced ones, make as translating passivemeaning sentences from English into Vietnamese. In order to help learners
overcome those problematic translations, the author has done a research on the
passive voice in the two languages, English and Vietnamese. The research has
three main parts. In the first part, some general descriptions of passive voice in
each of the language will be made to give readers certain background information
about this interesting language phenomenon. In the second part, several contrastive
points will be performed to explore the causes of mistakes often made. In the last
one, some implications for teaching as well as suggestions for translating passivemeaning sentences from English to Vietnamese will be done so as for learners to
achieve good language transference.

ii


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..........................................................................i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...........................................................................i
ABSTRACT..................................................................................................ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................iii
ABBREVIATIONS.......................................................................................v
PART A. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................1
I. Justification of the Study...........................................................................1
II. Aims of the Study.....................................................................................1

III. Methods of the Study..............................................................................2
IV. Scope of the Study ................................................................................2
V. Format of the Study .................................................................................2
PART B. INVESTIGATION .......................................................................4
Chapter I........................................................................................................4
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND..............................................................4
1.1. Definition of passive voice
.............................................................4
1.2. Characteristics of passive voice ............................................................5
1.3. Views about classification of passive voice...........................................6
1.4. The usage of passive voice in English and Vietnamese.........................9
1.4.1. The usage of passive voice in English................................................9
1.4.2. The usage of passive voice in Vietnamese .......................................11
Chapter II
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF USING PASSIVE VOICE
IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE........................................................13
2.1. Passive voice in English and Vietnamese............................................13
2.1.1. In English..........................................................................................13
2.1.2. In Vietnamese....................................................................................17
2.2. Similarities and differences between english and vietnamese passive
voice............................................................................................................20
2.2.1. Similarities........................................................................................20
2.2.2. Differences .......................................................................................20
Chapter III
SUGGESTIONS AND IMPLICATIONS .................................................25
3.1. Some suggestions for better translation...............................................25
3.2. Implications for English teaching and learning of passive voice ........26
PART C. CONCLUSION...........................................................................31
1. Recapitulation of the study......................................................................31
2. Recommendations for further study........................................................31

iii


REFERENCE..............................................................................................30
APPENDIX 1 .............................................................................................32
APPENDIX 2..............................................................................................36

iv


ABBREVIATIONS

1.

Eg: for example

2.

Etc.: et cetera

v


PART A. INTRODUCTION

I. Justification of the Study
In the modern time of internationalization and globalization, English has
become the most commonly used language that has been learnt by more and more
people in the world. In Vietnamese, more than in anywhere else, learning English to
catch up with the time has become an ultimate issue.

However, the learning of English in our country is not always satisfactory,
Vietnamese learners, competent in grammar and vocabulary as they are, still make
mistakes. In English language, passive voice is acknowledged and used as a grammar
point to teachers of English. The difference in language origins marks a big gap
between English and Vietnamese as well as their passive voice form. Moreover,
Vietnamese people do not often use the passive voice, but usually change it into the
active voice. Or even when the passive voice is used, the word order in Vietnamese is
different from that in English.
That, as a result, has caused some misunderstanding in translation from
English to Vietnamese and vice versa. The study on differences of using passive
voice in English and Vietnamese, by contrast with others, has been a rather neglected
pursuit over recent years and few textbooks in the area on the Vietnamese
backgrounds.
That is the reason why the passive voice in English and in Vietnamese has
been chosen for investigation in this study.
II. Aims of the Study
My study aims at:
• Presenting, describing and analyzing the passive voice in English and in
Vietnamese

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• Identifying the similarities and differences between these two languages
• Making some suggestions for teaching and learning the passive voice to
teachers of English
III. Methods of the Study
The linguistic contrast in our thesis is intended to be description-induced and
comparison-induced rather than data-induced. A number of materials on grammar,
notably on passive voice are studied to build up a theoretical background for our

thesis.
IV. Scope of the Study
Due to constraints in time and knowledge, the central focus of the study is on
the use of passive voice in English in comparison with Vietnamese. Thoroughout the
study, the similarities and differences of using passive voice in the two languages are
drawn out. The research is confined to the description, analysis and comparison of the
function, forms and meanings of the passive voice in English and Vietnamese, which
makes a ontribution to the improvement of teaching and learning of English to
Vietnamese learners.
V. Format of the Study
This study consists of three parts:
Part A: Introduction presents the justification of the study, aims of the
study. Methods, scope as well as format of the study are also mentioned in this
first part.
The most important part in the study is Part B: Investigation. In this part, the
following three chapters are dealt with.
Chapter I: Theoretical background

2


Chapter II: Similarities and differences of using passive voice in English and
Vietnamese
Chapter III: Suggestions and implications
Part C: Conclusion gives a recapitulation of the study and some suggestions
for further studies.

3

PART B. INVESTIGATION
Chapter I

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1. Definition of passive voice
Passive voice is not a derivative of active voice, which is outcome of people’s
different meaning expression. Passive voice describes the whole process of certain
event from the patient’s point of view. It is a marked form of voice. There are three
markers in passive voice, be, -ed, and by, which has its meaning and significance
respectively. Typical passive could be classified into two categories, passive with
agent and passive without agent, or, agentive passive and non-agentive passive. In the
agentive, the agent will not appear but will be implicit in the context. In the English
language, the English passive voice is formed with an auxiliary verb (usually “be” or
“get”) plus a participle (usually the past participle) of a transitive verb. For example,
the sentence “I was punished” is called a passive voice because the subject “I”
receives the action of the verb “punish” getting punishment. Passive voice
emphasizes the process rather than person or agent who is performing the action.
Passive (or passive verb) refers more generally to verbs using this construction and
the passages in which they are used. In English, a passive verb is periphrastic; that is,
it does not have a one-word form, but consists of an auxiliary verb plus the past
participle of the transitive verb. The auxiliary verb is usually a form of the verb “to
be”, but other auxiliary verbs, such as get, are sometimes used. The passive voice can
be used in any number of tenses.
A.J.Thomson and A.V.Martinet in “A Practical English Grammar” (1989),
defined: “The passive of an active tense is formed by putting the verb “ to be” into
the same tense as the active verb and adding the past participle of the active voice”
Eg: The ball was thrown by the boy.

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1.2. Characteristics of passive voice
Characteristically, English is a typical inflectional language, in which there are
various inflectional variants. English belongs to explicit linguistic category. The
active-passive relation involves two grammatical “level”: the verb phrase and the
clause. In the verb phrase, the difference between the two voice categories is that the
passive adds a form of the auxiliary and the past participle of the main verb. At the
clause level, passivization involves rearrangement of two clause elements and one
addition. (A) The active subject becomes the passive agent, (B) the active object
becomes the passive subject, and (C) the preposition by is introduced before the
agent. The process of active-passive transformation for mono-transitive sentence with
nominal object can be represented:
Lan

hit

the ball

Active subject

Active object

The ball

was hit

(by Lan)

Passive subject

->

Active verb

Passive verb

Optional agent

The prepositional agent phrase of passive sentence is an optional sentence
element. Consequently, voice transformation can be expressed in this formula:
Noun phrase 1 + active verb phrase + noun phrase 2
Noun phrase 2 + passive verb phrase + (by noun phrase)
Although the structure of a sentence changes under voice transformation, its
meaning remains the same. In Lan hit the ball and The ball was hit by Lan, Lan is the
“performer of the action” in both voice. In the sentence structure, however, the active
subject corresponds to the passive agent.

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1.3. Views about classification of passive voice
The passive construction has been classified in many different ways.
Summarizing the discussion of the passive scale in the “A Grammar of
Contemporary English” (1972), Quik set up the following subcategories.
• Agentive passives
Agentive passive involves with expressed agent and without expressed agent.
(1)

The butler murdered the detective

(2)

The detective was murdered by the butler

Sentence (1) and (2) have a direct passive-active relation. The difference
between the next two is that the former has a personal, the latter a non-personal agent:
(3)

My father made this violin

(4)

The results hardly justify this conclusion

With expressed agents:
(5)

Coal has been replaced by oil

This is a passive with two possible active transforms depending on the
interpretation of the by-phrase.
(6)

Oil has replaced coal

(7)

People in many countries have replaced coal by oil

Sentence (6) is an active transform like (4) with a non-personal agent; (7) is an

active transform where the by-phrase has been given an instrumental interpretation.
Consequently an active subject must be supplied.
Without expressed agents:
(8)

This difficulty can be avoided in several ways

6


Sentence (8) exemplifies the most common type of passive, which has no
expressed agent, or agentless passives.
• Quasi-passives
(9) We are encouraged to go on with the project
(10) John was interested in linguistics
The passive sentences (9) and (10) represent a mixed class whose members
have both verbal and adjectival properties. They are verbal in having active
analogues:
(11) (The results) encourage us to go on with the project
(12) Linguistics interested John
• Non-agentive passives/ intensive active complement construction
(13) The modern world becomes more highly industrialized and mechanized
Sentence (13) has no active transform or possibility of agent addition, sine no
“performer” is conceived of. The participles have adjectival values: compare
industrialized-industrial and mechanized-mechanical. Beside a number of such
“resulting” verbs ending in –ize (organize, etc), this class includes “ existing”
constructions, as in:
(14) The house is already sold
The corresponding active of which is not (15) but (16):
(15)

(The agent) already sells the house

(16)

(The agent) has already sold the house

In this case, voice transformation involves aspectual shift from present perfect.

7


As in the case of (14), often have an indirect voice relationship. Recognizing
that The house is already sold is related both to agentive passive The house has
already been sold and to the intense complement construction.
(17)

The house is already gone

Granger (1983) has concentrated on the “be + past participle” construction,
and classified it into seven categories, namely, passives, adjectival pseudo-passives,
verbal pseudo-passives, mixed be + Ved combinations, usually passive category,
peripheral combinations and stative combinations
Examples (18)-(24) illustrate them respectively:
(18)

That attitude was maintained by the government in the further nine

days debates in the Lords.
(19)

Perhaps the tick is rather more complicated.

(20)

She has been rather elusive as far as I am concerned, so I do not

really know her.
(21)

I am amazed at the price of houses out here.

(22)

I feel we are all faced with this problem.

(23)

I am fairly closely connected with that work.

(24)

But I have these two houses that are built on to the next door’s back

garden sort of thing…
Granger’s classification is in great detail. Actually the latter four categories are
the borderline cases and they are very much related to, and sometimes can be put into
the first category.
As a matter of fact, though they choose different terms, Granger’s and Quirk et
al’s classifications are more or less overlapped. For instance, Quirk et al’s central

passives are the same as Granger’s passives, semi-passives are to some extent equal

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to mixed be –Ved combinations. Pseudo-passive are divided into adjectival and
verbal pseudo-passives in Granger’s classification.
1.4. The usage of passive voice in English and Vietnamese
1.4.1. The usage of passive voice in English
The passive voice is used more often in writing than in speaking. However,
there are some particular cases in which the passive voice is employed, especially
when the role of the receiver is more important than that of the doer. For instance, in
“The child was struck by the bike”, people will pay more attention to the child’s
health condition than to the bike. However, people do not want to talk about who
does the action. In the sentence “The vase was broken”, the performer of breaking the
vase is concealed, but the message of “the broken vase” is still transferred. The doer
may be afraid of some punishment or compensation. Moreover, the performer is not
important, not known or known by many people because it is too popular. For
instance, the sentence “My house was robbed last night” does not mention the doer of
the action as no one knows who the robber is. Or in “Bill Clinton was elected
president”, everyone knows that the performers are the American citizens.
The speakers want to put more emphasis on the main point of the sentence.
For example, the passive voice “The poor should not be taxed by the legislature”
focuses more on the point – the poor. The active voice “The legislature should not tax
the poor” somehow diminishes the sentence’s essence. (Grinker: 1994).
Eg: My bike was stolen (Xe đạp của tôi bị trộm)
In the example above, the focus is on the fact that my bike was stolen. The
speaker does not know, however, who did it.
In the case of the passive voice we can notice that the agent can totally
disappear from the sentence and the patient takes the front position. This has two

effects. First, the patient becomes the topic of the sentence and second, because the
actor is not mentioned, the action itself gets the focus of the information.

9


In our daily world we can mainly find two reasons why the actor is not
mentioned in a sentence. It is either unknown or unimportant.
The first case is totally clear. When we leave our house in the morning and
cannot find our car we will probably call the police and say something like: “My car
has been stolen”. Of course we could also say: “Somebody has stolen my car”. But
that would not provide any new information because somebody is very unspecific.
The real actor is unknown and that is why it will often be left out of the sentence.
The second case is also not very complicated. We take our car to the garage
and tell our colleagues during our breakfast talk: “My car is being repaired”. We
get a general murmur of acknowledge. Of course we could also say: “Mr Smith, the
nice mechanic in that neat blue overall, is repairing my car.” However, our
colleagues will frown at us because they are simply bored by such detailed
information and they will also start wondering what sort of special relationship we
have to that mechanic in the neat blue overall. Moreover, it will be usually
unimportant which of the mechanics repairs our car at the garage and thus will not
be mentioned at all.
Other very obvious examples of situations in which the actor is unknown are
general descriptions or technical manuals. There we do not normally describe who
performs an action but what actions must be performed.
In fluent English, passives occur naturally and spontaneously, without a
conscious change from ‘active’ to ‘passive’. In fact, active equivalents would be hard
to produce for sentences like: Rome was not built in a day. The passive is sometimes
deliberately chosen in preference to the active, especially when speakers do not wish
to commit themselves to actions, opinions, or statements of fact of which they are not

completely certain: The matter will be dealt with as soon as possible.
We use the passive when we wish to focus on a happening which is more
important to us than who or what causes the happening- or where there is simply no

10


need to mention the doer. If we say: Our roof was damaged in last night’s storm we
are mainly concerned with “the roof” and what happen to it. The happening may
concern people: Charles I was beheaded in 1649.
We always prefer the passive when we wish to avoid using a vague word as
subject (e.g. someone, a person, etc.): After my talk, I was asked to explain a point I
had made. Conversely, the passive may be avoided when we wish to make what is
described personal: They operated on father last night. The passive is used in English
where other European language might prefer an indefinite pronoun subject like “one”.
In a formal context we would avoid “one”: The form has to be signed in the presence
of a witness. The passive is obligatory in notices such as English Spoken, Loans
Arranged, Shoes Repaired, etc. Such notices are normally abbreviated: English (is)
spoken.
1.4.2. The usage of passive voice in Vietnamese
In Vietnamese, there is some controversy of whether passive voice exists or
not. However, the passive meaning does. Therefore, the term “passive voice” can still
be used so as for things to be synchronized and easier to understand. In this paper, the
author will not go into details about the controversy, but will only describe some
background information about the passive voice.
Vietnamese people do not often use passive voice in their daily lives, but many
writers do use it in their works. Here are some cases in which the passive voice is
used. First, they want to emphasize the result of something. For example, in “Hàng
nghìn người bị chết trong trận động đất”, the result “hàng nghìn người” (thousands
of people) is emphasized. Second, the writer or the speaker wants to keep the subject

of the two clauses the same. “Nó phải học rất chăm chỉ mới được mời làm việc cho
công ty kia đấy!” (He made a lot of efforts, so he was invited to work for that
company) has the same subject due to the passive voice “được mời”. The last is they

11


do not know who the performer is. In the sentence “Hôm qua nhà đó bị cướp” (That
house was robbed last night), no one knows who the robber is.
The passive voice in Vietnamese is often expressed and recognized by the two
words “bị /được”. Therefore, the structure can be drawn out like this: “được/ bị +
verb (unchanged forms). An example can be found in the sentence “Nó bị phạt”.
However, there are some cases that the two words do not perform passive meanings:
“Nó được gặp thủ tướng”. The instances here demonstrated active voice, not the
passive one.
Passive voice with the word “được” is used when people want to mention
passive meaning “Nó được cơ giáo khen”. On the other hand, passive voice with the
word “bị” is used when people want to mention negative aspects: “Nó bị đánh”.
Nevertheless, not all passive meanings are marked with the two words above.
There are some kinds of special passive voice in which some sentences still have
passive meaning without any of the two words. For example: “Mặt tô đậm quá” and
“Anh sinh ra ở đâu?” are two passive meaning sentences without “được/ bị”.
In short, a relatively neglected aspect of the linguistic system is the resource
for our investigation. What we have done so far in this chapter is to look at definition
of passive voice and some issues related to this, which works as a bridge to the
investigation in the next chapters.

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Chapter II

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF USING PASSIVE VOICE
IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

2.1. Passive voice in English and Vietnamese
2.1.1. In English
Active voice and passive voice refer to the form of a verb. In the active, the
subject of the verb is the person or thing doing the action. For example: John cooked
the food last night. In the passive, the action is done to the subject. The food was
cooked last night. The passive of an active tense is formed by putting the verb “to be”
into the same tense as the active verb and adding the past participle of the active verb.
The subject of the active verbs becomes the “ agent” of the passive verb. The agent is
very often not mentioned. When it is mentioned it is preceded by “by” and placed at
the end of the clause. For example: This tree was planted by my grandfather. The
passive occurs very commonly in English. It is not merely an alternative to the active,
but has its own distinctive uses.
Passives can be formed in four ways. The first ways is a tense of “be” plus
past participle. We have 13 kinds of passive voice corresponding with 13 tenses.
Here are six cases in which have common use including: present simple, present
continuous, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, past perfect.
Eg: Active : He cooks/ has cooked the food.
At the moment, we are cooking the food.
He cooked the food yesterday.
He was cooking the food at 7 p.m yesterday.
He had cooked the food before we arrived.

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Passive:

The food is/ has been cooked.
The food is being cooked at the moment.
The food was cooked yesterday
The food was being cooked at 7 p.m yesterday.
The food had been cooked before we arrived.

We form negatives and questions in the same way as in active sentences.
Eg: The bread is not baked in a factory
Where is the bread baked?
The next is the future and modal verbs in the passive. We use “be plus a
passive participle” after will, be going to, can, must, have to, should, etc.
Eg: We will bake the bread next -> The bread will be baked next
We are going to bake the bread -> The bread is going to be baked
We should bake the bread soon -> The bread should be baked soon
However, we can form passive sentence by using infinitive: “to be” or “to
have been” plus past participle.
Eg: He is/ was to cook the food
-> The food is to be/ was to have been cooked
The last way is using –ing form: “being” or “having been” plus past
participle.
Eg: He hated being made fun of in public
We form the passive with a form of “be and a past participle”. The past
participle does not necessarily refer to past time. For regular and irregular past
participle rules applying to use of tenses in active apply in the passive. For example,

14

an action in progress now requires the present progressive. Your steak is being grilled
and will be ready in a minute.
The passive occurs only with verbs used transitively, that is, verbs that can be
followed by an object. For example: Someone found this wallet in the street change
into passive This wallet was found in the street. Many verbs can be used transitively
or intransitively.
Eg: The door opened (perhaps by itself)
The door was opened (perhaps by someone)
The passive can refer to things or people.
Eg: The Company has sent Lan to California for a year
-> Lan has been sent to California for a year.
Verbs like bring and give which can have two objects, e.g. Tom gave me
(indirect) a pen (direct), can have two passive forms: I was given a pen by Tom
(indirect object become subject), and A pen was given (to) me by Tom (direct object
become subject). Because we are often more interested in people (or animals) than
things, personal subjects tend to be more common than impersonal ones. Thus, I was
given this pen is more likely to occur than This pen was given to me. In sentences like
the second example, to (or for) can be omitted before a personal pronoun (This pen
was given me) but not usually otherwise: This pen was given to my father.
Many stative verbs cannot be used in the passive, even when they are
transitive: I love beans on toast (active voice only). Verbs like measure, which can be
stative or dynamic, can only be passive in their dynamic sense.
Eg: Stative: This desk measures 125 x 60 cms
Dynamic: This desk has been measured

15


Only present and past progressive forms are common. For example He is
being interviewed now. He was being interviewed at 10. However, modals with

progress passive sometimes occur: I know Mark was going to have an interview this
afternoon. He may be being interviewed at this very moment.
Transitive constructions with the pattern “verb plus adverb particle” (A gust of
wind blew the tent down) can be used in the passive: Our tent was blown down (by a
gust of wind). For possible passives with “verb plus preposition”: The newsagent’s
has been broken into. Only a few verbs of the type “verb plus particle and
preposition” (We have done away with the old rules) can be used in the passive: The
old rules have been done away with.
Passive constructions are common after “verbs followed by the –ing form”,
such as enjoy, like and remember. For example: Most people don’t like being
criticized and after verbs followed by a to –infinitive: He hates to be criticized. We
can use the passive (-ing form only) after conjunctions such as on and after: On/ after
being informed that her mother was seriously ill, she hurried back to England.
A few active verbs sometimes have a passive meaning: This surface cleans
easily really means “It can be/It is cleaned easily”.
A small number of verbs are used more frequently in the passive than in the
active. For example be born, be married, be obliged: I am not obliged to work
overtime if I do not want to.
Adverbs of manner can occur before or after the participle: This room has
been badly painted.
English often uses the passive where other European languages use reflexive
verbs: burn myself, hurt myself, etc. I was hurt in a car crash last summer. We do
not normally use the passive when responding spontaneously: What is the matter? - I
have cut myself.

16