Explaining active-passive points of view: E5-01G

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Whose point of view shall we take?

A  Active verbs only

Why is it important in a language to have both an active and a passive voice? Consider the following:

‘There was a large anti-war demonstration this afternoon in London. Demonstrators assembled in Trafalgar Square, where several of their leaders addressed the crowd. They then marched towards the Ruritanian embassy.’

Here is a news story about a demonstration. Part of this story is the claim by demonstrators that the police beat them, causing severe head injuries to one student.

If we continue using only verbs in the active, we get this:

‘Some of the demonstrators attempted to force their way into the embassy. The police resisted them, later chased them away and, so the demonstrators claim, beat some of them savagely.’

The problem here is that we are obliged to switch the focus of our attention from the demonstrators – whose story we are telling – to the police.

B. Adding the passive

BUT, by using the passive, we can keep our attention fixed on the demonstrators, even though the story changes from what they did to what was done to them:

‘Some of the demonstrators attempted to force their way into the embassy. This attempt was resisted by the police. The demonstrators were chased away and then, so they claim, some of them were savagely beaten.’

Putting the two pieces of text together, we have a continuous narrative, told from the demonstrator’s point of view (note ‘addressed’ also becomes passive):

‘There was a large anti-war demonstration this afternoon in London. Demonstrators assembled in Trafalgar Square, where the crowd was addressed by several of their leaders. They then marched towards the Ruritanian embassy. Some of the demonstrators attempted to force their way into the embassy. This attempt was resisted by the police. The demonstrators were chased away and then, so they claim, some of them were savagely beaten.’

C.The carrot’s tale

This problem of point of view becomes even clearer if we talk about carrots.

‘Carrots require a deep, well-worked soil containing well-rotted compost. They should be sown out of doors in April, once the soil has warmed up a little. The soil must be kept moist during germination, and once the carrots are 3-4 centimetres high, they should be thinned, in order to prevent them being too crowded. The rows should be 30cms apart and should be kept hoed. Carrots must be weeded carefully, also, or they will become choked with weeds and will not be able to grow.’

What do carrots actively do? They grow. Everything else is done to – either to the carrots, the soil, or the other unwanted plants that also grow (weeds). It is done by gardeners, of course, but we (writer and reader) know that. Our focus is not on the gardener but on the carrots – and what to do to make sure that they grow.

D. Summary: Three ‘points of view’

Consider these elements: the students / homework / the teacher:

The passive gives us a second and even a third point of view. Given the three elements above, and the passive voice, I can talk about what happened either to the teacher, the student, or the homework:

The teacher, who was in a bad mood, gave a lot of homework to the students.

The students, who were already angry about not having enough free time, were given extra homework by the new teacher.

The homework, which was about the properties of superconductors, was successfully completed by only two students.

In every case, the action is carried out by the teacher. But the point of view does NOT have to stay with the teacher.

Here is another example of the third point of view: that of things, such as the carrots or homework above. Consider this:

First, the onions are browned in a little olive oil. The mushrooms, carrots, broccoli and peppers, finely chopped, are then added.  All the vegetables are left to cook slowly on a low heat, after being seasoned with bay leaves, thyme and a little basil. The beans, which will be added next, should have been pre-cooked for one hour…

In a recipe such as this, the star performers – those who hold the centre of attention – are the ingredients used in the recipe. The person explaining the recipe and the people for whom it is intended are not the main focus of attention. The instructions focus on how the ingredients are to be dealt with.

Every type of instruction – such as those for assembling furniture, getting gadgets ready for use, electrical wiring etc etc – focuses on things, as does description of every kind of process: industrial ones for example. Furthermore, this is the language used to describe scientific and medical research, archaeology, art – wherever, in fact, we need to talk about inanimate objects and what happens, is done or should ( instructions) be done to them.

Language needs the passive, and as language students, so do we!  

Now see exercises in file P5-01G