Passive participle

“ True it is, that built, when alone, being a perfect participle, does not mean "in process of construction," but rather, "constructed" which intimates completion; yet, in the foregoing passive phrases, and others like them, as well as in all examples of this unco-passive voice, continuance of the passive state being first suggested, and cessation of the act being either regarded as future or disregarded, the imperfect participle passive is for the most part received as equivalent to the simple imperfect used in a passive sense. ”

“ Here the verbs are passive; but, "I am not yet ascended," (John, xx, 17,) is not passive, because it does not convey the idea of being ascended by some one's agency.
OBS. 4.—Our ancient writers, after the manner of the French, very frequently employed this mode of conjugation in a neuter sense; but, with a very few exceptions, present usage is clearly in favour of the auxiliary have in preference to be, whenever the verb formed with the perfect participle is not passive; as, "They have arrived,"—not, "They are arrived." ”

“ With subjects of different genders the participle in the compound tenses follows the same principles as laid down for predicate adjectives. See § 235, B, 2.
VOICES.
256. 1. The Passive Voice sometimes retains traces of its original middle or reflexive meaning; as,—
ego nōn patiar eum dēfendī, I shall not allow him to defend himself.
2. In imitation of Greek usage many perfect passive participles are used by the poets as indirect middles, i.e. the subject is viewed as acting not upon itself, but as doing something in his own interest; as,—
vēlātus tempora, having veiled his temples. ”

“ Another passive progressive form, consisting of the verb be completed by the present passive participle, has recently appeared in our language—The house is being built, or was being built. Although condemned by many linguists as awkward and otherwise objectionable, it has grown rapidly into good use, especially in England, Such a form seems to be needed when the simpler form would be ambiguous, i.e., when its subject might be taken to name either the actor or the receiver ”

“ Lowth, not on the ground that participles as such may govern the possessive case, but on the supposition that as the simple active participle may become a noun, and in that character govern the possessive case, so may the passive participle, and with equal propriety, notwithstanding it consists of two or more words, which must in this construction be considered as forming "one compound noun." ”

“ This author's mode of naming participles is always either very awkward or not distinctive. His scheme makes it necessary to add here, for each of these forms, a third epithet, referring to his main distinction of "imperfect and perfect;" as, "the compound imperfect participle passive," and "the compound perfect participle passive." What is "being builded" or "being printed," but "an imperfect passive participle?" Was this, or something else, the desideratum of Beattie? ”

“ The past participle passive ends in it, e.g., far'it'a, “that which has been done”; far'it'e, “having been done”.
i) The future participle passive ends in ot, e.g., far'ot'a, “that which will be done”; far'ot'e, “about to be done”.
All forms of the passive are rendered by the respective forms of the verb est (to be) and the present participle passive of the required verb; the preposition used is de, “by”. E.g., ŝi est'as am'at'a de ĉiu'j, “she is loved by everyone.” 7) Adverbs are formed by adding e to the root. ”

“ The conjugation of a passive form contains not only the strictly impersonal forms, like luetaan, people read, luettiin, people did read, but also compound tenses formed with the past passive participle which stand grammatically upon a different footing. ”

“ When the agent of the verb is the subject, the verbal form employed is called active; but when the immediate object of the verb is the agent, the form employed is called passive. And in our tongue all passive forms, called passive. And in our tongue all passive forms, just as in this instance, consist of that form of the verb which grammarians call the perfect participle—a form resembling an adjective in this, that it can be used as an attributive ”

“ It may be well to distinguish here between the passive voice and a past participle used as an attribute complement of the verb be. Both have the same form, but there is a difference of meaning. The passive voice always shows action received by the subject, while the participle is used only as an adjective denoting condition: [James was tired by his day's work (passive voice) . James was tired (attribute complement) ] . ”

“ Passive verbs, in English, are always of a compound form; being made from active-transitive verbs, by adding the Perfect Participle to the auxiliary verb BE, through all its changes: thus from the active-transitive verb love, is formed the passive verb be loved. ”

“ To expound this, or any other passive term, passively, never enters his mind: with him, as with sundry others, "ACTION," "finished ACTION," or "progressive ACTION," is all any passive verb or participle ever means! No marvel, that awkward perversions of the forms of utterance and the principles of grammar should follow such interpretation. In Wright's syntax a very queer distinction is apparently made between a passive verb, and the participle chiefly constituting it ”

“ The adjective or participle that follows, always relates to the preceding objective; and if a noun is used, it is but an other objective in apposition with the former: as, "I considered it an imposition." The verb to be, with the perfect participle, forms the passive infinitive; and the supposition of such an ellipsis, extensively affects one's mode of parsing. ”

“ Some are apt to jumble together the active voice and the passive, and thus destroy the unity even of a short sentence; as, "By exercising our memories, they are improved."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 226 and 195. "The error might have been avoided by repeating the substantive."--Murray's Gram., p. 172. "By admitting such violations of established grammatical distinctions, confusion would be introduced."--Ib., p. 187. In these instances, we have an active participle without an agent; and this, by the preposition by, is made an adjunct to a passive verb. ”

“ Is building
The active participle in a passive sense is employed by many excellent writers and is condemned by others.
“Corn is selling for fifty cents a bushel.”
“Corn is being sold for fifty cents a bushel.”
The commercial world evidently prefers the former sentence. There is a breeziness and an energy in it that is lacking in the latter. It must, however, be used with caution. In the following examples the passive form is decidedly better than the active: “The foundation was being laid,” “They are being educated,” “While the speech was being delivered,” etc. ”

“ When the noun or pronoun to which the participle relates is a passive subject, it should not have the possessive form; as, “The daily instances of men’s dying around us remind us of the brevity of human life.” “We do not speak of a monosyllable’s having a primary accent.” Change men’s to men, and monosyllable’s to monosyllable. ”

“ Such a participle is truly a modifier of the verb.
4. The participle as part of a double object.—After a few verbs like keep, find, see, hear, feel, have, we find the participle taking the place of the infinitive in a double object. The participle is almost always chosen when a passive construction is needed; as, “The saddle fell to earth, and he heard it trampled under-foot by his pursuer.”—Irving. When the active construction is called for, the advantage of the participle over the infinitive is that it gives the idea of longer continuance of the action ”

“ There are two voices, active and passive.
1. A verb is in the active voice when it represents the subject as the doer of an act.
Richard shot the bear. Mr. Hardy builds carriages. Dr. Wilson has cured my father. 2. A verb is in the passive voice when it represents the subject as the receiver or the product of an action.
The bear was shot by Richard. Carriages are built by Mr. Hardy. My father has been cured by Dr. Wilson. 247. The passive voice of a verb is expressed by a verb-phrase made by prefixing some form of the copula (is, was, etc.) to the past participle. ”

“ NOTE V.—The possessive case should not be needlessly used before a participle that is not taken in other respects as a noun. The following phrase is therefore wrong: "Adopted by the Goths in their pronouncing the Greek."—Walker's Key, p. 17. Expunge their. Again: "Here we speak of their becoming both in form and signification passive."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 226. Say rather, "Here we speak of them as becoming passive, both in form and signification."
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE IV. EXAMPLES UNDER NOTE I.—THE POSSESSIVE FORM. "Mans chief good is an upright mind." ”

“ Many old writers erroneously represent the participle in ing as always active, and the participle in ed or en as always passive; and some, among whom is Buchanan, making no distinction between the simple perfect loved and the compound having loved, place the latter with the former, and call it passive also. The absurdity of this is manifest: for having loved or having seen is active; having been or having sat is neuter; and having been loved or having been seen is passive. Again, the triple compound, having been writing, is active; and having been sitting is neuter ”

“ The perfect participle of deponents is sometimes used with a passive meaning. Some of the commonest of these participles are: adeptus, commentus, complexus, cōnfessus, ēmentītus, expertus, meditātus, opīnātus, pactus, partītus, testātus, &c., &c. ”

“ Active verbs, denote action as, I eat, I love, I work. Passive verbs, denote suffering, they are only the participle passive of an active verb with a tense of the neuter verb to be before it; as, I am loved, you are dressed. ”

“ OBS. 12.--From the erroneous conception, that a perfect participle must, in every connexion, express "action finished," action past,--or perhaps from only a moiety of this great error,--the notion that such a participle cannot, in connexion with an auxiliary, constitute a passive verb of the present tense,--J. W. Wright, above-mentioned, has not very unnaturally reasoned, that, "The expression, 'I am loved,' which Mr. Murray has employed to exhibit the passive conjugation of the present tense, may much more feasibly represent past than present time."--See Wright's Philosophical Gram., p. ”

“ Possessives also in in made from passive participles are sometimes found used in an analogous manner, nearly as perfect active participles: e. g. iṣṭín having sacrificed, vijitino manyamānāḥ (AB.) thinking themselves to have conquered. ”

“ In this idiom, the preposition is treated like an ending attached to the verb to make it transitive. In other words, laugh at, pass upon, etc., are treated as compound verbs, and the object of the preposition is, in effect, the object of the compound. In the passive, this object becomes the subject and the preposition (now lacking an object) remains attached to the verb. The passive construction is well established, but not always graceful.
252. The passive of some verbs of choosing, calling, naming, making, and thinking may be followed by a predicate nominative (§ 88, 2) . ”

“ Every word has its own value and nearly all our mistakes arise from lack of regard for the exact value of the words to be used.
Where a participial construction is used as the object of a verb, the noun or pronoun in the object should be in the possessive case and not in the objective. You should not say, "I object to him watching me," but "I object to his watching me."
Care should be taken not to give objects to passive verbs. The very common expression "The man was given a [Pg 15] chance" is incorrect. It should be "A chance was given to the man." ”

“ Rule for distinguishing the use of the passive in a, from the use of the passive in -ana:—When a verb governs two accusatives, the one of the object acted on, the other of the instrument or means with which the action is effected, the latter is made the nominative of a passive in a-, the former of a passive in -ana. ”

“ This passive is made use of when the agent person exercises its action removing from itself the patient person.
The sentences of this passive are formed by putting Gui before the root for the present and past tenses, and I (ee) for the future and imperative. This passive points out the harm, detriment, obsequiousness or favour made to another, placing the receiver person in nominative case, the donor in genitive, and in accusative with ug or sa the favour or harm. ”

“ Bullions thinks, and in reality Wright also, that nothing can be a present passive, but what "expresses passively the DOING of the act." This is about as wise, as to try to imagine every active verb to express actively the receiving of an act! It borders exceedingly hard upon absurdity ”

“ Often, too, it would be impossible to particularize what we believe, or think, or hope, or imagine, or dream, without the aid of a noun clause.
When verbs that take a direct and an indirect object are changed to the passive form in such a way that the indirect object becomes subject, we find the direct object remaining after the passive verb. ”