Re: preferred voices?

nicole perrin wrote:

>Yesterday we were reviewing the passive voice in my French class, and
>one of the points the teacher made quite emphatically is that the active
>voice is preferred.  I know that this is also the case with English,
>although I could never understand it.
Me either.  I use the passive quite often, but I know other English
speakers who have claimed that they *never* use it.  I think "never" is too
strong a word, but I must admit that I've never heard those people use it,
so they could very well be right.

>   The only explanation I've ever
>gotten is that it's not as powerful as active but I don't really buy
>that.
That doesn't really make much sense to me.  What is "powerful" supposed to
mean?

>   Are any of your conlangs prejudiced against the passive voice?
>Or any other voice for that matter?  (Mine aren't)
Telek makes very limited use of the passive, mainly because it is a recent
addition to the language (internally speaking).  In "proto-Telek" there was
a marker for an indefinite subject.  This marker has been reanalyzed as a
passive marker: "somebody found my keys" -> "My keys were found (by
somebody)".  Thus, the passive is usually only used when the "agent" is not
known or when the speaker does not want to mention it.



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Marcus Smith
AIM:  Anaakoot
"When you lose a language, it's like
dropping a bomb on a museum."
   -- Kenneth Hale
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