The passive voice and the irksome Agent
From the diary of an E.F.L.
teacher
Dedication
I dedicate this
paper to the student who asked a curious question about the passive voice
totally alien in our high schools today. While the majority of this generation
of digitally oriented students still struggle to understand what the passive
voice is, and why we should use it, this student goes beyond the simple usual questions
the learners frequently ask. She crosses the limits of understanding this voice
to raise a tough issue that only grammarians are concerned with.
The question
“Teacher, in a passive voice construction, shall
we always use the “by + agent” phrase whenever the doer or the agent is known
or identified?”
Introduction
At first,
I got speechlessly surprised because I didn’t expect this kind of question from
a hard working student like her. I am sure she knew all about the rules related
to the use of the phrase “by + agent” in a passive voice construction. If
anyone else had enquired about this issue, it would have been quite normal
because luckily some students still ask questions. There’s surely something
else behind that question.
In
general, a matter like this is very so often raised by the learners, in class
and on the Internet. Apparently, it looked so common a query that its answer
would unthinkably be, ........
