Some languages, including several Southeast Asian languages, use a form of passive voice to indicate that an action or event was unpleasant or undesirable. This so-called adversative passive works like the ordinary passive voice in terms of syntactic structure—that is, a theme or instrument acts as subject. In addition, the construction indicates adversative affect, suggesting that someone was negatively affected.
The Japanese adversative passive (also called indirect passive) indicates adversative affect.
- 花子が 隣の 学生に ピアノを 朝まで 弾かれた。
- Hanako-ga tonari-no gakusei-ni piano-o asa-made hikareta.
- Hanako-subject neighbor student-by piano-object morning-until played-passive
- "Hanako was adversely affected by the neighboring student playing the piano until morning."
The indirect or adversative passive has the same form as the direct passive in Japanese. Unlike the direct passive, the indirect passive may be used with intransitive verbs.
Read more about this topic: Passive Voice
Famous quotes containing the word passive:
“We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice—that is, until we have stopped saying “It got lost,” and say, “I lost it.””
—Sydney J. Harris (b. 1917)