The term is used in diathesis language to describe what is meant by most common "voice" word. It is a grammatical feature describing how organized the semantic roles devolved to actants compared to the minutes, she considers especially how they are distributed as an actor and the minutes of the patient (if applicable). Change the diathesis of a verb when the operation is possible should not dramatically change the meaning of the utterance. The term is reserved for the voice morphology word: it describes the form that takes the verb to mean a diathesis.

Some verbs are inherently devoid of any notion of diathesis: these are mainly verbs of state (such as be, seem, appear, remain, stay, etc.. In French), these are indeed outside the concept of Actance. However, they combine in the active voice (the voice that is unmarked in French). Distinguish voice diathesis is necessary in the analysis details.

It is considered that there are two main diathesis that can switch the active voice and passive voice. This, however, are not alone.

Active Voice

In this diathesis, the grammatical subject and grammatical object coincide respectively with the semantic roles of actor and subject patient. The active voice is so far the "normal" and most widespread languages in the world to state a verbal action.

In inflected languages , the subject is normally registered , the object in the accusative. The case is different in languages with ergativity verbal (see also below).

Examples:

• French: chat Passive

  It may be noted that there are languages that do not have a choice between several voices: the passive voice is one option among others to state the verbal action. This is the case in Creole of Guadeloupe , for example, which has only the active (there are a few verbs to passive sense, as primary "be taken" as opposed to pwann "take", but this distinction is lexical and not syntactic: it is not possible to transform any active sentence into passive sentence. Thus: "I take this thing" ~ "this thing is taken ' but we can not make the liability statement "I see this thing" because there is no verb "be seen").

  In this diathesis, the patient becomes subject grammatical subject. So it's a theming of the patient by reversing actants.

  Passive agentive

  This diathesis is most often felt as secondary to the active voice (which would be a "degree zero" of expression), it is the transformation of an active statement, in which the patient object of active becomes the ("grammatical subject undergoing the action), while the actor becomes the subject of the verb. Which shows the secondary nature of this diathesis in some languages is the possibility of building a passive agentive statement (from a verb permits) while creating a sentence "does not say" let us take the example of French: sauerkraut is eaten by me is a valid statement but artificial versus I eat sauerkraut.

  The verb itself can change shape in inflected languages (it starts in the passive voice). By languages, the additional agent is often introduced by a preposition:

  • Assets: ;
  • Japanese .

  It was envisaged here where the passive sentence is the result of the transformation of an active sentence. The additional agent is therefore mandatory, since it takes the subject of the current sentence. Therefore, only direct transitive verbs (that is to say, the bi-or trivalent ) can undergo this transformation (can not be considered valid transformations as I speak> * it is spoken by me, however, this language is spoken by thousands of users is valid, since it uses the verb transitively speak directly). That's why we talk about passive agentive.

  Unfunded agentive

  However, there are passive constructions that are not derived from such transformations and in which the agent is not necessary or impossible. If the patient on a non-agentive statement liabilities continues to "suffer the action, the semantic subject of the statement (one that actually works) is not indicated. In some languages (English, Latin, Greek, to a lesser degree) a verb can be a liability when he is not agentive intransitive or transitive indirect and may even receive an object patient. In this case, the unfunded agentive uses impersonal form , shown in the following examples from the translation by one.

  Examples:

  • French: the mouse ;
  • English:
    • The Mouse = "* Mark was given a knife" = "we gave a knife to Marc;
  • Norwegian:
    • if det're at ... (they say, "lit." it says ")
  • Latin:
    • amor ;
  • Greek:
    • ;
  • Chinese :
    • Medium voice

      Although less common, the middle voice is a diathesis mostly Indo-European, which has only rarely preserved in the modern languages derived. It indicates that the subject-agent performs the action in its own interest, he is so patient and agent of the minutes. Some uses of the middle voice overlap so as construction reflexive (as I wash). It would be wrong to speak of middle voice for the French (especially since the turn pronominal is not limited to this diathesis). The average is found mainly in ancient Greek , Sanskrit , Icelandic (ancient and modern) and Latin for a small share (the latter has transformed the average passive diathesis). It is notable historically opposed the Indo-European assets on average and was unaware of the liability, which was a late development, often from the medium itself (as in Latin). Thus, in ancient Greek means and liabilities are identical except for two times, future and aorist : this is why we often talk medio-passive voice. In Sanskrit, liabilities and are distinguished primarily by that date; Moreover, the means used to mean one or the other voice. In Icelandic , finally, the verbs are obtained by means of suffixation of-st (who just sk-in Old Icelandic, itself derived from sik, the accusative reflexive pronoun "oneself") and are not inherited from the Indo-European. They have several values, including a reflective value (or average), reciprocal, passive, or perfective, among others. We see, called "middle voice" diathesis not necessarily mean value but can take the values of other diatheses.

      In addition, some verbs of the same Indo-European languages are exclusively combined with, they are called media-tantum (only average) or deponent (the latter being mostly restricted to Latin and Greek). While there is some media tantum verbs to passive value, in most cases it is average, active or intransitive. Moreover, since in Latin the average diathesis became passive media tantum who kept an average sense are particularly notable.

      Examples:

      • Greek:
        • "I sacrifice for me" (medium)
        • "I lie" (media tantum value intransitive)
        • "I fight" (media tantum value intransitive)
      • Sanskrit:
        • yjate "he sacrifices for himself" (medium)
        • Sete "he lies" (media tantum value intransitive)
      • Latin:
        • inquinor "I get dirty" (media tantum average value)
        • ulor "I covers" (media tantum average value)
        • sequor "I am" Puzzle
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          Buildings ergative

          We are talking about ergativity when in active diathesis, the grammatical subject is the semantic patient as is the case of sentences like:

          • French: the branch Pragmatic employment liabilities in French

            In conducting statistical tests on groups of subjects were able to show preferences for active or passive, as appropriate, in pairs of sentences in French, and infer motives more or less conscious.

            Here is a summary of examples and explanations given by Jean Costermans in his book Psychology of language :

            Case	Active form	Passive	Preference	Advanced Explanation
            1	This book contains eleven chapters	* Eleven chapters have behaved in this book	Active	Potential liability only if the verb expresses an action
            2	The boy throws the ball	The ball is thrown by the boy	Active	Animated first term
            3	The bandits attacked the pedestrian	The pedestrian was attacked by bandits	50%	Singular term tends to be placed first
            4	The doctor cheats on his wife	His wife is deceived by the doctor	Active	Possessive term, including a reference to the other second
            	His lawyer accused the comforts	The accused is comforted by his lawyer	Liabilities
            5	The neighbor recommended me this product	This product was recommended to me by a neighbor	Liabilities	Term with a decisive first shortcut
            	The hurricane ripped the roof	Its roof was torn off by Hurricane	Liabilities
            6	I thought that the gangster had wounded a policeman	I thought a policeman was injured by the gangster	Active	Defined term ("the") first
            	I thought that a gangster had wounded the policeman	I thought the policeman was wounded by a gangster	Liabilities
            7	Fungi have poisoned her sister	Her sister was poisoned by mushrooms	Liabilities	Anime> Inanimate Singular> plural Determined> Unknown (3 factors added up)
            8	("Portfolio" already mentioned)		Liabilities	Topical Context
            	We found the wallet	The wallet was found
            9	(The term "train" already used as an agent)		Active	Preconditioning semantic context
            	The train struck the car	The car was hit by train
            	(The term "car" is already used as a patient)		Liabilities
            	The train struck the car	The car was hit by train

            In Medicine

            Obsolete term medical

            References

            1. It is necessary, in Chinese, using a verb marked with a particle aspecto-temporal (here[+ done]) when the sentence is passive. The phrase is therefore "the mouse was eaten by the cat." All thus should not be considered a verb in the passive but a verb done.
            2. Normally, only the additional agents representing people are introduced by the preposition (as in Latin for the preposition ab). This case is interesting because it shows the close proximity between the agent complement and adverbial way or cause: it is considered in effect in Greek and Latin as the additional agents inanimate passive verbs do not take the preposition because they are in fact adverbial. Thus, a statement Greco-Latin as "the house is shaken by the wind" would be rendered by a phrase meaning "the house is shaken by the wind," and would not take such a supplement, in fact, no preposition.
            3. Yikati is also used to express "the cat is" wa-expresses the passive voice.
            4. In French, the unfunded liabilities agentive agentive and differ only by the absence of additional agents. Only transitive verbs can be directly involved.
            5. There is a structure equivalent to a knife [subject patient] Was Given [transitive verb in passive] to Marc [further award]. The patient is no longer the sentence the grammatical subject of the passive sentence.
            6. Liabilities impersonal topic without actual patient.
            7. The impersonal constructions are less frequent in Greek and are limited to a number of verbs.
            8. The Chinese work very differently from other languages seen so far: he distinguishes syntactically passive constructions in non-agentive subject, depending on whether the patient is human or nonhuman. In the first case, the preposition bei(or "pseudo-verb" in Chinese, prepositions often function as verbs, the very term "preposition" is a habit of Latin grammar) must be used only before the verb (we can also consider that it is used as verbal prefix). It corresponds to the preposition by, by, , ab, the other languages discussed here. If the subject is non-human patient, there is nothing to distinguish syntactically diathesis of a transitive verb used absolutely (not applicable). Only the context can decide.
            9. John Costermans, Psychology of Language, Ed Mardaga Pierre, Brussels ( ISBN 2-87009-125-7 )

            Categories verbal
            Time	Simple tenses Present Imperfect ( indicative / subjunctive ) Simple past Future simple Compound tenses Tense More-than-perfect ( indicative / subjunctive ) Future perfect Future continuous Time periphrastic Time compound perfects
            Fashion	Infinitive ( past infinitive ) Code ( in French ) Conditional subjunctive Imperative Participles Gerunds
            Appearance	Semantic aspects Aspect perfective / imperfective Static Aspect Formal Aspects Aspects affixal grammatical aspects ( Secant non-secant ) lexical aspects ( completed / uncompleted inchoative / terminative semelfactive / iterative Progressive telic / atelic )
            Diathesis	Active voice Passive Medium voice

            Grammar of the verb
            Agreement Appearance Auxiliary and semi-auxiliary COD IOC Additional internal object Conjugation diathesis syntactic function Fashion Morphology of the French verb Person Subject Time Transitivity Valencia

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