What is voice?

Definition
	Voice is a grammatical category that expresses the semantic functions attributed to the referents of a clause. It indicates whether the subject is an
	actor patient, or recipient.

Examples (English)
	The following sentence is in active voice: Jones built the house. The following sentence is in passive voice: The house was built by Jones.

Kinds
	Here are some kinds of voice:
	What is active voice? What is antipassive voice? What is middle voice? What is passive voice?

Generic
	Voice is a kind of
	What is a grammatical category?

Sources
	Pei and Gaynor 1954 228–229
	Hartmann and Stork 1972 251–252
	Nida 1949 168
	Elson and Pickett 1988 31
	Bybee 1985 20–21
	Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 159
	Crystal 1985 329
	Mish 1991 1320

Context for this page:

Concept module: voice
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): V
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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