Download Syntax 2: Subjects and Verbs

Syntax 2
• Active Verbs
– Direct Objects
• Passive Verbs
– Agents
Syntax 2
• transitive verbs convey a sense
that action of some sort is “moving”
through the verb from one noun to
another
• transitive means “going across,” i.e.
from noun to noun
• intransitive verbs have no sense of
movement, e.g. linking verbs and
verbs of motion (e.g. “go,” “hurry”)
Syntax 2
• transitive verbs can move action
through the verb in two ways called
“voices”:
– verbs in the active voice (active verbs)
• take direct objects
– verbs in the passive voice (passive
verbs)
• take passive agents
Syntax 2
• transitive verbs can be used in an
active or passive sense:
– Active: everyone loves me
– Passive: I am loved by everyone
• thus, a transitive verb is not
inherently active or passive, but
can be used either way, depending
on context
Syntax 2
• Active Verbs: the subject does
the action of an active verb
subject → active verb
– Laius and Jocasta had to expose their
baby on a mountain side
– Through his oracle at Delphi, Apollo
reveals the truth to Oedipus
– Oedipus will one day kill his father
Syntax 2
• Direct Objects: receive the
action of the verb
subject → active verb → direct object
– Laius and Jocasta had to expose their
baby on a mountain side
– Through his oracle at Delphi, Apollo
reveals the truth to Oedipus
– Oedipus will one day kill his father
Syntax 2
subject → active verb → direct object
There, there, we saw his wife
hanging, the twisted rope around her neck.
When he saw her,
her he cried out fearfully
and cut the dangling noose.
noose Then, as she lay,
lay
poor woman, on the ground, . . .
He tore the brooches—
brooches
the gold chased brooches fastening her robe—
away from her and lifting them up high
dashed them on his own eyeballs, . . .
Sophocles, Oedipus the King 1263-1270
Syntax 2
• Passive Verbs: the subject of a
passive verb is acted upon
subject ← passive verb
– Oedipus as a baby was exposed by his
parents on a mountain side
– the truth is revealed by Apollo’s oracle
– Laius will be killed by his own son
•
English passive verbs usually contain a form of the verb “to be”
be
Syntax 2
• Passive Agents: follow “by” and
show the actor of a passive verb
subject ← passive verb ← passive agent
– Oedipus as a baby was exposed by his
parents on a mountain side
– the truth is revealed by Apollo’s oracle
– Laius will be killed by his own son
Syntax 2
subject ← passive verb ← passive agent
— . . . for Loxias declared that the king should be killed
by his own son.
son
— If your homecoming is checked by fears like these
...
— Oh, be persuaded by me!
me
— You are honored in dancing by us,
us . . .
— But I’m now hated by the gods.
gods
Syntax 2
subject → active verb → direct object
subject ← passive verb ← passive agent
Citizens, I have come because I heard
deadly words spread about me, that the king
accuses me.
me I cannot take that from him.
If he believes that in these present troubles
he has been wronged by me in word or deed
I do not want to live on with the burden
of such a scandal on me. The report
injures me doubly and most vitally—
Sophocles, Oedipus the King 513-521