A typology of the passive voice in Bantu Ghent University
Whether you say in English ‘the policeman caught the thief’ or ‘the thief was caught by the policeman’, you convey the same message. However, the way you pack this message differs with regard to the importance given to the active participant. In the first sentence, the policeman is the clause subject and he plays an active role in the process denoted by the event. In the second sentence, the thief, who undergoes the action, is raised to the ...