As indicated in Chapter Three, in order to understand whether the nature of a verb itself in a sentence can influence voice choice by nonnative writers, we conducted a simple experiment. We chose 10 ergative and 10 transitive/intransitive verbs to construct 20 sentences. In each test item, students were asked to choose between active and passive voice according to its sentence context. However, after the analysis, we found out that 68.97% of the students chose the passive form of
“comprise” and formed the sentence “The model is comprised of about 13000 four-node quadrature elements.” Since the use of passive form of “comprise” in this sentence is informal, we exclude this test item. Thus, there are 2204 answers in total (116 subjects answer 19 items). The numbers of both correct and incorrect answers are 1408 and 796, respectively. On average, there is an error rate of 36.12% for each subject and of 36.16% for each test item. Detailed data about the verbs, the numbers of correct and incorrect answers in all test items are shown in Table 4.10.
Table 4.10 Verbs in the test items, and rates of correct and incorrect answers Item no. Verbs Correct answers Incorrect answers Total
1 increase* 96 (82.76%) 20 (17.24%)
2 compose 103 (88.79%) 13 (11.21%)
3 develop* 47 (40.52%) 69 (59.48%)
4 suggest 96 (82.76%) 20 (17.24%)
5 attribute 66 (56.90%) 50 (43.10%)
6 accelerate* 51 (43.97%) 65 (56.03%)
7 appear 73 (62.93%) 43 (37.07%)
8 comprise 36 (31.03%) 80 (68.97%)
9 involve 102 (87.93%) 14 (12.07%)
10 fail 82 (70.69%) 34 (29.31%)
11 focus* 85 (73.28%) 31 (26.72%)
12 concern 57 (49.14%) 59 (50.82%)
13 fade* 63 (54.31%) 53 (45.69%)
14 develop* 88 (75.87%) 28 (24.14%)
15 change* 62 (53.45%) 54 (46.55%)
16 form* 33 (28.45%) 83 (71.55%)
17 remove* 100 (86.21%) 16 (13.79%)
18 pass on* 43 (37.07%) 73 (62.93%)
19 occur 82 (70.69%) 34 (29.31%)
20 involve 78 (67.24%) 38 (32.76%)
Total
(Excluding Item #8) 1408 796
116 (100%)
Note: Verbs with * are ergative while others are transitive or intransitive.
Analyses were also conducted in the group of test items containing ergative verbs, and in the group of test items containing transitive or intransitive verbs. The results are presented later respectively.
Ergative Verbs in the Test
As indicated above, the low error rates of item #7 and #19 reflect Chinese learners may have acquired the ability to correctly use intransitive verbs. Nevertheless, when we switched our focus to the verbs which can be both transitive and intransitive in our test, the results conform to our assumption that transitivity may be the major factor of the students’ misuse in voice. The error rates of item #16 (form), #18 (pass on), #3 (develop) and #6 (accelerate) are all over 50%: 71.55%, 62.93%, 59.48% and 56.03%, respectively. The test items are as follows:
[4.26] In certain instances, the deposits form on machine surfaces at the exact location where the oil has degraded, for example, hot surface coking. (item
#16)
[4.27] Many people have accepted that theory and believed that cancer is passed on entirely through heredity. (item #18)
[4.28] Knowledge in the field of genetics has been developing very rapidly. (item
#3)
[4.29] This trend will accelerate when companies move beyond the wired centers to offer learning inn remote regions and around the world. (item #6)
We propose three possible explanations for high error rates of these four verbs. The first one is the use of inanimate agents as sentence subjects. Most Chinese learners tend to consider using passive voice when sentence subjects are inanimate. Therefore, active voice for verbs like “form,” “develop” and “accelerate,” in their opinion, are not possible for sentences with inanimate subjects like “deposits,” “cancer,”
“knowledge,” and “trend.” In item #1, for example, only 28.45% of the students
correctly chose the active construction of “form” while others mistakenly assumed the deposits cannot grow automatically on machine surfaces without any human intervention. The same reason many stand for item #3 and item #6. Nearly 60% of the students selected “has been developed” instead of “has been developing” to describe the growth of knowledge. Also, 56.03% of them incorrectly chose the passive form of
“accelerate.”
The second possible reason of the students’ misuse is the absence of by-agents.
In our test, all by-agents are omitted. In sentences, especially those with ergative verbs, students may be confused about the choice active and passive voice. The absence of by-agents may then lead them to the choice of active voice. In item #18, for instance, most students mistakenly used the active form. Merely 37.07% students correctly constructed the sentence as “Many people have accepted that theory and believed that cancer is passed on entirely through heredity.”
The third one is students’ unclear idea about the use of ergative verbs. As indicated before, the main feature of ergative verbs is that they can be used both transitively and intransitively. However, how can one choose between these two? In fact, the key lies in context. “Form” in item #16 is used intransitively and means
“something starts to exist” to be compatible with the sentence subject—“deposits.”
Likewise, “accelerate” in item #6 has an intransitive meaning: “something moves faster than usual” to be compatible with the subject “trend.” Thus, we suggest although both transitive and intransitive uses are possible for ergative verbs, learners have to choose the more appropriate one according to the context. The same idea is true to “develop” in item #3—both transitive and intransitive uses are possible when it means “to grow or increase” while the context requires active voice to be used.
Nevertheless, in contrast to item #3, item #14 (A number of products have been developed which are permeable to air and water.) is a sentence in which “develop”
should be used in passive form because here it indicates “to invent something,” which can be used only transitively and the active usage requires animate agents. Thus, the application of active voice in this sentence may make it semantically unacceptable.
Although these three possible factors of voice misuse are discussed, inanimate subjects, the absence of by-agents and the use of ergative verbs, is presented individually, we think they are closely related to each other. For example, the high error rate of “form” in item #16 is due to its inanimate subject “the deposits,” and it, in turn, may also be attributed to an unclear idea about its intransitive use. Similarly, the experimental results showed not only that the inanimate sentence subjects
“knowledge” and “trend” in item #3 and item #6, respectively, directly influenced the students’ voice choice but also that most students may not have a clear concept about ergative verbs. At last, even when the context requires passive form in item #18, most students are not able to correctly detect it from context and mistakenly choose active voice because of the absence of by-agent.
Transitive/Intransitive Verbs in the Test
Among the 10 items containing transitive/intransitive verbs, only two verbs,
“comprise” (item #8) and “concern” (item #12), have an error rate above 50%. As indicated in 4.3, we will not discuss item #8, “comprise,” because of the informal usage of “be comprised of” may have the same meaning as “comprise.”
In item #12, half of our students (50.82%) incorrectly constructed the sentence
“*These problems are concerned all of us.” This result may be attributed to the different usages of “concern” as verb and adjective. “Concern,” when acting as a verb, has the following three meanings: (1) to be important to, (2) to be about, and (3) to worry, and all of them are used transitively. (Item #12 applies the first meaning) However, when “concerned” functions as an adjective, particles are usually added,
such as “be concerned about” (meaning to be worried), “be concerned in” (meaning to take part) and “be concerned with” (meaning to be about). Therefore, it is possible that the different usages of “concern” as verb and adjective are confusing to Chinese students. On the one hand, they are more familiar with the adjective form
“concerned.” On the other hand, they may fail to realize that “concern” as a verb is transitive and thus, mistakenly considered the sentence should be constructed in passive voice.
During the design of the test, we thought that transitivity may be the major problem when subjects choose between either active or passive voice. Thus, we expected that over half of the students may choose passive voice in item #7 (appear) and #19 (occur). However, the results show that the error rates of these two items are low, only 37.07% and 29.31%, respectively. Therefore, it seems to suggest that Chinese learners are aware of the fact that it is not possible to passivize intransitive verbs because of their lack of objects. These mixed results suggest that the misuse of either active or passive voice seems to result from subjects’ failure to perceive the relationship between the subject and the verb according to the context.
So far, we discuss the results from our experiment of verbs which may confuse Chinese students in voice choice. Results for the group ergative verbs reveal that students may be confused with verbs which can be used both transitively and intransitively. Three possible reasons are indicated for students’ voice misuse of ergative verbs. Although the results for the group of transitive/intransitive verbs may seem mixed, suggesting that there may be other variables involved in student’ voice choice.
Then, we will turn to the pedagogical application of our research results. In other words, we will propose how to teach voice, with particular focus on voice use at the discourse level, in relation to information and theme systems.