Rachman: McCain’s tweets “make him sound like a peasant“
The House Financial Services Committee is going to have a busy July
RT @IDDMagazine Cantor Fitzgerald grows its London leveraged finance team
Judis makes the distinction between the unemployment rate (less important) and total unemployment (very important)
A refreshingly sober look at the NYT’s finances
Does WaPo know from passive constructions?
Steve Kirsch with a great round-up on why fast reactors must be built
If I link from my link blog to a blog of links to blogs of links, and that links back to me, will the snake have eaten its own tail?
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3 comments so far
“Some of the senator’s tweets make him sound like a peasant. On May 19th he said: “Meeting with Dr Kissinger – the smartest man in the world.”
Can people still sound like peasants? I understand what John Lennon was getting at in “Working Class Hero”:
“Keep you doped with religion and sex and tv
And you think youre so clever and classless and free
But youre still f—–g peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be”
But sounding like a peasant doesn’t work for me. Calling Henry Kissinger the smartest man in the world sounds more like poor judgment or a misunderstanding of the word “smartest”.
As for the passive in English, my understanding is that it is a construction. In other words, any transitive active sentence can be made into a passive construction with the same meaning.
John read the book.
The book was read by John.
In Biblical Hebrew and Classical Arabic, for example, this construction rarely occurs. Instead, you have incomplete passives:
John read the book.
The book was read.
But not:
The book was read by John.
In Biblical Hebrew, the Niphal, a passive construction in many cases, is often used with God, where his agency is implied.
God created the earth.
The earth was created.
So, saying that someone uses the passive in English doesn’t signify anything but a stylistic choice. It does not change the meaning. The chance from agent to object doesn’t imply being powerless or lack of responsibility. However, I’m no expert.
- Posted by Don the libertarian DemocratThe biggest problem with the passive construction is that it’s often used as a way to avoid naming the agent. “Deregulation was often favored.” “Fraud was often overlooked.” In other words, the active voice is usually recommended because it forces the naming of who it was that performed the action.
- Posted by Acharnoh lor, are we going to have “Nukeman Of The Week” as a regular feature? The one you link to this week is claiming that France is building breeder reactors, when all they’ve actually done is plan to have the design features of one decided on by 2012. He also seems to claim that a commercial-scale pyroprocessing plant could be built for $1bn. That’s really hilarious. There needs to be at least some quality control over this stuff.
- Posted by dsquared