A Discussion on the Importance of Functionality in Passive Voice with Discourse and Meaning
AUTHORS
Jihye Lee,Hannam University, 70 Hannamro, Daedeok-Gu Daejeon 34430, Korea
ABSTRACT
A core of language acquisition is to communicate properly between speaker and listener and send a message correctly. To do so, we should know discourse function and pragmatic language process. In this discussion, to learn passive voice by the discourse function and context, we analyze what passive voice is and what connection lies between passive voice and discourse and pragmatic function and meaning. There are many principles about it but in this study, there are three principles here. The first is End-weighing. As we usually have an interest in and can easily accept the 'new information it is recommended for us to use passive form. Second, each element such as subject or object in the sentence has a hierarchy. Therefore, it is necessary to understand their hierarchy in the sentence that is expressed with passive voice. Depending on the speaker’s intention, the agent of sympathy is different. Lastly, there is an argument that the topic is different from the subject. Syntactic Subject in English has a dual function. Its primary function is to encode thematic information.
KEYWORDS
Passive voice, Discourse function, Pragmatic context, End-focus, Empathy, Topics.