Re: active vs. passive voice

[Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>]

Fred Ridder wrote:
> Ned Bedinger wrote (in small part):
>  
>> That's the well-known process by which the noun 'display' theoretically 
>> becomes the intransitive verb display, driven by a logical need for a 
>> new term that is specific to a then-new technology.
>>
>> English doesn't reserve this facility only for foreign words. If I set 
>> up a display(n) of my wares at the Saturday flea market, I can also say 
>> (and be generally understood) that my wares are displayed(v,i) at the 
>> flea market. This usage and construction sounds right to my ear, and is 
>> just too commonly encountered to be a big dumb mistake made with a 
>> transitive verb. English (the living language) seems to allow it.
>  
>  
> There is a fundamental flaw in your analysis regarding the object of 
> the verb. 

I'm going to quit working so late.

>  
> There *is* a valid intransitive form of the verb "display" but it 
> only refers to the mating behavior of certain fauna. 

This made me wonder which came first, the intransitive verb or the noun 
(also about animal displays). If the intransitive verb was created 
deliberately as counterpart to the noun, then I would more easily 
understand why it gets to be intransitive while all the other numerous 
display verbs coming from the same roots are transitive. I think I'd be 
able to find it a direct object, if that's what's wanted.

So I looked up DISPLAY in my copy of OED, a 1980's two volume 
photo-reduced bookclub set). I didn't find the intransitive verb 
specific to animal behavior, but perhaps I could have if I had found the 
magnifying glass I need to read the tiny reduced type. Anyway my eyes 
gave out before the entire entry, but I did find a different 
intransitive display, specifying that the display be done with 
ostentation. While animal displays can be ostentation (I'm thinking of 
peacocks), ostentation isn't a feature of all animal displays.

I conclude that there might be two intransitive 'display' verbs.  Good 
god, what next, three???

BTW, OED reports display (intransitive) as obsolete. I think I'll send 
them a link.

Thanks,

Ned Bedinger
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com
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