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Subject:Re: passives, etc. From:Sumithra Jagannath <sumithra -at- CRIM -dot- CA> Date:Fri, 4 Feb 1994 14:36:26 EST
In article "passives, etc.", Michael Spooner <MSPOONER -at- CC -dot- USU -dot- EDU> writes
> Personally, I'd be loathe to lose the passive--or any other linguistic
> nuance--for fear I might need it later, maybe to cover my tracks. Therefore,
> I'm wary of the knee-jerk reaction against it that Shannon Ford mentions.
> I like Bonni Graham's instinct about the relative functions of active and
> passive. If you really want "authoritative" backing, Bonni, you could cite
> Eisenberg. She says essentially the same thing you do: active highlights the
> subject (of the action, that is), and passive highlights the object. So it
> should be a functional choice, not an aesthetic one.
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