7/ The verbal category of voice shows the direction of the process as regards the participants of the situation reflected in the syntactic construction. Wrote – was written

Meaning – direction of the action, whether the action is represented as issuing from its subject or as experienced by its object.

• He wrote this letter yesterday. – This letter was written yesterday.

But The bells rang and The fabric washes easily. Is it the active voice? Why do we have the sentences They rang the bells and She washed the fabric. These are causative constructions.

Middle voice. Greek had the middle voice, the same is in Semitic languages. The weak point – there is no distinct set of forms.

Prof.Barkhudarov considers the middle meaning to be part of the active voice meaning. If it were part of the passive voice meaning it would be possible to use the by-phrase: ٭The bells rang by John; ٭The fabric washed by the girl.

Reflexive voice: He hurt himself. Meaning – the action is concentrated on one and the same person. Form – verb + reflexive pronoun. But reflexive pronouns can be omitted and the meaning of reflexivity remains: He shaved and dressed. Prof. Ilyish: He hurt himself and the child. Besides: He makes toys – He makes mistakes. And not always reflexive pronouns can be omitted: He found himself in a dark room.

Reciprocal voice: They met each other at the station. Meaning – mutuality of the action. The subject is often plural. Form – verb + reciprocal pronoun. But They met at the station.

Conclusion: if we insist on external being obligatory to form a voice (certainly in combination with meaning), we should refer all the cases mentioned previously to the active voice (non-passive): He opened the door. The door opened. The book reads well. He shaved. They kissed. So, it’s a poly-functional form.

In traditional grammar, the verb form (or voice) in which the subject of the sentence performs or causes the action expressed by the verb.

In traditional grammar, a verb form (or voice) in which the grammatical subject receives the verb's action. Example: "A good time was had by all."

Passive constructions:

• Direct Passive (The letter was written yesterday)

• Indirect Passive (I was given a very interesting book)

• Prepositional Passive (The doctor was sent for) · Phraseological Passive (Care should be taken not to confuse these words)

• Adverbial Passive (The house has not been lived in for many years)

8

By the syntax of the language we mean the body of rules that speakers of the language follow when they combine words into sentences.

Syntactic level is divided into two: syntax – minor and syntax – major. The first one deals with sentence structure and the second – with text and its structure.

The term "Syntax - minor" is common one for both language and speech levels and their unit "sentence" is also one common term for language and speech. The abstract notion "sentence" of language can have concrete its representation in speech which is also called “sentence” due to the absence of the special term.

Since one and the same idea is expressed in two different forms they are called "allo -sentences". Some authors call them grammatical synonyms. Thus, sentence is language and speech units on the syntax - minor level, which has a communicative function.

The basic unit of syntax minor- sentence often consists of some word -groups (or word- combinations):

Thus syntax - minor deals with simple sentences, with a smaller unit than the simple

sentence i.e. word combinations and with the bigger unit than the simple sentence - composite

sentences.