2015-11-05 Grammar: passives and parenting

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk
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Why do we sometimes choose passive?
- to focus on the recipient of the action, not the agent
- if the agent is obvious from context
(“My car was completely destroyed.” - by the other car, but that is clear from context)
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p. 57 exercise 11 - Why are these sentences passive? What is the agent in each one?
1 focus on the recipient, the agent is obvious (agent = Americans)
2 focus on the recipient, the agent is unknown (agent = some (unknown) people)
3 obvious agent, focus on the recipient (agent = people)
4 focus on the receiver, agent is obvious (agent = police)
5 unknown agent, obvious(ly a thief), focus on the receiver (agent = someone)
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Rules and announcements:
Smoking is not allowed in this area.
Smoking is not permitted in this area.
Smoking is prohibited in this area.
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Tell your partners some things that you were or weren’t allowed to do by your parents, and if you think this was a good rule or not.
“I was allowed to watch TV for one hour a day by my parents.”
(You can also say what punishment happened if you broke the rule: “If I watched too much TV, I was sent to my bedroom.”)
(And what happened if you followed the rule: “If I ate all my vegetables, I was given dessert.”)

I was not allowed to stay out past 10pm. (This was my parents’ rule.)
I was not permitted to stay out past 10pm. (This might be a city law for teenagers.)

Some parents are too strict. Others are too permissive.
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p. 295 - Complete the chart with the techniques your parents used (or probably would use), whether it was effective, and whether you would do the same thing with your children.