Oldal 57 [57]
HUNGARIAN-ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL CONTRASTS: THE VERB PHRASE
The next step is to learn the uses of the Passive. At school learners are often
told that the Passive is used in English when the agent is not known or is un¬
important. However, this is only true of the short passive, where the agent is
not specified. It is different with the long passive, where the agent is expressed
by a prepositional phrase. The long passive is often used to lend special em¬
phasis to the agent by giving it end focus:
St Paul’s Cathedral, dating from the late 17th century, was designed in the
English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren.
In this case the agent is very important, since it comes last in the sentence,
and in English we have end-focus (i.e., the end of the sentence receives sentence
stress, and it contains the most important new information). Consider these
sentences too:
A bort megitták. — The wine has been drunk. (The agent is unkown or un¬
important.)
A diákok megitták a bort. — The students drank/have drunk the wine. (Stress
falls on the word wine; this is the most important piece of new informa¬
tion.)
A didkok ittak meg a bort. — The wine was/has been drunk by the
students. (Special emphasis is laid on the noun phrase the students.)
In this way, the choice between the Active and the Passive depends on what is
new information in the sentence. However, it also depends on register: in oral
communication the Active, while in written registers the Passive is preferred.
The most common Hungarian correspondent of the long passive is an active
sentence, in which the agent (realised by a prepositional phrase in English) is
moved to subject position. The short passive also corresponds to the Active,
with a 3" person plural verb expressing an indefinite subject. However, there
are some other Hungarian constructions that regularly correspond to the
English Passive:
The house was painted white. — 1. A házat fehérre festették.
— 2. A ház fehérre volt festve.
This picture was painted by Dürer. - Ezt a képet Dürer festette.
The window was shut. — Az ablak becsukódott.
The rules must be adhered to. — À szabályokhoz ragaszkodnunk kell.
My hat has been sat on. — Valaki ült a kalapomon.
He was denied entry. — Megtagadták tőle a belépést.
« 55 ¢