A Comparative Study On Passive Voice Of The English, French And Chinese Languages

The analysis of passive voice is one of the most familiar topics of linguistic research. Passive voice is the common linguistic phenomenon in the English, French and Chinese languages. Chinese, English and French, belong to separate language families -Sino-Tibetan, Germanic and Italic- and vary significantly, thus display several discrepancies. To master correctly the similarities and differences can make the second language acquisition and intercultural communication much easier. Therefore, it promotes this comparative study rather instructively. This paper adopts the comparative method and studies the syntactic and semantic similarities and differences of passive voices among English, French and Chinese on the basis of the theory of Chomsky "principle parameters". This paper also analyzes the profound reason for the differences: cultural differences and finds that it is just the historical and cultural element that make the external differences into being.This paper is divided into six parts.Part one is devoted to the introduction of the paper. It first accounts for the purpose of the writing and then introduces briefly the organization of this paper. It addresses also the general aims, status quo concerning comparative studies, especially focuses on the problems concerning of the comparative study of English, French and Chinese passives.Part Two reviews some basic concepts concerning the passive voice. It classifies the definitions of passive voice on syntactic and semantic views. Lots of linguistics define Chinese passive voice from semantic view while define English and French passive voices from the syntactic view. And then this part introduces the different types of passive voice in English, French and Chinese.In part Three, on the basis of the theory of Chomsky "principle parameters", we compare the syntactic similarities and differences of passive voices among English, French and Chinese. The passives in all these three languages comply with the following principles. 1) Affectedness of entity. 2) Promotion and demotion. 3) Some constraints of verbs. These similarities can be accepted quite easily by learners, the differences that can't be ignored are the main difficulties for learners. In spite of the above mentioned similarities, the differences of passive voices are still primary. They differ in parameters. In syntactic, they are distinct in subject, verbs, and proposition introducing theagents.Part Four compares the passive voice in these three languages from semantic view. In semantics, English passives are able to express both the actions and states. They differ from their French and Chinese counterparts in that they are relatively more impersonal, objective and indirect. Chinese passives are mainly restricted to convey the meaning of "being unfortunate" or "being inflicted".Part Five mainly analyzes the culture differences that affect the different use of English, French and Chinese passive voice. 1.cultural differences of historical background. 2.cultural differences of religious beliefs. 3.cultural differences of thinking and behavior patterns.Part Six is the conclusion. It has been pointed out that this paper is far from exhaustive in comparing passives among the three languages and further study is needed.