Russian Multidimensional Study, Passive Sentences

The passive voice is an important grammatical phenomenon in linguistics, a feature of Russian semantics and the focus of linguistic theory.In general, the grammatical research is often concerned with the syntax of the language system, which is the interaction between syntactic units linked at all levels of the closed system. The multidimensional description and explanation of the passive structure requires the research into both the organizational structure of passive sentences and the semantic structure of the sentence or the semantic structure, because the deep structure of the semantic structure is our way of thinking in the form of communication. Our study needs not only to take into account the various levels of syntactic units and their interactions, but also to take care of extra-linguistic factors or the external factors. This is the multi-level perspective of a systematic study of passive sentences in Russian.The category of states involves the relationship of subject, object and action. It describes the status of the thing concerned: the semantic subject or semantic objects. State is closely related with verb forms. It is a kind of specific grammatical category, with the change of verbal forms as its mark. Accordingly we divide the category of states into state and non- state. The former indicates the relationship of the three elements, while the latter fails to do so because of the absence of one or more elements. States can also be classified into the active voice and the passive voice according to the different relationships of the three elements. Both of them have their own orientation.The passive voice is the category indicative of verb inflections and the constituent element of the polymer of the transitive verb. That is to say, this category is relevant to the transitive verb. This makes the two voices mutually exclusive.From the point of view of the semantic field, those elements at different levels of the passive voice are interrelated. The functional hierarchy of the semantic field is divided into the center and the margin. One core of the semantic field is the antagonism between the active meaning and the passive meaning. The center of the sub-field of the passive meaning is the polymer of passive verbal forms. The typical passive sentence structure is the dual-element passive structure, namely the structure which lacks an agent. Tri-element and mono-element passive structures are atypical. Based on the presence or absence of the subject, the passive sentence is divided into two categories: personal and non-person passive structures.There are also other variations of the passive structure, but they all belong to the marginal or atypical phenomena of the passive structure. Among these passive structures, we study the essential passive sentence and the semantic passive sentences. The essential passive sentence is a special form of Russian passive sentence. Its syntactic form is NP + (Adjuct) + VP-ся; its syntactic feature is as follows: the imperfective tense with-сяverbs, the simple present tense, the absence of the agent complement, the subject with non-animal nouns. Its semantic characteristics are: its grammatical subject involves a predicate with-сяverb; it indicates constancy and universality; it does not describe specific events, but summarizes the main features of imaginary events; its pragmatic function is the comment on the grammatical subject and the major participants. Its cognitive motivation is to highlight the role of the participants and shadow the role of agent object. Therefore, the structure does not allow the emergence of the thematic role of the agent.The semantic passive sentence lacks the normal markers of the passive voice. The passive implication derives from words, tone and other means. The verb's lexical meaning has lost its independence and become functional verbs. Strictly speaking, this does not belong to the passive sentence category.Russian has two different types of passive structure, the static and the dynamic. The former represents the result and the state of the action, while the latter describes the process of the action. Most of the passive structures in Russian are static. The passive sentence structure denoting the result of action is also different from the static passive sentence structure. Their difference lies in the fact whether there is any tense conversion.In the process of verbal communication, the production of sentences has to go through four levels: the semantic roles→subject and object→subject complement→subject statement. In accordance with the four levels, this dissertation studies the Russian passive structure. It is divided into the following parts: the conversion of the passive structure, the semantic structure, the communicative structure and the pragmatic structure. Although the overall idea of our research is based on these four levels and progresses from the forms to the meanings, we also employ onomasiological methods. The relationship of the second and third levels is called the role coordination. The syntactic and semantic levels correspond to each other. This also involves the correspondence of the deep structure with the surface structure. Therefore, the role coordination theory can be said to be concerned with the interface of semantic and syntactic issues. The role coordination is a common concept in universal human languages and belongs to the deep abstract level. The verb in any language has at least one role in coordination, but the means of coordination are usually decided by the specific language and the concrete words. The marked role coordination is called the state, which is the means of mark for the verb. This is the essential difference between the role coordination and the state. This shows that the scope of the role coordination is greater than that of the state category. The latter is included in the former.The passive structure is a conversion of the active structure and the passive structure can also be converted to the active structure, but this is subject to certain conditions. The condition for the establishment of the passive sentences in Russian is the semantic structure of the verb. This structure must be causative. For example: those verbs which are not independent and transfer no energy can not be converted to a passive sentence. In the process of converting an active voice sentences into the passive voice, all the elements which have close ties with the subject will affect the semantic explanation of the sentence. Such conversion cannot be achieved when the subject and object of the action are those nouns representing animals and have the features of life, or when the sentences include some adverbs denoting emotions, attitudes and consciousness. The passive structures describing the static condition or other states emphasize the state or attributes of things and do not refer to the object of the action, so they can not be converted to the active structure. Those fixed structures with the passive voice can not be converted to the active voice, either.In the language structure, the active structure is original, while the passive structure is derivative. This is a product of the process of human cognitive development. The bounding theory can be used to describe the production and conversion of the Russian passive structures. First of all, the active sentences should be generated. Then the transitive verbs in them undergo the passivation process. The object is moved forward (i.e.NP shift) to the subject position and the original subject is forced into the complement position. When the phonetic and logical changes are carried out, the active voice is converted to the passive sentence. This is the generation and conversion of the passive sentences. The nature of the passive structure is to enhance the status of the object. When the object becomes the subject, the subject will automatically lose its status as the first element and the core of the syntax and become a participant.The study of the syntactic features of speech units is not sufficient for the achievement of a multi-level description of the syntactic structure of sentences. The study of the semantic structure of sentences is also necessary. The semantic structure is both the deep structure and the indication of encoding means of the speech. The study of the semantic pattern begins from the semantic unit. The verb which undergoes the passivation process determines the semantic roles of the subject and the object of the passive structure. In other words, the scene structure determines the semantic structure of the passive sentences. The complete model is: the affected object + the passive form of the verb+ the causative subject, or P + VP + A. The semantic features of the model denote "non-automaticness", "passivity", " results","state ", "process" and so on.In this semantic model, words have great influence on the generation of the passive structure, because the polymer of the state of each verb is determined by the lexical meaning. The verb determines the relationship between syntactic structures and commands all other units of the sentence. The semantic features of these verbs are transitivity, autonomy, controllability, activity, result, causation and so on.The composition of the passive mode of semantic structure is not arbitrary but determined by the choice of three components (subject, object and the passive form of the verb). This choice is affected by semantics, syntax and pragmatics. Each has its own semantic role, but they are also mutually cooperative, restrictive and compatible enough to form a qualified structure. The semantic feature of this semantic structure lies in the passivity, result and state of the object.From the perspective of cognitive linguistics, the passive structure of human language as one of the basic types of sentences is the result of human cognition development. Cognitive grammar holds the opinion that syntax is based on semantics, while meaning is the formation of concepts or images. The image formation depends on choice, perspective, highlight, exactness and other parameters. Parameters change with images, images changes with semantic structures, semantic structures change with sentence structures. The motivation for selecting the passive structure is to highlight the active role of the participants in the passive voice in the development of the event. Therefore, in this structure, the passive participants are selected as the foreground of the sentence (the subject). By the highlight of the distinction between foreground and the background, different voices are selected. The principle of highlight has great effect on the choice of the subject. The cognitive function of the passive voice is to describe the event from the point of view of the object of the action, highlight the object, regard it as the focus, and emphasize the result.The features of the passive sentences are: the predicate of the subject describes the state; even if the verb denoting an action loses such an attribute and describes the state. When the agent is absent, the focus of attention is on the process, mechanism and results of the action. Therefore, the ideal cognitive structure of the passive sentence is "the causative factor→changes→state." Causative events are not only the typical event of the active structure, but also that of the passive structure. The precondition for the event must be the transmission of force or energy and the force transmission is directional. The reflection of this in the language is the change of the state. The generation of the active and passive voices are determined by the different directions of forces. The active voice is reflected by the right-vector, while the passive voice is reflected by the left vector. The changes in the directions of the actor verbs result in the changes of the states. The right vector is generally a transitive verb, while the left vector is formed through the passivation of the transitive verbs, that is, by adding the affixes of the passive form.The similarity principle is the embodiment of the general rules of human cognition in language. It finds full expression in the correspondence of form and meaning. The similarity principle also exists in the passive structure of Russian. The main features of this principle are the similarity in order, number, distance, marks and so on. The similarity principle provides an important theoretical support for linguistics and is especially helpful for the study of language typology.The close integration of language study with stylistic research is also a reflection of the functional turn of language research. The study of the passive structure cannot be separated from stylistics, either. The frequency of the passive structure under different styles is different. This is closely connected with the semantic features of the passive voice. That is to say, the passive structure stresses an objective fact and endows the object of description with neutral and objective characteristics. Therefore, this feature is in accord with the stylistic feature of scientific and technological language. So the passive structure more frequently appear in the written language than in spoken language.Different syntactic structures can create different effects, so the writer can take advantage of this possibility, employ it in the literary creation and realize his creative intent. So far as the functional rhetoric is concerned in the interaction of the different Russian styles, the rhetorical function of some styles often change when some linguistic elements move from one style into the other. The passive structure which is often found in science and technology will create the defamiliarization effect and some new implication if it occasionally appears in literature. In literary works, writers sometimes deliberately use the passive structure, put it in the focus, make use of the syntactic function, make the reader truly feel the attitude of writer toward the characters and sense the aesthetic value of the passive voice in the art. It is in this way that the expressive function of the art is realized.Language function is implemented in the communication process. The analysis of the implication of the passive structure in the communication process needs the consideration of the semantic and the pragmatic features. All the characteristics of the language are realized in the communication and embodied in the text. The textual function is achieved through the pragmatic functions of communication in coherence and cohesion. Text is a closed, integrated and advanced communication unit, the main characteristic of which is the coherence and integrity.The passive sentence originates in the active voice, so it is very important for adjusting the angle of the event. This is directly reflected in the division and and distribution of the communicative structure which makes it unique in the discourse of communication: to ensure unity and transition of the text. Although words play an important role in the organization of the text, the passive structure can be used for different communicative purposes, so the passive structure endows the object of description with communicative features and functions. The most remarkable is to realize the actual division of meaning to achieve communicative and pragmatic functions. The passive sentences are cut into two parts, the subject and the comment. The former is what is known, while the latter is what is unknown. This can reveal the communicative intent of the passive structure, highlight the themes, put the pragmatic and communicative functions in the focus. The function of the passive sentences in cohesion and coherence is mainly reflected in the development and change of themes.A comprehensive description of the Russian passive sentence must take into account all the close ties between the syntactic levels. We need to study not only the vocabulary, morphological and syntactic structure, but also the semantic and pragmatic features in order to achieve a multi-angle, multi-level and comprehensive study and description of the passive structure of the Russian language.This study might be stimulating in Russian grammar teaching and syntax study. It may also be useful to the study of syntax, semantics and typology. It might play an active role in the man-machine dialogue, machine translation and other practical technologies.