Talk:passive voice

Latest comment: 8 years ago by Mr. Granger in topic RFV discussion: December 2015–March 2016

RFV discussion: December 2015–March 2016 edit

 

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"(proscribed) Any construction that obscures the agent of an action, or the agency of said agent."

Definitely needs citing. As a good first step, has anyone heard of this? I haven't. Renard Migrant (talk) 17:05, 1 December 2015 (UTC)Reply

I get what it's poking at. Language Log has several posts ranting about this; [1] and [2] discuss it. [3] has a clear CFI-citable quote: "In an initial press release, the department said Winkler "aggressed the deputies and a deputy-involved shooting occurred." Note that Winkler's actions were put in the active voice, while the officers' actions were put in the passive." where Language Log notes that "a deputy-involved shooting occurred" is weird and responsibility-avoiding, but not actually passive voice.--Prosfilaes (talk) 18:31, 1 December 2015 (UTC)Reply
[4] summarizes the issue and provides a link to some of the Language Log pages.--Prosfilaes (talk) 18:35, 1 December 2015 (UTC)Reply


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