home edit page issue tracker

This page pertains to UD version 2.

Voice: voice

Values: Act Bfoc Ifoc Lfoc Pass

Voice is typically a feature of verbs. It may also occur with other parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, adverbs), depending on whether borderline word forms such as gerunds and participles are classified as verbs or as the other category.

For Indo-European speakers, voice means mainly the active-passive distinction. In other languages, other shades of verb meaning are categorized as voice.

Act: active or actor-focus voice

The subject of the verb is the doer of the action (agent), the object is affected by the action (patient). This label is also used for the actor-focus voice of Austronesian languages.

Examples

Pass: passive or patient-focus voice

The subject of the verb is affected by the action (patient). The doer (agent) is either unexpressed or it appears as an oblique dependent or an object of the verb. This label is also used for the patient-focus voice of Austronesian languages.

Examples

Lfoc: location-focus voice

The subject of the verb indicates location or direction, while the doer and the undergoer/theme are coded as objects.

Examples

Bfoc: beneficiary-focus voice

The subject of the verb indicates the beneficiary, while the doer and the undergoer/theme are coded as objects.

Examples

Ifoc: instrument-focus voice

The subject of the verb indicates the instrument, while the doer and the undergoer/theme are coded as objects.

Examples


Voice in other languages: [abq] [am] [arr] [bej] [bg] [bor] [ceb] [cs] [el] [eme] [en] [fi] [fr] [gn] [gub] [ha] [hu] [hy] [jaa] [ka] [ky] [myu] [qpm] [qtd] [quc] [ru] [sv] [tl] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urb] [urj] [xcl]