LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 12 : 1 January 2012
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

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The Use of the Passive by Female and Male Indian Speakers of English -
Are Female Speakers of Indian English Less Formal?

Rohit Kawale, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.

Abstract

The passive voice in English has attracted the attention of a number of grammarians. Especially, the frequency of the passive in English has been studied extensively by some grammarians, like Svartvik (1966). Based on the model of the study of the passive in English used by Svartvik (1966), the use of the passive in Indian English was analysed. The analysis was based on data collected from the two corpora of Indian English.

The study was focused on the form, function and frequency of the passive in Indian English. For analysing the use of the passive, texts from various registers in spoken and written English were selected.

While analysing the data collected from conversations, it was found that the passive is used less frequently in conversations in English among only female Indian speakers, compared with conversations among only male speakers of English.

This paper aims at giving the findings regarding the use of the passive by female and male Indian speakers of English and also connecting it with the formality scale. It may be concluded that the frequency of the passive is indicative of the amount of colloquialisms. Therefore, it implies that female Indian speakers are less formal than male speakers in their conversations in English.

Introduction

The passive voice (usually referred to as the passive) in English has attracted the attention of many grammarians. Svartvik (1966) made the first corpus-based study of voice in English, particularly of the passive voice. One of his main findings was about the overall frequency of the passive and the frequency of the various types of the passive in English. Using his classification of the types of passive, the types of passive verb phrase etc, the passive in Indian English was studied to find out the overall frequency of the passive in conversations, various kinds of writing etc.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Rohit Kawale, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Associate Professor & Head
Department of English
Sangamner College
Sangamner
Maharashtra 422605
India
rohit.kawale@gmail.com
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