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In grammar, the voice (also called diathesis and (rarely) gender (of verbs)〔E.g. in Robert S. P. Beekes' ''Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction'' (1995)〕) of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc.). When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the patient, target or undergoer of the action, the verb is said to be in the passive voice. For example, in the sentence: :''The cat ate the mouse.'' The verb "ate" is in the active voice, but in the sentence: :''The mouse was eaten by the cat.'' The verbal phrase "was eaten" is passive. In :''The hunter killed the bear.'' The verb "killed" is in the active voice, and the doer of the action is the "hunter". To make this passive: :''The bear was killed by the hunter.'' The verbal phrase "was killed" is followed by the word "by" and then by the doer "hunter". In a transformation from an active-voice clause to an equivalent passive-voice construction, the subject and the direct object switch grammatical roles. The direct object gets ''promoted'' to subject, and the subject ''demoted'' to an (optional) complement. In the examples above, ''the mouse'' serves as the direct object in the active-voice version, but becomes the subject in the passive version. The subject of the active-voice version, ''the cat'', becomes part of a prepositional phrase in the passive version of the sentence, and could be left out entirely. ==History== In the traditional grammar of Ancient Greek, voice was called διάθεσις (''diáthesis'') "arrangement" or "condition", with three subcategories: active (ἐνέργεια ()), passive (πάθος ()), middle (μεσότης ()).〔Dionysius Thrax. τέχνη γραμματική (Art of Grammar). (ιγ´ περὶ ῥήματος ) (13. On the verb).〕 In Latin there are five voices (Latin: genera verborum, sg. genus verbi): active, passive, neuter, common and deponent (Latin: () activum, passivum, neutrum, commune, deponens).〔Aelius Donatus in his ''Ars Minor'' (''De Verbo''): "Genera verborum quot sunt? Quinque. Quae? Activa passiva neutra deponentia communia." Maurus Servius Honoratus in his ''Commentarius in Artem Donati'': "Verborum genera quinque sunt, activa passiva neutra communia deponentia."〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Voice (grammar)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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