Earticle

Sentence voice does not change propositional structure but rearranges the proposition into a different information structure. The following experiment investigated previous research on the functional distinction in the encoding of active and passive sentences in terms of the given-new approach in relation to information structure. Furthemore, an attempt was made to test the hypothesis that the logical subject is the focus of the assertion in the passive and the active is presuppositionally neutral(Anisfeld and Klenbort, 1973; Klenbort and Anisfeld, 1974). The result of the experiment supported Klenbort and Anisfeld’s claim that the focal point of the information asserted by the sentence is the logical subject in the passive but failed to support their finding that the active is presuppositionally neutral. The test subjects’ responses indicate that the logical subject in both the active and the passive forms represents the assertional focus when the sentence is isolated from the context.