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K. J. DUNCAN BARLOW–ON THE TRANSLATING OF THE PASSIVE VOICE IN THE DETECTIVE GENRE
ON THE TRANSLATING OF THE PASSIVE VOICE IN THE
DETECTIVE GENRE
0. INTRODUCTION
153
KAREN JOAN DUNCAN BARLOW
Universidade de Vigo
1. “Whodunnit: a story […] about the solving of a mystery, especially a murder: a
detective or murder story” (OED supplement).
As can be gathered from this definition a “whodunnit” is a novel in which the
detective/sleuth and the reader have to find out who did “it” (the murder/s). It follows,
therefore, that the “who” must remain unknown throughout most of the novel. Bearing
this in mind, the following paper has three aims: firstly, to analyse the relationship
between the detective genre and the passive voice as a linguistic feature; secondly, to
present some linguistic studies which may be useful to translators when they face novels
of this kind; and thirdly, to show the usefulness of translation theories in these cases.
1. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DETECTIVE GENRE AND PASSIVE VOICE
As regards the relationship between “whodunnits” and the passive voice, the
following instance may serve as an illustration, insofar as it presents the linguistic features
of active to passive change and a genre feature of a “whodunnit”, i.e. a murder:
2.a. “The butler murdered the detective [Active]
b. The detective was murdered by the butler [Passive]”
(Quirk et al, 1985:159)
The active/passive switch is well known and, in general terms, most grammars
tend to consider the changes equivalent; thus, Quirk’s analysis given above of the
active/passive transformation is similar to that of other linguistic analyses.
Many of these linguistic analyses point out that, in passive formation, the presence
of the agent is not necessary. Yet another group of studies on the passive state that
“agentless” passives are far more frequent than “agentful” passives (vid Seoane 1996).
Downing (1995: 254) goes a step further and, from within a pragmatic framework,
provides “several reasons for silencing the Agent”. Amongst these several reasons
Downing states that “the speaker wishes to mask the origin of the action.” If we change
“speaker” to “narrator” and bear in mind Downing’s masking the “origin” of the action
and the “whodunnits” requirements (i.e. that the reader should find out who did “it”) we
find that, to a certain extent, the absence of an agent becomes mandatory in detective
novels.