Of non-passivised verbs.

The passive voice is combined with other oppositionally strong forms of the verbal categories of the tense-aspect system (the past, the future, the continuous, the perfect). It has a neutralising effect on the category of development in the forms where the auxiliary be must be doubly employed as a verbid, so that the future continuous passive and the perfect continuous passive are practically not used in speech (their counterparts are correspondingly the future indefinite passive and the perfect indefinite passive).

The category of voice is immediately connected with syntax (direct transformational relations between the active and passive constructions).

The big problem in connection with the voice identification in English is the problem of medial voices (the functioning of the voice forms in other than the passive or active meanings). All the medial voice uses are effected by the functional range of the unmarked member of the voice opposition which allows some scholars to admit the existence of some special grammatical voices:

1) I will shave and wash. I'm afraid Mary hasn't dressed up yet. Now I see your son is thoroughly preparing for the entrance examinations. (reflexive voice) – the subject is both the agent and the recipient of the action at the same time. It is possible to use a reflexive pronoun in this case: He washed himself

2) The friends will be meeting tomorrow. Unfortunately, Nellie and Christopher divorced two years after their magnificent marriage. Are Phil and Glen quarrelling again over their toy cruiser? (reciprocal voice) – The actions are performed by the subject constituents reciprocally. It is possible to use a reciprocal pronoun here.

3) The new paper-backs are selling excellently. Large native cigarettes smoked easily and coolly. Perhaps the chop will eat better than it looks. (middle voice) – the verbs primarily transitive develop an intransitive middle meaning

However most linguists prefer not to speak of different middle voices, because all these meanings are not expressed morphologically.

Another problem posed by the category of voice concerns the relation between the morphological form of the passive voice and syntactical form of the corresponding complex nominal predicate with the pure link be:

1) You may consider me a coward, but there you are mistaken (a nominal predicate)

2) They were all seised in their homes (a passive voice form).

Though the constructions are outwardly alike they possess a different grammatical status distinguished on the basis of the two principles:

1) If the construction expresses an action, it is taken to refer to the passive voice form; if it expresses a state, it is interpreted as a nominal predicate):

a) The door was closed by the butler as softly as could be (the predicate displays the ‘passive of action’ and is expressed by a verb used in the passive voice).

b) The door on the left was closed (the predicate displays the ‘passive of state’ and consists of a link-verb and a nominal part expressed by a past participle).

2) If the participial part expresses processual verbality the whole construction should be understood as a case of the finite passive (The young man was highly esteemed in his district); if the participial part of the construction doesn't convey the idea of processual verbality (it has ceased to be a participle and is turned into an adjective), then the whole construction is to be taken for a nominal predicate. It is not categorially passive at all.

The categorial status of the predicate in the sentence ‘The door was closed’ is wholly neutralised and is categorially latent; and only a living context may de-neutralise it both ways:

1) The context including the by-phrase of the doer (e.g. by the butler) de-neutralises it into the passive form of the verb (the context provides voice-stimulating, processualising effect)

2) The context in the following example de-neutralises it into the adjectival nominal collocation: The door on the left was closed, and the door on the right was open (the context provides voice-suppressing, statalising effect).