Borislav Petrov, Bilyana Mihaylova
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/for2025-03-01
Abstract. The paper examines the use of passive forms of the verb открадна (to steal). The data is excerpted from the Bulgarian Parliamentary Corpus. In the Corpus 291 forms of the verb открадна (to steal) are documented and 169 of them are passive. There are 159 documented uses of the past passive participle of the verb открадна (to steal). 152 of the them are agentless and in 7 of them there is an agentive phrase. The data of our research confirms the understanding that the main function of the passive voice is to serve as a means to avoid mentioning the agent. The analysis of the data of the Bulgarian Parliamentary Corpusin this paper shows that the use of passive voice (of the verb открадна (to steal) in this case) in the public speech of politicians is connected with the emotive and manipulative functions of the language.
Keywords: political speech; passive voice; agent; agentless passive
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