Category of voice in modern english

Don’t be late. (Compare: I am not late.) Do not forget. Do not make that mistake again. Do not fail to be there. Don’t be so noisy. Unless the air is warm do not go out in the open.
Prohibitive commands in Armenian are initiated by the prohibitive particle մի՛ don’t. Most regular verbs derive their prohibitive singular from their assertive forms:
երգի՛ր –մի՛ երգիր, գնա –մի՛ գնա
e) Verbs with the suffixes -ան-, -են – and –ցն – form their prohibitive singular by adding to the infinitive stem the ending -ա or –ի.
Հեռանալ –մի՛ հեռանա
The plural prohibitive uses the infinitive stem by replacing the infinitive endings –ել with -եք, and –ալ with -աք. However, -եցեք and –ացեք forms are also possible:
Խոսել – մի՛ խոսեք or մի՛ խոսեցեք
4. The emphatic imperative is formed with the help of the auxiliary verb to do, followed by the infinitive:
Do tell me what he said. Do be silent.
5. Will you? very often follows the imperative. In such imperative sentences the order becomes modified by the addition of will you? into a kind of request:
Bring me my spectacles, will you? Just give me some money, will you?
Voice is the grammatical category of the verb which expresses an action from the subject or to it. e.g.
1. The teacher asked the pupil.
2. The teacher was asked by the pupil.
All the words in the second sentence are the same, the difference is only in the voice of the verb. In the first sentence the action is directed from the subject to the object, while in the second sentence the action is directed to the subject. Therefore, the category of voice shows the direction of an action from the subject or to the subject.
In Modern English there are two grammatical voices: the active voice and the passive voice. The active voice shows that the action is directed from the subject to the object and the subject itself is the doer of an action. The passive voice is used to show that the action is directed to the subject and not from it. The subject itself is not the doer of an action but is acted upon. The passive voice is not simply a parallel construction of the active voice. Very often we do not find the doer of an action in the passive constructions. This is because sometimes we do not know the doer of an action or we are not interested in it or sometimes we do not want to mention it for some reason or other.
E.g. This folk song was composed many years ago.
This machine is operated by hand, (we are not interested by whom the action is done, we are interested in the fact that the machine is operated by hand).
The category of voice is a grammatical category, i.e. it is expressed by means of grammatical forms and not by lexical means.
Some grammarians hold that the number of voices is more than two. Some of them count even five voices in Modern English, namely: the Active voice, the Passive voice, the Reflexive voice, the Middle voice, and the Reciprocal voice.
If we take the sentence: He shaved himself and left the house earlv. can we say that the verb shaved and the reflexive pronoun himself comprise the Reflexive voice? Evidently not. because in such sentences we deal with the lexical word combination in which reflexive pronouns are used in the function of a direct object to some transitive verbs imparting to them reflexive meaning.
The same case is observed in the so-called Reciprocal voice which is perceived by some grammarians in such sentences as: They saw each other onlv for a moment. The action here is reciprocal because of the meaning of a direct object, expressed by a reciprocal pronoun whereas the grammatical form of the verb does not show it. In fact, we deal here with an Active voice but not with the reciprocal one.
In the sentences like The paper burned, the door opened, etc. some grammarians find the so-called Middle voice. But hardly have we any ground to consider it as a special Middle voice, i.e. a grammatical category different from the active voice. The special meaning of the verb is expressed by lexical means and not by a special form of the verb.
18) The problem of other voices ( reflexive, reciprocal, middle)
Some grammarians hold that the number of voices is more than two. Some of them count even five voices in Modern English, namely: the Active voice, the Passive voice, the Reflexive voice, the Middle voice, and the Reciprocal voice.
If we take the sentence: He shaved himself and left the house earlv. can we say that the verb shaved and the reflexive pronoun himself comprise the Reflexive voice? Evidently not. because in such sentences we deal with the lexical word combination in which reflexive pronouns are used in the function of a direct object to some transitive verbs imparting to them reflexive meaning.
The same case is observed in the so-called Reciprocal voice which is perceived by some grammarians in such sentences as: They saw each other onlv for a moment. The action here is reciprocal because of the meaning of a direct object, expressed by a reciprocal pronoun whereas the grammatical form of the verb does not show it. In fact, we deal here with an Active voice but not with the reciprocal one.
In the sentences like The paper burned, the door opened, etc. some grammarians find the so-called Middle voice. But hardly have we any ground to consider it as a special Middle voice, i.e. a grammatical category different from the active voice. The special meaning of the verb is expressed by lexical means and not by a special form of the verb.