The Beauty of English

[SimonDoom]

'He would waken at first light' is active voice - it's he who wakens. 'First light would waken him': he's still the person who wakens, the agent, but he’s the object of the sentence, not the subject. Passive voice.

Your first example is correct--active voice. Because you have subject + active verb phrase. But your analysis of the second example is wrong. It DOESN'T MATTER whether the subject is a person or not. It's totally irrelevant to this analysis, and I defy you to come up with an authority for your position. In the second example, the light actively does something to the person. That's active voice.

He hit the wall.

The wall hit him.

These are both active voice. Switching it around makes no difference.

He was hit by the wall.

The wall was hit by him.

These are both passive voice. Switching around the wall and the person makes no difference.

The key is the presence of the linking verb "to be."

Chicago Manual of Style, section 5.118 (17th edition): "The passive voice is always formed by joining an inflected form of "to be" (or, in colloquial usage, "get") with the verb's past participle."

There is no "to be" verb in the example you are insisting is passive voice. It cannot be passive voice.

The problem with the example you've given ("First light would awaken him") is that this is an irregular usage of "awaken." Usually, "awaken" is an intransitive verb. It doesn't have an object. So, for example, "He awakened at first light" would be a standard use of the verb as an intransitive verb, because there's no object. The example you've given, however, uses "awaken" as a transitive verb, with "him" as an object. This is an irregular usage. I think that's where the problem arises. The correct sentence would be "First light would wake him."

 

[EmilyMiller]

This is probably the most rock n roll thread ever on AH.

Em

 

[XerXesXu]

Chicago Manual of Style, section 5.118 (17th edition): "The passive voice is always formed by joining an inflected form of "to be" (or, in colloquial usage, "get") with the verb's past participle."

Put away your crutch. It'll often mislead. 'Waken' is intransitive, does that help?

PS: I've just read the remainder of your post. You're on the right track, push it to its logical conclusion.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Macbeth, ‘Tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow’ speech.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more.

 

[SimonDoom]

Macbeth, ‘Tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow’ speech.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more.

"Lord, what fools these mortals be."

Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

 

[SimonDoom]

This is probably the most rock n roll thread ever on AH.

Em

Do you mean "rock" as in "Schoolhouse Rock"?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Aye, Simon, fools they be.

"Lord, what fools these mortals be."

Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream