Donnelly felt impelled to write and complain. --- Is this sentense passive voice???

Question

While I was studying the differences between two words, compel and impel, I was confused about the example sentence, that is "Donnelly felt impelled to write and complain".
I wonder whether this sentence is passive voice or not? If it is, then "feel" will be auxiliary and "impel" is V.3, right? Moreover, i did visit wikipedia site and went to English passive voice topic, it showed that "get" can be used as an auxiliary instead of "be". However, it did not mention others.
Thank You.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

In a passive voice, the subject is the recipient of the action of the verb. I was kicked by the horse. I got kicked hard by the mule. (I received the action of kicking in both examples).
In your example, Donnelly did not receive the action of feeling. In fact, with this meaning (experience a sensation), feel is intransitive. Intransitive verbs do not have a passive form.
What follows feel is a predicate adjective: e.g. I feel sad. Past participles of verbs do function as adjectives, e.g. I feel satisfied. I feel motivated.

Avangi · Answer

While "I feel fine" is not transitive, both to impel and to compel surely are, and may be used in the passive voice, "I am impelled/compelled to speak." The question is, can "to feel compelled" function like "to be compelled"?

IMHO there are cases in which it's impossible to say whether a given construction is passive voice or simply "to be" plus the past participle as predicate adjective.

By definition, however, a construction cannot be passive unless the verb "to be" is used. So that eliminates all these verbs of sense.

Clearly, neither "I feel sick" nor "I am sick" is an example of passive voice. "Sick" is not a past participle.

"I feel cheated" vs. "I am cheated" is a little more difficult. "Cheated" can be a predicate adjective in either case, and can be passive voice with the verb "to be."

"I feel compelled to speak" vs. "I am compelled to speak" is not so easy. "Compelled" doesn't sound like an adjective, and as a verbal, it can take the infinitive. But how can the first version be any less passive voice than the second?

I know I'm failing to make my point. Anyway, I think Donnelly does receive the action of the compulsion, not the action of the feeling. Whether we call "to feel" and "to seem" optional auxilliary verbs is sort of an academic question.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Avangi"I feel cheated" vs. "I am cheated"

Avangi:
I was cheated by the salesman. - > Passive voice. I am the recipient of the action of cheating. The salesman is the "doer" of the cheating.

The salesman cheated me. - > Active voice. I am the recipient of the action of cheating. The salesman is the "doer" of the cheating.
I was cheated. - > Passive voice. I am the recipient of the action of cheating. The "doer" is not named. Maybe I am ashamed to admit who did it to me, or maybe I am missing $5 and don't know who cheated me of it!
I feel cheated. - > Active voice. I am the one doing (experiencing) the feeling. Typically we use these expressions to express the general feeling as if we had been cheated - we might never have been actually subjected to the action of cheating.

Avangi · Answer

Hmm.  I'm way too tired. Isn't this the difference between "I smell bad" and "I smell badly"?     -    Thanks!   -  A.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

A-
It's not related at all. This thread is dealing with active versus passive verb voices. Bad vs.badly is adjective (bad, stinky, malodorous) versus adverb (poorly functioning olfactory sensors).

Anonymous · Answer

- period inside quotation marks

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousI wonder whether this sentence is passive voice or not

Palmer (The English Verb) calls these semi-passives. Here's another example he lists under "Semi-passives", also with the verb feel.

I felt rather let down by his absence.

Of course, it's not the verb feel that is being placed in the passive; that's just a linking verb. It's the verb to let down in its past participle form that creates the passive idea. His absence let me down is the corresponding active form.

In your sentence the active form is Something (not made explicit) impelled Donnelly to write and complain.

A paraphrase of the whole sentence might be Donnelly felt [that / as if] he was being impelled [by something] to write and complain. This may make it clearer that the passive implication comes from an underlying subordinate clause, not from the main clause with feel.

CJ

Avangi · Answer

CalifJim I felt rather let down by his absence.

I agree there's the sense here that "I" am the recipient of a transitive action, but how far should we go in transforming a sentence and assigning the new functions to the old version?

- A.

Donnelly felt impelled to write and complain. ---> Is this sentense passive voice???

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