The song was playing…?

[dido4]

I have corrected the sentences after 5jj and teechar’s advice. Thank you.

The song was written by Mike.
The song was playing on the radio yesterday morning.
=> The song which was playing on the radio yesterday morning was written by Mike.

1. Is this sentence correct?
The song was playing…

I don’t understand why the sentence can be written in active voice, not in passive voice. Can the song play by itself?

2. Should the sentence be written in passive voice?
The song was being played…

 

[5jj]

Is this sentence correct?
The song was playing…

Yes

Is Should the sentence should be written in passive voice?
The song was been playing…

The song was been playing is a non-existent form. The passive progressive form is The song was being played. That form would be acceptable in your sentence.

 

[teechar]

Also, I'm assuming that Mike and Paul are meant to be one person!
Consider "The song (which was) played on the radio ...".

 

[dido4]

The song was playing on the radio.

I don’t understand why the sentence can be written in active voice, not in passive voice. Can the song play by itself?

 

[jutfrank]

The song was playing on the radio.

I don’t understand why the sentence can be written in active voice, not in passive voice. Can the song play by itself?

There are two different ways to use the verb play. Look at these two correct sentences:

1) The song was playing on the radio.
2) My wife was playing the song on the music system.

Can you see the difference? Who or what is doing the action in each case? Which verb is transitive?

 

[Rover_KE]

Most dictionaries here give examples of 'play' used intransitively.

(Bookmark OneLook.com for future reference.)

 

[Tdol]

Why not use the song was played on the radio? Is there a reason to use the progressive form?

You can say the song played on the radio- some call this a middle verb, combining elements of the passive in a verb in the active form.

 

[jutfrank]

You can say the song played on the radio- some call this a middle verb, combining elements of the passive in a verb in the active form.

It's an academic point, but I don't quite consider this to be a middle verb. When we say The song played, I don't think there's a passive sense because there's no required agent. We can imagine a song playing on its own, in a world with no conscious agents at all. For me, it means something like 'manifesting in the world'—a very different meaning from that in She played a song, in my opinion.

 

[5jj]

If th

It's an academic point, but I don't quite consider this to be a middle verb. When we say The song played, I don't think there's a passive sense because there's no required agent.

Apart from the person who played it.

We can imagine a song playing on its own, in a world with no conscious agents at all.

I can't.

 

[jutfrank]

Apart from the person who played it.

My point is that there doesn't need to be a person who played it.

I can't.

Imagine a post-apocalyptic world where for whatever reason a record player spontaneously turns on.

 

[5jj]

In this non-post-apocalyptic world, it does not seem unreasonable to believe that songs don't play themselves, and that we can think of play as a middle verb.

 

[jutfrank]

In this non-post-apocalyptic world, it does not seem unreasonable to believe that songs don't play themselves, and that we can think of play as a middle verb.

I don't think that's wholly unreasonable but I don't think it's right.

Think about typical cases of middle verbs:

The bestseller sold a million copies.
The sentence reads well.
The judge bribes easily.

In these cases, we understand that something is being done to the bestseller and the sentence and the judge. In each case, an action is being acted upon them, by a conscious agent. It's not possible to imagine these examples as having any meaning in a consciousness-less world, because the action comes entirely from the conscious agent.

In The song is playing, I understand that the action is not coming entirely from any conscious agent, but rather that the verb 'play' is the manifestation of the song itself. This is similar to, say, the verb sound in The alarm sounded. The alarm and the sound are identical. There is no conscious agent making anything happen.

This is how I understand this, anyway. It's interesting that people have different ways to understand things.

 

[5jj]

This is similar to, say, the verb sound in The alarm sounded. The alarm and the sound are identical. There is no conscious agent making anything happen.

But there are, or were, conscious agents. The alarm sounds either because someone sounds it, or because it has been programmed to sound when someone or something triggers it.

 

[jutfrank]

But there are, or were, conscious agents. The alarm sounds either because someone sounds it, or because it has been programmed to sound when someone or something triggers it.

Do you mean to say that you can't imagine there ever being a case of The alarm sounded where there is no semantic requirement for an agent?

I think it makes sense to understand The alarm sounded as possibly equivalent to The alarm went off. I can imagine that there might be no agent involved. Perhaps it was the wind that was the trigger.

 

[Tdol]

If we need the apocalypse to exclude the possibility of it being a middle verb, then I will happily withdraw the suggestion before the bombs fall.

And I did say that some might call it a middle verb, not that it was a middle verb. Innocent, or mildly guilty, yur honour, and it is Crimbo.

 

[jutfrank]

If we need the apocalypse to exclude the possibility of it being a middle verb, then I will happily withdraw the suggestion before the bombs fall.

And I did say that some might call it a middle verb, not that it was a middle verb. Innocent, or mildly guilty, yur honour, and it is Crimbo.

I do believe we do need the apocalypse to make all the difference, yes.

After seeing yours and 5jj's view of this, I'm no longer convinced that it isn't a middle verb. It seems that for you two at least it does express a middle situation of some kind, which I think is reasonable, so I guess it belongs in some particular class of middle verb. I'll continue to look at the semantics literature on middle situations to see if I can find anything that's been written on cases like this. Until the apocalypse finally does come, I'd be very keen to hear what other people think about the issue, because it's a question I find very interesting.