Steven Pinker: evaluation

Transcript context

…That’s better. [laughter] It is thought as such by many people. So it is thought. The case is overdrawn because no construction could have survived in the language for more than 1,500 years if it didn’t serve some purpose. There are circumstances in which the passive is the better choice. In particular when the topic of a conversation, the entity that’s already in the spotlight, is the done-to or acted-upon. Another rule of style, aside from avoiding the passive, is start the sentence with the given information, the topic. End the sentence with the new information, the focus. If you’re already talking about something that is done to, then that’s the logical way to begin the next sentence, and the passive voice makes that possible. If I’m saying, “Look at that mime in the park. He’s being pelted with zucchini,” then since I’ve already called your attention to the mime, now I want to add information about him. If he happens to be the brunt of an action then the passive voice is the way to begin the next sentence with him, as opposed to saying “some people are throwing zucchini at him,” where he gets put at the focus of the sentence, which is the best place to introduce new information. In fact, as I point out in The Sense of Style, the two most famous style guides in the English language, namely Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” and Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, both accidentally use the passive in the very sentence in which they say “don’t use the passive. ” [laughter] William Shatner. [laughter] You’re connected to him in several ways.…

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