voice (n.)

A fundamental term used in the PHONETIC classification of speech sounds, referring to the auditory result of the vibration of the VOCAL FOLDS; also called voicing. Sounds produced while the vocal folds are vibrating are voiced sounds, e.g. [b, z, a, i]; those produced with no such vibration are voiceless or unvoiced, e.g. [p, s, h]. A sound which is normally voiced, but which in a particular phonetic ENVIRONMENT is produced with less voice than elsewhere, or with no voice at all, is said to be devoiced (symbolized by a small circle beneath the symbol) – examples are the reduced voicing on voiced PLOSIVES in a word-final position as in bib, bed .

This contrast is considered to be of primary significance in phonological analysis, and is used as a main parameter of classification both in PHONEMIC and DISTINCTIVE FEATURE theories of PHONOLOGY. Voiced, for example, is one of the SOURCE features of sound set up by Chomsky and Halle in their phonological theory. Voiced sounds are defined ARTICULATORILY, as those where the vocal folds are in a position which will enable them to vibrate in an airflow. Its opposite is non-voiced (or voiceless), referring to sounds where vocal-fold vibration is impossible, because of the wide gap between them.

A CATEGORY used in the GRAMMATICAL description of SENTENCE or CLAUSE structure, primarily with reference to VERBS, to express the way sentences may alter the relationship between the SUBJECT and OBJECT of a verb, without changing the meaning of the sentence. The main distinction is between ACTIVE and PASSIVE, as illustrated by The cat bit the dog and The dog was bitten by the cat: in the first sentence, the grammatical subject is also the actor; in the second sentence the grammatical subject is the goal of the action – it is ‘acted upon’, and thus ‘passive’. There will be certain differences in the emphasis or style of these sentences, which will affect the speaker’s choice, but the factual content of the two sentences remains the same. In other languages, further contrasts in voice may be encountered, e.g. the ‘middle’ voice of Greek (which included verbs with a REFLEXIVE meaning, e.g. She cut herself), and there are several other types of construction whose role in language is related to that of voice, e.g. ‘reflexive’, CAUSATIVE, ‘impersonal’ constructions. Voice contrasts may be formally marked in the verb (e.g. by INFLECTION, WORD-ORDER or the use of special AUXILIARIES), or elsewhere in the sentence (e.g. by the use of passive ‘agent’); the English passive can involve all three factors, as in I was kicked by a bull.