I want to know the name of some English Grammar books, in which :
(1) The Voice Change (Active to Passive and vice-versa)
(2) The Narration Change
have been discussed in details with examples.
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If, by 'the narration change' you mean direct speech ↔ indirect speech, you will find various relevant articles on ELU that quote from better grammars / papers (for both topics). There are some grammars best avoided. // The active ↔ passive transformation in particular is complex, with some verb usages largely barred (eg *'An old car was had by John.' / *'A ball was had by them.' BUT 'A good time was had by all.')– Edwin AshworthCommented Sep 15, 2021 at 10:04
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All decent grammars deal with transforming active voice into the passive, and the use of past tenses for narration. For British English, go with books published by Longman, Cambridge, Collins, Oxford, Pearson or Macmillan.– Mari-Lou ACommented Sep 15, 2021 at 10:43
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1How is this an ELU meta question?– LambieCommented Sep 15, 2021 at 14:55
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1@Lambie 'I want to know the name of some English Grammar books' is a direct request for resources. How is it not?– Edwin AshworthCommented Sep 15, 2021 at 15:15
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@Marie-Lou I've since checked on whether 'narration change' is used, and whether it is used with the sense I guessed or you suggested.– Edwin AshworthCommented Sep 15, 2021 at 15:17
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There are presumably all sorts of EFL books and ENL (English as a Native Language?) books that teach and discuss Active and Passive as a grammatical construct. I don't know of any, but am very curious about, books that would discuss stylistic implications maybe a book on composition and style and grammar choice. Of course, there is Strunk and White's Elements of Style which while being -very- useful for beginning authors (ie those who have a command of English language but are starting to compose long multi-sentence discourses), it is notorious among actual writers for being simplistic.– MitchCommented Sep 15, 2021 at 15:45
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It is also notorious among linguists for being seriously ignorant of the facts about English grammar. It shouldn't be given to any English student without a warning label.– John LawlerCommented Sep 21, 2021 at 15:11
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@mitch If I didn’t know you better I’d have thought you were trolling!– Araucaria - HimCommented Oct 1, 2021 at 12:23
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@Araucaria-Nothereanymore. 1) I am always trolling - what fun would it be without a response? 2) But what I said was sincere. As Prof. Lawler said, TEOS (or SW mif you prefer) is not very accurate about actual linguistic facts, and notoriously notorious for specifically both mischaracterizing many instances of the passive -and- using the -actual- linguistic passive -while- describing what you should not do with this passive. Ya know, that may or may not be exactly true (= 'bullshit') but i'm pretty certain it's close to being the case.– MitchCommented Oct 1, 2021 at 13:57
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@Araucaria-Nothereanymore. But I can't blame instructors of intro college composition classes for having students read SW because I think the advice it gives produces much much better prose because before SWS it was that much terribly worse. I think this has been called 'lying to children' or the 'ladder of lies' or something similar. I'm sure wikipedia had a page on that at one point.– MitchCommented Oct 1, 2021 at 13:59
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@Mitch That wasn't the trollish bit! It was the " being -very- useful for beginning authors (ie those who have a command of English language but are starting to compose long multi-sentence discourses)". That's what made me spatter my mouthful of coffee all over my computer!– Araucaria - HimCommented Oct 1, 2021 at 14:01
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1@Araucaria-Nothereanymore. oh haha. please wipe that off at your earliest convenience 1) it is gross, 2) it is unhygienic, and 3) it might do weird things to your keyboard's operation.– MitchCommented Oct 1, 2021 at 14:04
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@Araucaria-Nothereanymore. But does the lying to children things make sense at least? Awful awful writing can be helped by SW... but then there might be things you need to relearn as you get better (eg lots of those zombie rules (sentences ending w preposition, split infinitives, beginning a sentence w a conjunction) that writers torture themselves trying to remove... sure they have to -stylistically- correct for them, learn what works.– MitchCommented Oct 1, 2021 at 14:07
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@Mitch Hmm. It doesn't really make sense to me, Mitch. Reason is that I don't believe even the most awful, awful writing can be helped by S&W. Just like how the most awful, awful case of Covid can't be cured by injecting bleach. I really can't see anything in S&W that could help awful writing. There's loads of other advice that can, though.– Araucaria - HimCommented Oct 2, 2021 at 23:17
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@Araucaria-Nothereanymore. Did I mention I am not a writer or a teacher of good writing? I should mention that more often.– MitchCommented Oct 3, 2021 at 7:55
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