Passive Voice at Cal Poly
(Cal Poly, 2019)
The day after the photos of the Lambda Chi Alpha event went viral, the San Luis Obispo Chapter issued a statement apologizing for the perceived insensitivity that may have "stir[red] up racial tension" (2018). The release reads, "Further steps will be taken with Cal Poly to ensure our members are fostering a healthy community of diversity and inclusivity" (2018). By using a passive construction, the Phi Sigma Zeta chapter can frame the discussion on their positive steps forward. George Lakoff explains the importance of frames, conveying, "You can build frames into grammar, into words, into any part of language. And you need to be able to see how an issue is being framed no matter what aspect of language is being used to frame it" (2019). Lambda Chi Alpha can recognize their misstep, but immediately focus on the steps toward inclusivity. Here, end-focus and framing work to put the university buzz words.
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In numerous, announcements, emails, and videos, Jeffrey Armstrong (left) worked to resolve the tensions and backlash to university administration over failure to act against racism. In many of his emails, he uses passive voice to leave agents ambiguous for a number of rhetorical purposes.
Following protests, national news coverage, and disciplinary action, Armstrong reached out to the campus community in an email update. He explained, "As many are aware, Lambda Chi Alpha was suspended for a minimum of a year" (2018). Here, Armstrong uses both passivization and agent deletion for an interesting purpose; rather than removing an agent to avert blame from himself, Armstrong removes the agent to reflect that he has done the suspension. In reality, Armstrong had no part in the suspension of Lambda Chi because the Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC) votes on chapter suspension (Mustang News Staff Report, 2018). Rather than stating that the student-run IFC suspended Lambda Chi Alpha, Armstrong instilled an ambiguous sense of the agent to make it appear that he had taken action. While this intention strays from one of the key reasons for passive voice, blame avoidance, it still uses passivization to seemingly take credit for the action's of another. In his video address (left), Armstrong continues to use the passive voice when discussing Kyler Watkins alleged blackface to avert blame and to reframe his sentiments to favor "students, staff, and faculty of color" (2018). Armstrong opens by saying, “Actions were taken by fraternity members…” (2018). This passive construction helps to obscure the agents, Kyler Watkins and members of his fraternity, by lessening their focus and not naming them. Additionally, the passive voice allows President Armstrong to speak vaguely about the incident. The passive voice allows for this type of pragmatic ambiguity, defined by Walton (2019) as "ambiguous-in-context" (p. 22). The sentence would sound far more dispassionate and removed if it were active– fraternity members took actions. What actions were taken? And by which fraternity members? As Armstrong addresses those affected by the fraternity event, he adds, "To our students, staff, and faculty of color, you have especially been hurt by these incidents…” (2018). The passive voice frames the comment on the individuals of color experiencing pain and exclusion, rather than on the act itself. Armstrong frames his address around the experiences of community members alienated by these racially insensitive actions to convey his intent to repair damage to the campus's goals of diversity and inclusivity. |