Passive Mentally Projecting Hypotactic Verbal Group Complex Serving As Existential Process

 

'Started Giving' As Verbal Process

the paranoid con man	started giving	orders	to the unpaid volunteers
Sayer	Process: verbal	Verbiage	Receiver

Receptive Attributive Clause

effective: receptive

he	was	said to be	a complete bastard	by those who knew him
Carrier	Process: relational		Attribute	Attributor
Subject	Finite	Predicator	Complement	Adjunct
Mood		Residue

cf. middle

he	was		a complete bastard	according to those who knew him
Carrier	Process: relational		Attribute	Angle: viewpoint
Subject	Finite	Predicator	Complement	Adjunct
Mood		Residue

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 349):

The way the voice system works is as follows.  A clause with no feature of ‘agency’ is neither active nor passive but middle. One with agency is non-middle, or effective, in agency. An effective clause is then either operative or receptive in voice. In an operative clause, the Subject is the Agent and the Process is realised by an active verbal group; in a receptive [clause] the Subject is Medium and the Process is realised by a passive verbal group.