Foreign learners of English usually find difficulties in the use and derivation of English passive voice constructions. Some of them find it difficult to put the passive verb in the right form or tense, while others may not recognise the different arguments of the verb: the subjects and the objects, in a passive sentence, or know when and where to use passive voice forms. The construction of the agentive by-phrase constitutes a further difficulty for foreign learners of English. Therefore, this dissertation seeks to study the semantic and syntactic aspects of both active and passive structures.

 In particular, this study focuses on the use/ function as well as the derivation of English passive voice constructions according to the transformational-generative approach, as developed by Chomsky (1981, 1986), known as the Government-Binding framework. This study aims to show the differences between the semantic and the syntactic properties of active and passive constructions in English. It helps readers understand the use and derivation of passive sentences and presents the steps, justification and rules involved in the derivation of the passive voice form according to this syntactic framework.