Most definitions of the active voice I've come across define it as a sentence where the subject is the agent of an action verb, and some definitions state that the verb must be transitive and requires an object. But there are only two voices in English, so in what voice are sentences that use state verbs or copulas?
For example:
I belong to a gym.
She is a good teacher.
The grapes need eating.
The patient underwent surgery this morning.
Or is this just one of those things where the issue is simply more complex than commonly explained? Perhaps it is that by 'agent' we do not necessarily mean the 'actor' as would be necessitated by an action verb. State verbs also have an agent, in the sense that the subject experiences or is in a certain state. Similarly, with copulas the subject has agency in as much as it receives the attributes in the subject complement.
I teach ESL and I need a way of explaining this concept that does not lead to confusion, but I also want to be sure that my explanation is linguistically accurate.
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