Most, if not all, languages have specific or lexical causative forms (such as English rise → raise, lie → lay, sit → set).
[1] English has verb pairs such as rise and raise, eat and feed, see and show where one is essentially the causative correspondent of the other.
Verbs can be classified into four categories, according to how susceptible they are to morphological causativization:[7]: 4–11 This hierarchy has some exceptions, but it does generally hold true.
"make it start off")Some languages use a periphrastic (or analytic) construction to express causation and typically include two verbs and two clauses.
"[2]: 35–7 Other languages, such as Persian,[12] have the opposite syntax: the causative is in a subordinating clause and the main verb is in the main clause, as in the following example from Macushi: [imakui'pîbadkupîdoJesus-ya]Jesus-ERGemapu'tîCAUSyonpa-'pîtry-PASTmakui-yaSatan-ERGteurenFRUSTRATION[imakui'pî kupî Jesus-ya] emapu'tî yonpa-'pî makui-ya teurenbad do Jesus-ERG CAUS try-PAST Satan-ERG FRUSTRATION"Satan unsuccessfully tried to make Jesus do bad.
"[14]Canela-Krahô has a combination of the two in which the causee is marked twice, once in each clause: CapiCapitePAST[i-jōt1SG.S-sleepna]SUBORDi-to1SG.O-CAUSCapi te [i-jōt na] i-toCapi PAST 1SG.S-sleep SUBORD 1SG.O-CAUS"Capi made me sleep.
"The first example implies that Montezuma was physically there and was directly involved in making Cortés eat bread.
The second example implies that Montezuma was not physically there and arranged for something to happen to make Cortés eat bread, perhaps by killing all of his cattle.
Parameter 9, Involvement, cannot be included in the table because the only two languages with this distinction, Nomatsiguenga and Kamayurá, the morphemes are about the same length.
Since intransitive verbs have low valency, virtually any type of causative construction can apply to them productively within a language.
The subject is je, the direct object is une lettre, and the indirect object is directeur, so the original A is marked as an oblique: je1SG+NOMferaimake+FUT+1SGécrirewrite+INFunealettreletterauPREP+ARTdirecteurheadmasterparPREPJeanJeanje ferai écrire une lettre au directeur par Jean1SG+NOM make+FUT+1SG write+INF a letter PREP+ART headmaster PREP Jean"I will make Jean write a letter to the headmaster"While some writers have called this hierarchical causative construction the norm,[18]: 8 outside of Romance languages it is in fact rather rare.
The underlying phrase already contains an A, O, and indirect object, and so in order to accommodate a fourth argument, languages employ a variety of constructions.
The causal-final is a grammatical case in Hungarian (and Chuvash) expressing the meaning 'for the purpose of, for the reason that',[21]: 93 and denoting price asked of or paid for goods.
Many analysts (Comrie (1981), Song (1996), Dixon (2000) and others) have worked to tease apart what factors (semantic or otherwise) account for the distribution of causative constructions, as well as to document what patterns actually occur cross-linguistically.
Comrie usefully characterizes causative events in terms of two (or more) microevents perceived of composing a macroevent, and encoded in a single expression (of varying size and form).
Comrie's work is also noteworthy for having brought the notion of syntactic hierarchy to bear on the typology of causative constructions.
[23] Song therefore culls data from every language for which adequate documentation is available to him, and categorizes the various causative constructions gleaned therefrom into three classes: COMPACT, AND and PURP.
[23]: 35 This, in theory, could include larger, multi-clausal expressions of causal relations which many analysts probably would not label a 'causative construction', e.g.: 'It rained yesterday, so they stayed home', but the boundaries of the AND causative category are not discussed.
], given that few of the examples given in his discussion are lexical items, and most interpretations of "different types of causation incorporated in the verb root" are in fact wholly dependent on other morphosyntactic material in the clause.
Some overlap in the types of semantic information in play is immediately apparent, however: in cases of instrument causation ('the hammer broke the cup'), we would certainly expect the 'causer' to be acting directly [Dixon's criterion 6] and to be involved in the activity [criterion 9]; likewise, we would expect instances of caused agency to include more information on causee control on willingness [criteria 3 & 4].
For example, if there is a stative verb to be large, the causative will mean to enlarge, to make grow.
The reflexive form of the causative can then be used to mean to enlarge oneself, or even as a middle voice, to grow.
Roughly half affect only sentient beings: allow, block, cause, enable, force, get, help, hinder, hold, impede, keep, leave, let, make, permit, prevent, protect, restrain, save, set, start, stimulate, stop.
The others can affect either sentient or non-sentient beings: aid, bar, bribe, compel, constrain, convince, deter, discourage, dissuade, drive, have, hamper, impel, incite, induce, influence, inspire, lead, move, persuade, prompt, push, restrict, rouse, send, spur.
[25] In Sanskrit, there is a causative form of the verb (ṇijanta), which is used when the subject of a clause forces or makes the object perform an action.
[26] Haurrakchild.ERGkatuacat.ABShildieduAUX:3SG.3SGHaurrak katua hil duchild.ERG cat.ABS die AUX:3SG.3SG'The child killed the cat'Haurrakchild.ERGkatuacat.ABShilarazidie.CAUduAUX:3SG.3SGHaurrak katua hilarazi duchild.ERG cat.ABS die.CAU AUX:3SG.3SG'The child caused the cat to die'In addition to very productive morphological causatives, Turkish also has some lexical causatives: kır- "break", yırt- "split", dik- "plant", yak- "burn", sakla- "hide", aç- "open".
It is postulated that in Proto-Semitic, the causative verbal stem was formed by the š- prefix, which has become ʾa-, hi- or ī- in different languages.
However, if the object is marked in the dative case (ni), it expresses the idea that the causee was forced to perform the action.
While most languages uses their causative affix for derivational purposes, it has integrated to Malay verb inflection system.
"Derivational causatives use the -iish- morpheme, which can be applied to intransitives (3) or transitives (4):[36]: 164 Ábáanachildrenba-rá-ryáam-ye.they-PRES-sleep-ASPÁbáana ba-rá-ryáam-ye.children they-PRES-sleep-ASP"The children are sleeping.