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Robert Forkel edited this page Jun 30, 2021 · 19 revisions

Are causatives formed by affixes or clitics on verbs?

Summary

A causative is a valency increasing operation that introduces a causer core argument that makes a non-subject argument do or become something (e.g. ‘x eats’ -> ‘y feeds x’ = ‘y causes x to to eat’). Note that both causatives adding an argument to a transitive clause (I drink milk -> x causes me to drink milk) and those adding an argument to an intransitive clause (I sit -> x causes me to sit) are targeted by this question. This question targets productive, phonologically bound causative markers. Lexicalized causative verbs should be disregarded for this feature.

Procedure

  1. Code 1 if a source mentions a phonologically bound morpheme that marks causatives.
  2. Code 1 if there is no information on phonological (in)dependence but the relevant causative marker is orthographically bound to the verb. Add a comment that your analysis is based on orthography here.
  3. Code 1 if you identify a phonologically bound causative marker in the examples/texts provided in a source.
  4. Code 0 if a source mentions that there is no causative.
  5. Code 0 if a source mentions a periphrastic or phonologically independent causative construction, but not one marked with a bound marker.
  6. Code 0 if a grammar treats other valency changing operations in considerable depth but does not mention causative constructions.
  7. Code ? if there are examples that contain a potential causative construction but their analysis remains inconclusive.
  8. Code ? if there are no sources treating valency changing operations in the language or if treatment of them is very limited.

Examples

Ao Naga (ISO 639-3: njo, Glottolog: aona1235)

Ao Naga (or Chungli Ao, in the source) has a causative suffix, -taktsɨ, which can transitivize intransitive sentences, as well as add an additional role to an already transitive clause. Ao Naga is coded 1 for this feature.

a. (Intransitive > transitive)
   ni-i   la      tʃip-taktsɨ
   1SG-A  3SG.F   cry-CAUS
   ‘I made her cry.’ (Escamilla 2012: 55)

b. (Transitive > ditransitive)
   pa-i      la-nem      mapa   injak-takstsɨ
   3SG.M-A   3SG.F-nem   chore  do/work-CAUS
   ‘He made her do work.’ (Escamilla 2012: 55)

Barain (ISO 639-3: bva, Glottolog: bare1279)

Like other Chadic languages, Barain has fossilized remains of a system of intransitive-causative vowel alternation, which is no longer productive (Lovestrand 2012: 126–127). There is no other transitivizing morphology (although there is a passive, reflexive and reciprocal). Barain is coded as 0.

Further reading

Escamilla, Ramón M. 2012. An updated typology of causative constructions: Form-function mappings in Hupa (California Athabaskan), Chungli Ao (Tibeto-Burman) and beyond (PhD Thesis). Berkeley: University of California. (Doctoral dissertation.)

Haspelmath, Martin & Thomas Müller-Bardey. 2004. Valency change. In Geert E. Booij, Christian Lehmann, Joachim Mugdan & Stavros Skopeteas (eds), Morphology: An international handbook on inflection and word-formation (Vol. 2), 1130–1145. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

Zúñiga, Fernando & Seppo Kittilä. 2019. Grammatical voice (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

References

Escamilla, Ramón M. 2012. An updated typology of causative constructions: Form-function mappings in Hupa (California Athabaskan), Chungli Ao (Tibeto-Burman) and beyond (PhD Thesis). Berkeley: University of California. (Doctoral dissertation.)

Lovestrand, Joseph. 2012. The linguistic structure of Baraïn (Chadic). Dallas, TX: Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics. (MA thesis.)

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