Acceso usuarios
Seppo Kittilä
Causativization is typically understood as a process that increases the valency of verbs via agent introduction. In addition, causatives have other functions, such as agentivization. Here, we examine even less orthodox functions of causative morphemes: cases in which causativization decreases the degree of transitivity associated with the denoted event - that is, the expressed function is the exact opposite of the canonical function. The expression of this function by causative morphemes becomes understandable if we consider the differences between agent-related and causer-related causation. In agent-related causation, the original clause involves no agent and agent introduction is thus complete (as in ‘the child broke the vase’). In the causer-related causation, agent introduction is less complete since the original event already involves an agent (‘I made him build a house’). The occurrence of transitivity-decreasing causatives is explained by referring to features of causerrelated causation. Moreover, the article proposes a grammaticalization path for de-transitivizing causatives based on instances of causer-related causation.
