october 8, 2007 11-721: grammars and lexicons lori levin (examples from kroeger)
TRANSCRIPT
Causative sentences (English, periphrastic and lexical)
• English causative – periphrastic– John read the book.– Mary made John read the book.
• English causative – lexical – John died.– Mary killed John.– The boat sank.– The enemy sank the boat.
Causative sentences (Malayalam, lexical and morphological)
The lexical causative indicates direct causation. The morphological causative indicates indirect causation.
Outline
• Morphological causatives – Intransitive verbs– Transitive verbs
• Which argument is the object?
– Ditranstive verbs
• Semantic types of causation– Different causative constructions used for different
meanings
• Morphological and periphrastic causatives– One clause or two?– One subject or two?
Causative verbs
Play < agent > subj
Play-caus < causer causee > subj obj
Play-caus-pass < causer causee > obl subj
They are both agentsso we will call them causer and causee.
Swahili Causative
Cook < agent patient >
subj obj
Cook-caus < causer causee patient >
subj ???? ????
Which one is the OBJ?In (7) b, the object agreement marker “m” agrees with “girl, the causee.
The object agreement marker cannot agree with “door” as in (9).
Swahili Causative
give < agent recipient theme >
subj obj obj2
Cook-caus < causer causee patient >
subj obj obj2
Turkish Causative
give < agent recipient theme >
subj obj2/obl obj
Open-caus < causer causee theme >
subj obj2/obl obj
Malayalam causative, transitive verb
Causee is oblique:
pinch < agent patient > subj obj
pinch-caus < causer causee patient > subj obl obj
Causative of ditransitive verb
Give < agent recipient theme >
subj obl obj
Give-caus < causer causee recip theme >
subj obl dat obj
Semantic distinctions in causation
Direct and indirect causation
Coercion and permission
Manipulation and direction
Change in case marking indicates different type of causation.
Dative causee is manipulated. Instrumental causee is given direction to eat.
Case marking of causee
The dative causee has control. For example, she laughed because a movie director told her to. The accusative causee doesn’t have control. For example, Taroo told a joke and Hanako couldn’t help laughing.
One clause or two?
• Mary made John hit her.
• *Mary made John hit herself.
S
NP VP
Mary V S
made John hit her.
S
NP VP
Mary V NP VP
made John hit her.
Which tree is compatible with this rule and the two sentences above: A reflexive pronoun must have an antecedent in the same S.
One subject or two?
• Does the causee act like a subject?– You might think so because the noun phrase
with the same semantic role (agent) was the subject of the non-causative verb
Malayalam: causee is not a subjectIn Malayalam, only a subject can be an antecedent for a reflexive pronoun. The antecedent does not have to be in the same clause.