Causative

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In linguistics, a form of diathesis is called the causative (inducement word) . The causative is used to express that a first agent causes a second agent to perform an action. Some linguists differentiate more finely between causative (causing) and factitive (causing; not to be confused with the term factual ).

In numerous languages, for example Sanskrit , Estonian , the Altai languages ( e.g. Turkish ) and Semitic languages such as Hebrew and Arabic , the causative is an independent form of conjugation.

Causative in German

The German language has a morphological causative that is no longer productive and transparent, i.e. it is no longer possible to use it to create new forms in the modern language, and it is no longer perceived as a grammatical form by native speakers either. Examples:

Basic verb Causative
bite pickle
to bend bow
penetrate push
frighten (she frightened) frighten (she frightened him)
eat etching
drive to lead
fall felling
flow to infuse
recovered nourish
hang, older: hang (has / has hung) hang (has hung) and hang
Suffer conduct
lie lay
to swell (is swollen) to swell (has swelled)
run down run
drink (drown
suck suckle
swell (is swollen) swell (has swelled)
swing pan
swim flood
dwindle (waste
sink reduce
sit put
leap bust
rush dust
drink soak
squirm turn
to force forcing

The forms opposing the causative formation are always intransitive verbs in German (cf. valence alternation ).

The most important causative education in German is based on a common Germanic deverbal derivation. At the 2nd level of  ablaut (e.g. trank -) of a strong verb (in this example trink- ) with the suffix - jan - a new weakly inflected verb stem ( i.e. trank-jan- ) was formed. The later disappeared -j- results - as far as possible - in the umlaut of the stem syllable (tränk-) . In some of the ablaut classes, this 2nd level of ablaut was earlier than it is today, which is what the sounding of causatives such as pickling, which was derived from the original preterital ablaut / ei / (not like today / i /), or suckling, which was derived from the original preterital ablaut / ou / ( not how today / oː /) was derived, explained.

In some verbs - at least in the written or standard language, but often not in the dialects - the basic verb and the causative in the infinitive coincide aloud later, for example in "schmelzen" or "verderben", where the original Germanic / ë / of the basic verb and the primary umlaut / e / of the causative both have become / ɛ / in standard language. Where identical today verbs for both uses exist, they, however, often differ still in flexion ( scare stV. Intrans. Scare SWV. Trans.) Or differed in still in the older language ( melted intrans. Schmelzte trans or. spoiled intrans .: spoiled trans.). In the case of some verbs, the stem vowelism later collapsed in standard language (mostly but not dialect), but not the stem-closing consonant that was changed as a result of the j-infix, for example with "bite" vs. "Pickle" or "suffer" vs. “To lead”, where today's / ae / of the basic verb goes back to mhd. / Iː /, but today's / ae / of the causative goes back to mhd. / Ei /.

In certain cases the duality of the basic verb - causative has been lost because the basic verb has died out. To teach is indeed a causative (<germ. * Laisian, so attested from the Gothic), but the associated initial verb ( preteritopresens ) lais "I know" has disappeared in the course of language development.

The semantic connection is often still clear, compare drinking and drinking, where the latter still has the meaning of 'making a drink'. In other cases, the semantic context darkened over the course of language history. Etching originally meant 'making food', pickling (hawking hawks or dogs) originally 'making biting' and nourishing originally 'making recovery '. Conversely, suffering originally meant 'going', which in its causative guide, actually 'doing', still shimmers through.

Where a formal causative is not available, a causative can be constructed with causative verbs , i.e. with an auxiliary verb (do, let, force, cause) .

Causative in English

In English there are word pairs created in the same way as in German, for example drink: drench (German: "drink: durchnässen"; the latter etymologically identical with German "tränken"), fall: fell (German: "fall: fall"), lie: lay (German: "lie: to lay"), rise: raise (German: "stand up : to raise ") or sit: set (German: "to sit: to set").

These causatives, inherited from Old English, are contrasted with a large number of causatives in New English that no longer differ phonologically and morphologically from a basic verb. The only difference is the valence alternation. In some cases this is due to the fact that the basic verb later superseded the original causative, for example sink, which today is a strong verb that means both “to sink” and “to sink”, whereas the old causative sench has died out. Much more common, however, are those cases where originally only intransitive (strong) verbs later developed causative meanings. An example of this is grow, cf. The corn grows (German: "The corn grows") in contrast to The man grows corn (German: "The man grows corn ").

Causative in non-Indo-European languages

The Alta languages ​​as well as Estonian , Japanese and Korean have their own agglutination endings to form the causative case of a verb. In Japanese, the conjugation stage Mizenkei and the ending -seru or -saseru are used for this.

Causative in Japanese
conjugation verb Causative Example sentence
five-stage verb wear 持 つ
motsu 		持 た せ る
motaseru 		花子 は 健 児 に 鞄 を 持 た せ た.
Hanako wa Kenji ni kaban o motaseta. 		Hanako let Kenji carry the bag.
single-stage verb eat 食 べ る
taberu 		食 べ さ せ る
tabesaseru 		息 子 に 味噌 汁 を 食 べ さ せ た.
musuko ni misoshiru o tabesaseta. 		(I) forced my son to eat the miso soup .
Causative in Korean
conjugation verb Causative Example sentence
Intransitive verb rest 쉬다
swida 		쉬게 하다
swige hada 		어머니 가 아이 를 쉬게 했어요.
Ŏmŏni-ga ai-rŭl swige haessŏyo. 		The mother let the child rest.
Transitive verb write 쓰다
ssŭda 		쓰게 하다
ssŭge hada 		아버지 가 아이 에게 편지 를 쓰게 했어요.
Abŏji-ga ai-ege p'yŏnji-rŭl ssŭge haessoyo. 		The father forced the child to write a letter.

Web links

Wiktionary: causative  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations