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All languages have ways to express causation, but differ in the means. Most, if not all languages have lexical causative forms (such as English riseraise, lielay, sitset). Some languages also have morphological devices (such as inflection) that change verbs into their causative forms, or adjectives into verbs of becoming. Other languages employ periphrasis, with idiomatic expressions or auxiliary verbs. There also tends to be a link between how "compact" a causative device is and its semantic meaning[2].

Note that the prototypical English causative is make, rather than cause. Linguistic terms traditionally are given names with a Romance root, which has led some to believe that cause is the more prototypical. While cause is a causative, it carries some lexical meaning (it implies direct causation) and is less common than make. Also, while most other English causative verbs require a to complement clause (e.g. "My mom caused me to eat broccoli"), make does not (e.g. "My mom made me eat broccoli"), at least when not being used in the passive.[2]:36–7



S, A, and O are terms used in morphosyntactic alignment to describe arguments in a sentence. The subject of an intransitive verb is S, the agent of a transitive verb is A, and the object of a transitive is O. Note that these terms are technically not abbreviations (anymore) for "subject", "agent", and "object", though they can usually be thought of that way. Note that P is often used instead of O in many works.








Lexical causatives are common in the world's languages. There are three kinds of lexical causatives, the unifying factor being that the idea of causation is part of the semantics of the verb itself.[1]:177 (Note that English, for example, employs all three of these kinds of lexical causatives.)

On the surface, lexical causatives look essentially the same as a regular transitive verb. There are a few reasons why this is not true. The first is simply that transitive verbs generally do not have an intransitive counterpart but lexical causatives do. The semantics of the verbs show the difference as well. A regular transitive verb implies a single event while a lexical causative implies a realization of an event:[6]:511



One word[edit]

Main article: Causative alternation



(1a) Mary (S) is knitting.

This type of ambitransitive does not show a causative relationship.


(2a) The milk (S) spilled.


(3a) John (S) tripped.

Other examples of this type include trip, explode, melt, dissolve, walk, and march. It is this type of ambitransitive verb that is considered a causative[2].:38 This is given some anecdotal evidence in that to translate (3b) above into languages with morphological causatives, a morpheme would need to be attached to the verb.


Irregular stem change[edit]


Two words[edit]





Process Basic Verb Causative Form Language
vowel lengthening mar 'die' ma:r 'kill' Kashmiri
prefix gǝbba 'enter' a-gǝbba 'insert' Amharic


Verbs can be classified into four categories, according to how susceptible they are to morphological causativization:[5]:4–11

  1. Inactive intransitives (faint)
  3. Active intransitives (work)
  4. Transitive verbs (carry)

This hierarchy has some exceptions, but it does generally hold true. For example, given a text of Guarani, only about 16% of causatives apply to transitives.[5]:5 For some languages, it may not apply to transitive verbs productively and may only apply to verbs that denote abstract action or consumption of food. Additionally, within Athabaskan family, all languages can causativize inactive intransitives, but not all of them can causativize active intransitives or even transitives.[5]:5

Two verbs in one predicate[edit]

A number of languages involve a form of analytic causative which involves two verbs in a single predicate. This occurs in French, Spanish, Italian, and Catalan.[2]:35 For example, when French faire is used as a causative, the causee noun phrase cannot occur between it and the next verb.[8]

je ferai manger les gâteaux à Jean
"I shall make Jean eat the cakes." [2]:35

Note that unlike most other Romance languages, Portuguese employs a periphrastic construction like English, discussed below.

Kiowa employs a similar mechanism. Verbs can be compounded with the transitive verb ɔ́m to create a causative:[9]


Periphrastic constructions[edit]

Some languages use a periphrastic (or analytic) construction in order to express causation. This typically includes two verbs and two clauses. English causatives prototypically use make (though other verbs such as cause, order, allow, force, compel can be used) in the main clause with the lexical verb in a subordinate clause, as in "I made him go." [2]:35–7

Other languages, such as Persian[10]have the opposite syntax: the causative is in a subordinating clause and the main verb is in the main clause. The following example from Macushi shows this:

"Satan unsuccessfully tried to make Jesus do bad."[12]

Canela-Krahô has a combination of the two, where the causee is marked twice, once in each clause:

Capi te [i-jōt na] i-to
"Capi made me sleep."[13]

Portuguese also has a periphrastic construction like English, unlike most other Romance languages:

Eu fiz José comer os bolos
1sg make+PAST+1sg Name eat+INFIN the cakes
"I made José eat the cakes."[14]

Analytic causatives are sometimes not considered to be valency increasing devices, though semantically they can be interpreted to be[1].:181



(a) Parameters that relate to the verb itself


Relationship between devices and semantics[edit]

Animacy of the object[edit]



  1. "I made the tree fall."
  2. "I made the chicken die."
  4. "I felled the tree."
  5. "I killed the chicken."
  6. "I raised the cup to my lips."



  1. "He caused them to lie down."
  2. "He laid them down."


Finite and non-finite verbs[edit]


(a) Moctezuma hizo comer pan a Cortez.
M. CAUS:3SG:PERF eat:INF bread DAT C.
"Montezuma made Cortez eat bread."
(b) Moctezuma hizo que Cortez comiera pan.
M. CAUS:3SG:PERF that C. eat:3SG:SUB bread
"Montezuma made Cortez eat bread."

The first example implies that Montezuma was physically there and was directly involved in the making Cortez eat bread. The second example implies that Montezuma was not physically there and arranged for something to happen to make Cortez eat bread, perhaps by killing all of his cattle. Therefore, at least in Spanish, a conjugated verb implies a more direct causation.[1]:185

Dixon's prototypes[edit]


Parameter Meaning Mechanism Language
Causative type 1 Causative type 2 Causative type 1 Causative type 2
1 state action M1 M2 Amharic
M P Bahasa Indonesian, Malay
intransitive and simple transitive ditransitive M P Basque, Abkhaz
3 causee lacking control causee having control L M Japanese
M1 M2 Creek
4 causee willing causee unwilling M1 M2 Swahili
M CP Tangkhul Naga
M P Swahili
5 causee partially affected causee fully affected M1 M2 Tariana
6 direct indirect M1 M2 Nivkh, Apalaí, Hindi, Jingpaw
M P Buru, Chrau, Alamblak, Mixtec, Korean
7 intentional accidental M CP Kammu
P M plus P Chrau
8 naturally with effort L M Fijian
L P English
M P Russian, Tariana



Summarizing the table, Dixon has givem two prototypes for causatives:[2]:77

Prototype 1
  • Causer achieves the result natural, intentionally, and directly
  • Less transitive verbs affected
Prototype 2
  • Causee is in control but unwilling and is completely affected.
  • More likely to apply to all types of verbs










Causative of a transitive [2]:48–56
type causer original A (causee) original O languages
(i) A special marking O Nivkh, Telugu
(v) A non-core O many languages

Within type (v) there are two main subtypes. Either the original A goes into the first empty slot in a hierarchy or it goes always goes takes a certain function.[2]:54


subject > direct object > indirect object > oblique > genitive > object of comparison.[16]


je ferai courir Jean
1SG+NOM make+FUT+1SG run+INF Jean
"I will make Jean run."


je ferai manger les gâteaux à Jean
"I will make Jean eat the cakes."

This final French example has a ditransitive verb. The subject is je, the direct object is un lettre, and the indirect object is directeur, so the original A is marked as an oblique:

je ferai écrire une lettre au directeur par Jean
"I will make Jean write a letter to the headmaster"

While some writers have called this hierarchical causative construction the norm,[16]:8 outside of Romance languages it is in fact rather rare.[2]:54


Further divisions of type (v)[2]:55
causer original A (causee) original O languages
A dative O Sanuma, Apalai, Kamaiurá, Turkish, Japanese
A instrumental O Hungarian, Kannada, Marathi
A locative O Some languages of Daghestan
A allative O West Greenlandic Eskimo
A adessive O The morphological causative in Finnish.
A possessive O Tsez



Double causatives[edit]

Double causatives, or a causative of a causative, are generally rare in natural speech. Some types of causative constructions essentially do not permit double causatives, e.g. it would be difficult to find a lexical double causative. Periphrastic causatives however, have the potential to always be applied iteratively (Mom made Dad make my brother make his friends leave the house.).

For morphological causatives, some language do not allow single morpheme to be applied twice on a single verb (Jarawara) while others do (Capanawa, Hungarian, Turkish, Kabardian, Karbi), though sometimes with an idiomatic meaning (Swahili's means force to do and Oromo's carries an intensive meaning). Other languages, such as Nivkh, have two different morphological mechanisms that can apply to a single verb. Others still have one morpheme that applies to intransitives, and another to transitives (Apalai, Guarani). Note that all of these examples apply to underlying intransitive verbs, yielding a ditransitive verb. So far, there has yet been any reliable data for a morphological double causative of a transitive verb, resulting in a verb with four arguments.[2]:59–61

Other topics[edit]

Causative (repetitive)[edit]


'utuˑ -lsaˑ -unhoˑ
play music CAUS AGENTIVE
"one who makes (people) play music repeatedly"

Note that this implies a single act by the causer, but multiple acts by the causee.[17]

Causative voice[edit]



Tanaka-kun ga atsume-ru
name NOM collect-PRES
"Tanaka collects them."
Tanaka-kun ni atsume-sase-yō
name DAT collect-CAUS-COHORT
"Let's get Tanaka to collect them."
kodom ga hon o yom-u
children NOM book ACC read-PRES
"Children read books."
kodomo ni hon o yom-aseru
children DAT book ACC read-CAUS-PRES
"(They) make children read books."

Causal case[edit]

The causal or causative case (abbreviated CAUS) is a grammatical case that indicates that the marked noun is the cause or reason for something. It is found in the Dravidian language Telugu and the Native South American language Quechua. As well, it is to be found in Indo-European Tocharian 'B'.

Cause-final case[edit]

The causal-final is a grammatical case in Hungarian (and Chuvash) expressing the meaning 'for the purpose of, for the reason that',[18]:93 and denoting price asked of or paid for goods.[18]:116 It is formed by adding the ending suffix -ért to the end of the noun, e.g. kenyér "bread" >kenyérért "for bread", e.g. elküldtem a boltba kenyérért "I sent him to the store for bread".[18]:115 It is not affected by vowel harmony in Hungarian.[18]:111



Shibatani[5] lists three criteria for entities and relations that must be encoded in linguistic expressions of causation:






  • subject > direct object > indirect object > oblique > genitive




Song employs the following terminology:

  • [Scause] – the clause which denotes a causing event
  • [Seffect] – the clause which denotes the caused event
  • [Vcause] – verbal elements of [Scause]
  • [Veffect]- verbal elements of [Seffect][20]:20

The major differences between Song’s analysis and Comrie (1981) and Dixon (2000), is that Song lumps the range of lexical and morphological causatives together under the label COMPACT,[20]:20 in which [Vcause] can be “less than a free morpheme” (e.g., bound morpheme [prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix, reduplication], zero-derivation, suppletion); or “a free morpheme”,[20]:28 in which [Vcause] and [Veffect] form a single grammatical unit. I[who?] note that most of the examples given look like serial verb constructions, and no in-depth analysis is undertaken for some of the constructions in which [Vcause] and [Veffect] are less formally contiguous. Song notes this non-contiguity, but does not undertake to explain why it might be important.





  • autonomous events (non-causative) The vase broke.
  • instrument causation A ball broke the vase.
  • self-agentive causation I walked to the store.






In Proto-Germanic, the parent language of the Germanic dialects including English, causative verbs are formed by adding a suffix -j/ij- to the past-tense ablaut of a strong verb, with Verner's Law voicing applied. (All of these characteristics derive from the way that causative verbs are formed in Proto-Indo-European, with an accented -éy- suffix added to the o-grade of a non-derived verb.) Examples:


In English, to sit / to seat : to settle, and in German, sitzen/setzen : stehen/stellen form pairs of causatives/resultatives.


English employs various causative mechanisms with varying degrees of productivity. There are a large number of lexical causatives such as kill, open, widen, and feed.[5]:2

Additionally, there are several morphemes that can express causation. -(i)fy can be thought of as a causative in that it is a derivation that turns an adjective or noun into a "verb of becoming":

  • simplesimplify = "to make simple", "to cause (sthg.) to become simple"
  • objectobjectify = "to make into an object", "to cause (sthg.) to become an object" (figuratively, that is)

en- can also be a causative. In English adjectives (or stative verbs in other languages) the acquisition of a quality, or changes of state, can be expressed with causatives in the same way as with regular verbs. For example, if there is a stative verb to be large, the causative will simply mean to enlarge, to make grow. The reflexive form of this causative can then be used to mean to enlarge oneself, or even as a middle voice, to grow.

As far as lexical causatives are concerned, English has at least 49 causative verbs. 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—while 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.[22]


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. The causative suffix -ay is attached to the verbal root (this may cause vowel sandhi to take place).

  • bhū "to be, exist" → bhāv-ay; e. g. bhāvayati "he causes to be"
  • khad "to eat" → khād-ay; e. g. khādayāmi "I cause to eat" = "I feed"


In Persian, causative form of the verb is made by adding ân(i)dan to the present stem:



In Lithuanian, causative form of the verb is made by adding suffix -in- to the present stem:



The topic of causatives has not been studied much for Latin, primarily due to its lack of productive morphological causative.[4]:2

Hindi and Urdu[edit]

Hindi and Urdu use the infix "-(l)ā-" and -(l)vā-" to render verbs causative.

  • karnā "to do" → karānā "to have done" → "karvānā" → "to have s.o. make s.o. do."
  • paṛhnā "to read" → parhānā "to make s.o. read" → "paṛhvānā" "to cause s.o. to make s.o. read."
  • hilnā "to move" → hilānā "to have moved" → hilvānā "to have s.o. make move."
  • pīnā "to drink" → pilānā "to have s.o. drink" → pilvānā "to have s.o. make s.o. drink" e.g.: "Usne naukrānī se bachchõ-ko pānī pilvāyā" - "She had the maid make the kids drink water."


In addition to very productive morphological causatives, Turkish also has some lexical causatives: kir- "break", yurt- "split", dil- "plant", yak- "burn", sakla- "hide", ac- "open".[5]:2


In most Semitic languages there is a causative form of the verb. It is postulated that in Proto-Semitic the causative verbal stem was formed by the š- prefix, and this has become ʾa-, hi- or ī- in different languages.

  • Hebrew: ṣaħak "he laughed" → hiṣħik "he made sb. laugh"


  • ʿalima "he knew" → ʿallama "he taught"

The ʾa- form (Form IV), while used in Modern Standard Arabic, is no longer productive in many of the colloquial varieties of Arabic, which uniformly prefer Form II.


Japanese has a morphological device to signify causation. A large number of verbs undergo internal change in various semi-regular patterns between intransitive forms and causative transitive forms.

  • magaru "to turn" → mageru "to bend"
  • kowareru "to be broken" → kowasu "to (cause to) break"
  • kaeru "to go back" → kaesu "to send back"[citation needed]



Khmer has six prefixes and one infix to derive the causative form of verbs, although they vary in frequency and productiveness. The consonantal prefix p- is one of these affixes.

  • coap "joined" → pcoap "to join"
  • cum "around" → pcum "to gather"

Uralic languages[edit]


Causative forms are also found in the Uralic languages of Europe, such as Finnish.

  • syödä "to eat" → syöttää "to feed"
  • täysi "full" → täyttää "to fill"
  • haihtua "to evaporate" → haihduttaa "to vaporize"

Notice that the causative suffix is often used irregularly and/or because of historical reasons, e.g. Finnish:

  • kirja- ancient "patterns (of embroidery or text)", but modern "book" → kirjoittaa "to write" ("transform into patterns of text"), not "to transform into books"


Hungarian marks the original subject of an intransitive differently in causative forms to convey direct causation. If the causee is marked by the accusative case, it implies a more direct causation than the instrumental case.[2]:45–6



In the Māori language of New Zealand, the whaka- prefix can be added to a verb, for example:


Philippine languages[edit]


  • dakkel "big (adj)" → padakkelen "to enlarge" (Ilokano)


In Guaraní, an Amerindian language, there are three causatives, one for transitive and two for intransitive verbs.[23] In some texts the first one is called "coactive".[24]



The mbo- prefix is added to intransitive oral verbs, and mo- to nasal verbs:[23][24]

  • puka[25] "to laugh" → mbopuka "to make (someone) laugh"
  • guata[25] "to walk" → mboguata "to guide"
  • pu'ã[25] "to go up" → mopu'ã "to elevate"

The guero- (rero- or just ro-) prefix can also be added to intransitive verbs. It has a comitative meaning, translating roughly as "to cause something or someone to participate in an action with the subject":[26]


Notice that the same root (guata) can take both causatives, but take on different meanings.


Classical Nahuatl has a well-developed morphological system of expressing causation by means of the suffix -tia:

  • tlacua "he eats" → quitlacualtia "he feeds him/her/it" the causative makes the intransitive verb "eat something" into the bitransitive verb "feed someone something", requiring a pronominal prefix, in this case qui- "him/her/it")

Causativity is often used in honorific speech in Nahuatl, where rather than simply "doing" the honored person "causes himself to do".[27]


Rice makes the following points about morphological causatives in Athabaskan:[28]:212

  • In all Athabaskan languages surveyed [including Hupa, for which an ample data set is presented], the causativizing morphology can causativize at least some intransitive verbs with patientive subjects."[28]:200–2
  • For intransitive verbs with agentive patients, the family shows a split: only some languages allow morphological causativization in this case.[28]:208
  • Koyukon (Northern Athabaskan; Alaska) was found to be the only language in the survey allowing productive morphological causativization of transitive verbs."[28]:211
  • Perhaps the presence of the direct object pronoun in the causative construction has something to do with whether the causee is human or animate, or capable of being regarded as such. When the causee or the verb cannot be or is not perceived as a potential controller, then the pronoun is not found [in the Athabaskan languages surveyed].[citation needed]

The semantic factor of causee control; that is, the degree of control that that causee wields over the effecting of the caused microevent (also discussed as parameter #3 on Dixon’s (2000:62) list), and which Rice (2001) finds to be a major factor in other Athabaskan causatives, helps account for quite a bit of the distribution of the Hupa syntactic causative (below).



While Golla does not generalize about the semantics of verb themes that are compatible with causative ƚ-, several preliminary generalizations can be made. First of all, in the three cases described by Golla, O [the undergoer] is neither controlling nor agentive; O is largely patientive in all cases. Second, the causer appears to be acting directly on O. Third, none of the examples given (including the examples above, of course) involve the causativization of a base-transitive theme.


Mithun (2000) lists nine causatives for Central Alaskan Yup'uk and describes each in detail.[29]:98–102 The following is a brief description of each:

Morpheme Approximate meaning
-te- 'let, allow, cause, compel'
-nar- 'cause'
-rqe- 'intentionally or deliberately cause'
-cetaar- 'try to cause'
-narqe- 'tend to cause'
-naite- 'tend not to cause'
-cir- 'let, wait for, make'

Bantu languages[edit]




children they-PST-go-ASP
"The children left."
"The man caused the children to go.

With -túm-, the original S remains in the embedded clause and the original verb is still marked for person and tense:[30]:161–2

I-PST-write-ASP letters many
"I wrote many letters.
"The girl caused me to write many letters."

Derivational causatives use the -iish- morpheme, which can be applied to intransitives (3) or transitives (4):[30]:164

children they-PRES-sleep-ASP
"The children are sleeping."
woman she-sleep-CAUS-ASP children
"The woman is putting the children to sleep."
children they-PRES-read-ASP books
"The children are reading the books."
man he-PRES-read-CAUS-ASP children books
"The man is making the children read the books."




Another direct causation maker is -y- which is used for some verbs:[30]:167

water it-PRES-be warm-ASP
"The water is being warmed."
woman she-PRES-warm-CAUS-ASP water
"The woman is warming the water."
"The man is having the woman warm the water.




  • morti "to die" → mortigi "to kill"


  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae Dixon, R.M.W. 2000. “A typology of causatives: form, syntax and meaning”. In Dixon & Aikhenvald (2000)[3] p. 30–83.
  12. ^ Abbot, M. (1991). "Macushi" pp. 40 in Derbyshire & Pullum (1991)[11]
  23. ^ a b c Sebastian Nordhoff: Nomen/Verb-Distinktion im Guarani, ISSN 1615-1496, version in the internet (German)(downloaded 17. October 2012)
  24. ^ a b Description of the language (German) (downloaded 19. September 2012.)
  25. ^ a b c Dictionary (German) (downloaded 19. September 2012)
  28. ^ a b c d Rice, Keren. 2000. “Voice and valency in the Athabaskan family”. In Dixon & Aikhenvald (2000) [3]
  29. ^ Mithun, Marianne. (2000). "Valency-changing derivation in Central Alaskan Yup'ik". In Dixon & Aikhenvald (2000)[3]

Further reading[edit]

General reading[edit]


Causatives of a specific language[edit]


External links[edit]