Abstract
In this paper, I formulate and explain a number of universal generalizations about the formation of causative verbs (overtly marked verbs with causal meaning) and anticausative verbs (overtly marked verbs with noncausal meaning). Given the “spontaneity scale” of basic verb meanings (transitive > unergative > automatic unaccusative > costly unaccusative > agentful), we can say that verb pairs with a noncausal verb higher on the scale tend to be causative pairs, and verb pairs with a noncausal verb lower on the scale tend to be anticausative pairs. I propose that these generalizations can be subsumed under form-frequency correspondence: That transitive base verbs tend to form causatives (often analytic causatives) is because they rarely occur in causal contexts, and the fact that unaccusative verbs tend to be coded as anticausatives is because they frequently occur in causal contexts, and special marking is required for the rarer and less expected situation.
References
Amberber, Mengistu. 2000. Valency-changing and valency-encoding devices in Amharic. In Dixon, R. M. W. & Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. (eds.), Changing valency: Case studies in transitivity, 312-332. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Asher, R. E. & Kumari T. C. 1997. Malayalam. London: Routledge.
Austin, Peter K. 1997. Causatives and applicatives in Australian Aboriginal languages. In Matsumura, Kazuto & Hayashi, Tooru (eds.), The dative and related phenomena, 165-225. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.
Bybee, Joan L. & Perkins, Revere & Pagliuca, William. 1994. The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Cobbinah, Alexander & Lüpke, Friederike. 2009. Not cut to fit: Zero coded passives in African languages.In Brenzinger, Matthias & Fehn, Anne-Maria (eds.), Proceedings of the 6th World Congress of African Linguistics, 153-165. Cologne: Köppe.
Cole, Peter & Son, Min-Jeong. 2004. The argument structure of verbs with the suffix -kan in Indonesian. Oceanic Linguistics 43(2). 339-364.
Comrie, Bernard. 1975. Causatives and universal grammar. Transactions of the Philological Society 1974. 1-32.
Comrie, Bernard. 1989. Language universals and linguistic typology: Syntax and morphology. Oxford: Blackwell.
Comrie, Bernard. 2006. Transitivity pairs, markedness, and diachronic stability. Linguistics 44(2). 303-318.
Creissels, Denis. 2015. Valency properties of Mandinka verbs. In Malchukov, Andrej L. & Comrie, Bernard (eds.), Valency classes in the world’s languages: A comparative handbook, vol. 1, 221-259. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Croft, William. 1990. Possible verbs and the structure of events. In Tsohatzidis, Savas L. (ed.), Meanings and prototypes: Studies in linguistic categorization, 48-73. London: Routledge.
Croft, William. 2003. Typology and universals. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Davis, Henry. 2000. Salish evidence on the causative-inchoative alternation. In Dressler, Wolfgang U. (ed.), Morphological analysis in comparison, 25-60. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Dixon, Robert M. W. 1988. A grammar of Boumaa Fijian. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dixon, Robert M. W. 2000. A typology of causatives: Form, syntax and meaning. In Dixon, Robert M.W. & A ikhenvald, Alexandra Y. (eds.), Changing valency: Case studies in transitivity, 30-83. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Givón, T. 1990. Syntax: A functional-typological introduction. Vol. 2. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Haiman, John. 1983. Iconic and economic motivation. Language 59(4). 781-819.
Hale, Kenneth L. 2000. A Uto-Aztecan (’O’odham) reflection of a general limit on predicate argument structure. In Casad, Eugene H. & Willett, Thomas L. (eds.), Uto-Aztecan: Structural, temporal and geographic perspectives: Papers in memory of Wick R. Miller by the friends of Uto-Aztecan, 155-169. Hermosillo: Universidad de Sonora.
Hale, Kenneth L. & Keyser, Samuel J. 1987. A view from the middle. Cambridge, MA: MITWPL.
Hale, Kenneth L. & Keyser, Samuel J. 1993. On argument structure and the lexical expression of syntactic relations. In Hale, Kenneth L. & Keyser, Samuel J. (eds.), The view from Building 20: Essays in linguistics in honor of Sylvain Bromberger. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Haspelmath, Martin & Karjus, Andres. 2017. Explaining asymmetries in number marking: Singulatives, pluratives and usage frequency. Linguistics, to appear.
Haspelmath, Martin & the AP iCS Consortium. 2013. Passive constructions. In Michaelis, Susanne Maria & Maurer, Philippe & Haspelmath, Martin & Huber, Magnus (eds.), Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. http://apics-online.info/parameters/90. (Accessed 2017-02-15.)
Haspelmath, Martin & Calude, Andreea & Spagnol, Michael & Narrog, Heiko & Bamyacı, Elif. 2014. Coding causal-noncausal verb alternations: A form-frequency correspondence explanation. Journal of Linguistics 50(3). 587-625.
Haspelmath, Martin. 1987. Transitivity alternations of the anticausative type. (Arbeitspapiere des Instituts für Sprachwissenschaft N.F. Nr. 4). Cologne: Universität zu Köln.
Haspelmath, Martin. 1993. More on the typology of inchoative/causative verb alternations. In Comrie, Bernard & Polinsky, Maria (eds.), Causatives and transitivity, 87-120. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Haspelmath, Martin. 2008. Frequency vs. iconicity in explaining grammatical asymmetries. Cognitive Linguistics 19(1). 1-33.
Haspelmath, Martin. 2011a. The gradual coalescence into “words” in grammaticalization. In Narrog, Heiko & H eine, Bernd (eds.), The Oxford handbook of grammaticalization, 342-355. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Haspelmath, Martin. 2011b. The indeterminacy of word segmentation and the nature of morphology and syntax. Folia Linguistica 45(1). 31-80.
Haspelmath, Martin. 2015a. Transitivity prominence. In Malchukov, Andrej L. & Comrie, Bernard (eds.), Valency classes in the world’s languages: A comparative handbook, vol. 1, 131-147. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Haspelmath, Martin. 2015b. Descriptive scales versus comparative scales. In Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Ina & Malchukov, Andrej L. & Richards, Marc (eds.), Scales and hierarchies: A cross-disciplinary perspective, 45-58. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Haspelmath, Martin. 2017. Explaining alienability contrasts in adpossessive constructions: Predictability vs. iconicity. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 36(2). 193-231.
Haspelmath, Martin. 2018a. Explaining grammatical coding asymmetries, to appear.
Haspelmath, Martin. 2018b. Revisiting the anasynthetic spiral. In Heine, Bernd & Narrog, Heiko (eds.), Grammaticalization and language typology, to appear.
Howard, Harry. 2001. Negentropic causation vs. entropic inchoation. In Silva, A.S. (ed.), Linguagem e cognição: A perspectiva da linguística cognitiva, 401-421. Braga: AP L/UCP, Faculdade de Filosofia de Braga. (http://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/GiwZjgwO)
Kazenin, Konstantin I. 1994. On the lexical distribution of agent-preserving and object-preserving transitivity alternations. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 17(02). 141-154.
Kulikov, Leonid I. 1993. The “second causative”: A typological sketch. In Comrie, Bernard & Polinsky, Maria (eds.), Causatives and transitivity, 121-154. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Kulikov, Leonid I. 1998a. Causative constructons in Tuvinian: Towards a typology of transitivity. In Johanson, Lars (ed.), The Mainz Meeting: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Turkic Linguistics, 258-264. (Turcologica 32). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Kulikov, Leonid I. 1998b. Passive, anticausative and classification of verbs: The case of Vedic. In Kulikov, Leonid I. & Vater, Heinz (eds.), Typology of verbal categories: Papers presented to Vladimir Nedjalkov on the occasion of his 70th birthday, 139-154. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Kulikov, Leonid. 2013. Constraints on the causative derivation in early Vedic: Evidence for a diachronic typology of transitivity. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 49(1). 79-101.
Lazard, Gilbert. 2002. Transitivity revisited as an example of a more strict approach in typological research. Folia Linguistica 36(3-4). 141-190.
Lehmann, Christian. 2016. Latin causativization in typological perspective. In Poccetti, Paolo (ed.), Latinitatis rationes: Descriptive and historical accounts for the Latin language, 917-943. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Levin, Beth & Rappaport Hovav, Malka. 1995. Unaccusativity: At the syntax-lexical semantics interface. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Levshina, Natalia. 2016. Finding the best fit for direct and indirect causation: a typological study. Lingua Posnaniensis 58(2). 65-82.
Malchukov, Andrej L. 2016. “Ambivalent voice”: Markedness effects in valency change. In Kageyama, Taro & Jacobsen, Wesley M. (eds.), Transitivity and valency alternations: Studies on Japanese and beyond, 389-422. (Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs, 297). Berlin: De Gruyter.
Nau, Nicole. 2015. Morphological causatives in contemporary Latvian. In Holvoet, Axel & Nau, Nicole (eds.), Voice and argument structure in Baltic, 99-145. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Nedjalkov, Vladimir P. & Sil’nickij, Georgij G. 1969. Tipologija morfologičeskogo i leksičeskogo kauzativov [Typology of morphological and lexical causatives]. In Xolodovič, Aleksandr A. (ed.), Tipologija kauzativnyx konstrukcij [Typology of causative constructions], 20-60. Moskva: Nauka. (English translation: Nedyalkov & Silnitsky 1973)
Nedjalkov, Vladimir P. 1966. Ob areal’nyx universalijax (na materiale kauzativnyx glagolov) [Concerning areal universals (on the material of causative verbs)]. In: Konferencija po problemam izučenija universal’nyx i areal’nyx svojstv jazyka: Tezisy, 55-58. Moskva: Nauka.
Nedjalkov, Vladimir P. 1969. Nekotorye verojatnostnye universalii v glagol’nom slovoobrazovanii. [Some probabilistic universals in verbal word-formation.] In Vardul’, I.F. (ed.), Jazykovye universalii i lingvističeskaja tipologija, 106-114. Moskva: Nauka.
Nedyalkov, Vladimir P. & Silnitsky, Georgy G. 1973. The typology of morphological and lexical causatives. In Kiefer, Ferenc (ed.), Trends in Soviet theoretical linguistics, 1-32. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Nichols, Johanna & Peterson, David A. & Barnes, Jonathan. 2004. Transitivizing and detransitivizing languages. Linguistic Typology 8(2). 149-211.
Perlmutter, David M. 1978. Impersonal passives and the unaccusative hypothesis. Proceedings of the 4th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 157-189. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society.
Plank, Frans & Lahiri, Aditi. 2015. Macroscopic and microscopic typology: Basic Valence Orientation, more pertinacious than meets the naked eye. Linguistic Typology 19(1). 1-54.
Rice, Keren. 2000. Voice and valency in the Athapaskan family. In Dixon, R.M.W. & Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. (eds.), Changing valency: Case studies in transitivity, 173-235. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shibatani, Masayoshi & Pardeshi, Prashant. 2002. The causative continuum. In Shibatani, Masayoshi (ed.), The grammar of causation and interpersonal manipulation, 85-126. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Shibatani, Masayoshi. 2016. The role of morphology in valency alternation phenomena. In Kageyama, Taro & Jacobsen, Wesley M. (eds.), Transitivity and valency alternations: Studies on Japanese and beyond, vol. 297, 445-478. (Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs). Berlin: De Gruyter.
Song, Jae Jung. 1996. Causatives and causation: A universal-typological perspective. London: Longman.
Suttles, Wayne P. 2004. Musqueam reference grammar. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Velázquez-Castillo, Maura. 2002. Guaraní causative constructions. In Shibatani, Masayoshi (ed.), The grammar of causation and interpersonal manipulation, 507-534. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Wright, Saundra K. 2001. Internally caused and externally caused change of state verbs. Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University.
License
Copyright (c) 2016 Martin Haspelmath
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.