The causative alternation

Abstract

This article discusses the transitivity alternation between lexical causative verbs and their anticausative (inchoative) counterparts. It provides an overview of the semantic, syntactic and morphological properties of verbs undergoing the causative alternation, thereby identifying their cross-linguistically stable core as well as the areas of variation among languages. The main theoretical lines of analysis proposed in the literature are introduced by an exemplary discussion of accounts within lexical and syntactic frameworks of word formation. The article serves as an introduction to the research on the causative alternation as it presents important results achieved in the earlier literature, but also touches upon more recent findings and their theoretical interpretation. Finally, it addresses the aspects that still await a conclusive analysis. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.