Causative SE: A Transitive Analysis

Abstract

In this paper we offer an analysis of the so-called causative SE construction exemplified by sentences like Juan se afeita en la barbería (‘Juan gets a shave at the barbershop’). Even though these sentences look like ordinary reflexive constructions, the subject is not interpreted as an agent, but as a causer who initiates an event whose agent is implicit. For instance, in the sentence above, the barber is the agent of the shaving event, not Juan. We propose that this unique interpretation arises only in certain transitive configurations that involve change of state semantics and intrinsic reflexivity. This syntactic configuration, coupled with extra-linguistic knowledge about causal chains, accounts for the syntactic and semantic properties of causative SE constructions.