<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type">
<title></title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffcc" text="#660000">
<font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">hi Suzanne,<br>
<br>
Classical Greek had a way of forming certain causatives using
δίδωμι /didōmi/ 'give'.<br>
It was mostly used in poetry and in prayers, and not very
productive in prose. <br>
<br>
The typical meaning was '<u>Let</u> me [survive…]', '<u>Allow</u>
me to [speak…]', and would normally have a benefactive meaning
for the causee. <br>
<br>
However, occasionally one finds examples of what you may want to
describe as "strict causation":<br>
</font></font>
<blockquote><font color="#000066" size="+1"><font face="Book
Antiqua">θεοὶ <b>δοῖέν</b>
ποτ᾽ αὐτοῖς παθεῖν</font></font><font
color="#000066"><br>
</font><font color="#000066" size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">theoi
do-i-en =pot(e) autois
path-ein</font></font><small><font color="#000066"><br>
</font><font color="#000066" size="+1"><small><font face="Book
Antiqua">gods:Nom give-Optative-3pl someday
Dative:3pl suffer-Infinitive</font></small></font><br>
<font size="+1"><small><font face="Book Antiqua"> </font></small></font></small>
<font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">“May the gods someday
make them suffer!”<br>
</font></font> [liter. <big>May the gods <u>give</u> them to
suffer</big>]<br>
</blockquote>
<font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">The structure corresponds
to a formula: <br>
</font></font>
<div align="center"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">[
Causer:NOM V(of causation) Causee:DAT V
(infinitive) ] </font></font><br>
</div>
<font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua"><br>
The citation is from Sophocles, <i>Philoktetes</i> 316; it is
cited by Liddell & Scott (<a
href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Ddi%2Fdwmi">this
page</a>, under <i>§III</i> ‘grant, bring about’).<br>
<br>
best,<br>
Alex</font></font><small><small><font size="+1"><small><small><font
face="Book Antiqua"><br>
</font></small></small></font></small></small>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72"><small><small>--
Dr Alex FRANÇOIS
LACITO - CNRS, France
2009-2012: Visiting Fellow
Dept of Linguistics
School of Culture, History and Language
Australian National University
ACT 0200, Australia
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://alex.francois.free.fr">http://alex.francois.free.fr</a></small></small></pre>
<hr size="2" width="100%">On 29/03/2012 2:09 AM, Suzanne Kemmer
wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:99E466E9-0AF8-4D3F-B20E-330C6AEB2658@rice.edu"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Hi all,
I have been queried about something I wrote a long time ago, and I did not
document the facts well enough to easily find more examples of a particular kind.
Does anyone know of any languages in which the causative verb in an analytic causative construction
is a verb literally meaning 'give'? The example I came across in fieldwork and mentioned in my
paper with Arie Verhagen is: Luo MIYO 'give' which is used as an analytic causative verb.
The easiest way to sum up the analytic causative construction I am talking about
is: [ Causer V(of causation) Causee V (Patient) ] .
Examples include English 'I made her laugh' and the French FAIRE causative.
Case marking/grammatical relations of the participants can vary across languages; word order can vary. The second verb - the
one with the variable lexical content, which expresses a predicate of result in this construction -- may or may not be finite, and if non-finite may or may not have an infinitive marker.
The range of meanings of the construction should include 'X made Y do something'/ 'X caused Y to do something'.
The reason:
I am aware that some languages do not sharply distinguish 'strict causation' from
other force dynamic configurations like allowing or ordering; such meanings are often found with such constructions as well as 'strict causation'.
'Strict causation', which I have often been told is the only interpretation of such constructions that is typologically relevant, means causation
as logicians define it: The caused predicate follows the causing predicate (or its associated specific action) in time; and, supposedly, it would not have taken place had not X done something unspecified that is expressed schematically by the causing predicate.
Since many linguists are most interested in this 'logical' causation, I wanted to make sure examples of the construction include the meaning 'make Y do'. Not just 'let Y do', 'order Y to do' , etc.
Thanks for any help!
Suzanne Kemmer
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">
</pre>
</body>
</html>