Lexical Causatives Through Conversion AND Productive Morphological Causatives

[Alexander Letuchiy]

Dear Chao,
I think there are many languages like this. For instance, West Caucasian languages like Adyghe, Cabardian, Abkhaz, Abaza have both ambitransitive verbs (verbs that can be both transitive and intransitive) and a productive lexical causative marker. The same is true for at least many of Nakh-Daghestanian languages, Chukchee (though in this language, ambitransitivity is not so widespread), and some others.
Alexander Letuchiy, Moscow

Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2014 08:53:08 -0400
From: chao.li at AYA.YALE.EDU
Subject: Lexical Causatives Through Conversion AND Productive Morphological Causatives
To: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG

Dear Colleagues,

I was wondering whether anyone was aware of a language that has not only a number of (say, at least 10) lexical causatives formed through conversion (i.e. the lexical causative has exactly the same form as a non-causative adjective or intransitive verb) but also a productive process of forming morphological causatives through the addition of an affix to the base (e.g. Japanese causative suffix -(s)ase). With respect to lexical causatives through conversion, English has a number of examples (see Levin 1993: 244-245; English Verb Classes and Alternations):


(1) abate, alter, blast, blunt,
blur, burn, burst, capsize, change, chill, clear, clean, clog,
close, collapse, compress, condense, contract, cool, corrode, crumble,
decompose, decrease, deflate, defrost, degrade, dim, diminish, dissolve,
distend, double, drain, dry, dull, empty, even, explode, freeze, halt, heal, ignite, improve, increase, inflate, kindle, level, melt,
multiply, narrow, open, overturn, pale, pop, quiet, round, rupture, shrink,
shrivel, shut, sink, slow, smooth, soak, splay, stretch, submerge,
subside, tame, tan, taper, thaw, tilt, topple, triple, unfold, vary, warm, warp

I look forward to your response. Thank you in advance for your time and information. 

Best regards,
Chao







 		 	   		  
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