Causative

As causative (launch word) a form of diathesis is known in linguistics. The causative is expressed in that a first agent, a second agent is caused to perform an action. Some linguists distinguish between causative fine ( causing ) and Faktitiv ( effecting ).

In many languages ​​, such as Sanskrit, Estonian, in the Altai languages ​​( eg Turkish) and Semitic languages ​​such as Hebrew and Arabic, the causative is a self- conjugation.

Causative in the German

The German language has a morphological causative, that is no longer productive and transparent, that is, it is no longer possible in order to form new shapes in the modern language, and it is no longer perceived by native speakers as grammatical form. Examples:

The Kausativbildung opposite forms are in German always intransitive verbs ( cf. Valenzalternation ).

The most important of the German Kausativbildung based on a common Germanic deverbal derivation. In this case (eg, drinking ) of a strong verb ( in this example, drinking ) with the suffix - jan- a new weak inflectional verb stem (ie, drinking - jan- ) was formed on the second Ablautstufe. The later the diminished -j - has - as far as possible - the umlaut root syllable result ( impregnation ). This second Ablautstufe was in some ablaut classes used to be different than it is today, bringing the articulation of causatives as pickling, (not like today / i / ), or suckle, the the original Präteritalablaut / ou / (not the original Präteritalablaut / ei / like today / o :/ ) was derived.

Some verbs are - at least in the font or standard language, often but not in the dialects - collapsed the Grundverb and the causative infinitive later phonetically, for example in "melt" or " spoil " where the original Germanic / ë / the Grundverbs and the primary umlaut / e / of the Kausativs have become / ɛ / standard linguistically both. Where today homonymous verbs for both uses exist, however, they still often differ in inflection ( scare stV intrans: .. .. Scare SWV trans) or differed in still in the older language ( melted intrans. Schmelzte trans or. spoiled intrans. corrupt trans). . Some verbs standard language is (usually but not dialect ), although collapsed the Stammvokalismus later phonetically, but not the result of the action of the j- infix modified stem closing consonant, such as in " bite " vs. " Pickling " or " suffering " vs. " Conduct " where the current / ae / the Grundverbs on MHG / i :/ ​​, today / ae / the Kausativs but MHG / ei / back.

The semantic context is often not clear to compare drink about and soak, where the latter still do drink the meaning, ' has. In other cases darkened the semantic context in the course of linguistic history. So originally meant etch, make eat ', Staining ( falcons or hunting dogs run ) originally, make bite ', originally nourish, make recover ' and teach original, do read '. Conversely, meant originally to suffer, go ', which are derived in the causative, make actually go ', still shines through.

Where a formal causative is not present, with causatives, ie with an auxiliary verb ( do, make, force, cause ) a causative be constructed.

Causative in English

In English there in the same way as in English resulting word pairs, such as drink: drench ( German: " drink: soak "; latter etymologically identical with German "soak " ), fall: fur ( German: 'refers to: make " ), lie: lay ( German: " are: Laying " ), rise: raise ( German: " stand up: lift " ) or sit: set ( German: "sit: set" ).

However, these are inherited from the Old English causatives in Modern- a large number of causatives against that phonologically and morphologically indistinguishable from a Grundverb. The difference is so unique in the Valenzalternation. In some cases this is due to the fact that the Grundverb has displaced the original causative later, such as in sink, which is now both " fall " as a strong verb such as " sink " means, whereas the old causative extinct sench. Much more common, however, are those cases where originally only intransitive (strong ) verbs have developed in later times causative meanings. An example of this is grow, see The corn grows ( German: " The corn grows" ) as opposed to The man grows corn ( German: " The man builds maize ").

Causative in non- Indo-European languages

The Altai languages, Estonian, Japanese and Korean have their own Agglutinationsendungen to form the causative of a verb. In Japanese, the Konjugationsstufe Mizenkei and the ending- seru is used or - saseru it.