Chapter 76Causees and Multiple Causative Layers
Causee objects, retained themes, different analyses of double causation, four-participant textual evidence, and restrictions on causee backgrounding.
76.1 The causee's grammatical role
In a productive causative, the causer becomes the subject and the base's subject becomes a causee object. Nakagawa demonstrates the change with first-person marking: ku=sinot “I played” corresponds to hapo en=sinot-te “Mother made me play” Nakagawa (2024: 431, examples 955–955′). The S form changes to O even though the person playing is the same.
A transitive base already has an object. Causativization can retain that object while adding the causee, producing a three-place verb Bugaeva (2014: 138, 141–142); Bugaeva & Kobayashi (2022: §4.1.2). The resulting semantic roles need to be distinguished from the smaller number of person indexes visible on the verb.
76.2 An indexed causee and an expressed theme
‘So I made you cut grapevines, and …’
Bugaeva 2014: 142; Saru, Example 23c; Kimura Kimi, K7803233UP.144
Bugaeva glosses both suffixes CAUS. The TRVZ–CAUS gloss here distinguishes the forming vowel from productive causative -re, following Nakagawa's terminology.
The narrative causer is indexed by a=, the causee by e=, and the vines are the theme being cut. This example shows a free theme phrase alongside an indexed causee. It does not establish an unrestricted preference rule for every three-place causative Bugaeva (2014: 142, example 23c); Bugaeva & Kobayashi (2022: §4.1.2, example 6c).
The handbook describes simultaneous overt expression of both objects as infrequent and notes ordinary omission when context supplies the reference Bugaeva & Kobayashi (2022: §4.1.2). Bugaeva's earlier wording is more categorical Bugaeva (2014: 142–143) ‹contested›. An absent noun phrase should therefore be distinguished from an absent argument position.
76.3 What double causative counts
The description of tuy-e-re as a double causative depends on the analysis of tuy-e. Bugaeva counts its vowel ending as direct causation and the following productive suffix as an additional causal layer. Nakagawa treats that vowel as a transitive forming suffix on a root Bugaeva (2014: 130–131, 142); Nakagawa (2024: 199–200) ‹contested›.
The recorded kor-e-re “cause someone to give” contains two ordinary causative layers: kor “have,” kor-e “give,” and a further causative. Bugaeva cites this form from Batchelor's dictionary; Nakagawa also records the dictionary attestations Bugaeva (2014: 143, citing Batchelor 1938:269); Nakagawa (2024: 135). A dictionary headword establishes the recorded formation without supplying its frequency or a complete clause with all participants expressed.
76.4 Four participants in a textual example
Nakagawa's Saru example describes a narrator asking a woman to empty food into a cat's dish. It contains a further causative of three-place omare “put something in something” Nakagawa (2024: 135, example 34).
‘When I had her put it there, …’
Nakagawa 2024: 135; Saru, Final predicate of example 34, from Chiba University ed. 2015:420, as reproduced by Nakagawa
The preceding instruction and narrative identify the woman, the food, and the cat's dish. The source writes the derived stem omarere without internal hyphens.
| Role | Participant supplied by the passage |
|---|---|
| Causer | The narrator |
| Causee | The woman asked to perform the placement |
| Theme | The contents being transferred |
| Location | The cat's dish |
The four roles are recoverable from discourse. They do not appear as four separate bare noun phrases accompanying this predicate. Nakagawa uses the passage as textual evidence that causativization of a three-place base is possible Nakagawa (2024: 135).
76.5 Backgrounding and causal interpretation
Bugaeva compares causee incorporation and antipassive formation across causative classes. Her account permits backgrounding of nonreferential causees in documented direct -ka and productive-causative constructions, while excluding it in indirect causatives and in the direct vowel and -ke formations she compares Bugaeva (2014: 131–132, 137–138, 141–144). She relates the distribution to affectedness and referentiality; the restrictions belong to that analysis and its lexical comparisons.
Indefinite -yar/-ar offers a different construction, retaining valency without adding a causee object. Its structure and the older plural-causee accounts are treated in Chapter 77 (Indefinite Causative -yar and -ar). For the productive forms, see Chapter 74 (The Productive Causative -re, -te, and -e).