anticausatives

Anticausatives are a diathesis in linguistics in which the event described involves no explicit external causer. The subject undergoes a change of state or an internal event, and the verb is used in an intransitive form without a named agent. This contrasts with causatives, where a causer brings about the change, often via a transitive verb. Anticausatives are frequently analyzed as a middle voice or as a reflexive-like construction that neutralizes transitivity while preserving the core event.

Semantically, they cover change of state readings such as “to become X” or “to undergo X” without an agent; examples include “The door opened” and “The bread softened.” In these cases no external agent is required. The counterpart “Someone opened the door” or “Someone softened the bread” is causative. Inchoatives express initiation of change, while anticausatives emphasize the event as happening to the patient without an agent; many languages blur this boundary.

Morphology and syntax vary: some languages mark anticausatives with reflexive or middle morphology, others use periphrastic constructions or dedicated anti-causative affixes. Spanish provides a familiar example with the reflexive se: “La ventana se rompió” (the window broke, by itself) vs “Alguien rompió la ventana” (someone broke the window). In other languages, anti-causative constructions are more syntactic than morphological, using subordinate clauses or passive-like forms.

Anticausatives figure prominently in discussions of argument structure, voice, and causation. They interact with telicity and aspect and are a test case for the causative–inchoative alternation observed across languages. In typology, the availability and form of anticausatives vary widely, reflecting underlying differences in how languages encode agentivity, event structure, and the relationship between transitivity and morphology.