causatieve

Causatieve is a term used in linguistics, derived from Dutch, to describe a grammatical construction that encodes causation: the subject causes someone else to perform an action or to undergo a change of state. In a typical causative construction, there are two participants involved: the causer (the agent that brings about the action) and the causee (the one who is induced to act or to change).

There are several ways languages realize causatives. Lexical causatives use verbs that inherently express causation, where the meaning of the main verb already includes causing someone to do something. Periphrastic causatives use auxiliary words or helper verbs, such as make, have, or let in English, or laten in Dutch, to turn a plain verb into a causative vonstruction: “The teacher made the students write an essay.” Morphological causatives attach a dedicated affix or derivational marker to a verb to create a causative form, common in many languages with rich verbal morphology (for example, some Turkish and Indonesian systems).

Causatives often affect the valency of a verb, increasing the number of participants or shifting the thematic roles: the causer becomes the agent causing the action, while the causee becomes the patient or experiencer of the embedded event. Some languages differentiate between direct lexical causatives and broader periphrastic or morphological strategies; others rely on periphrasis or syntax to convey causation.

In practice, the term encompasses a range of constructions across languages, all sharing the core idea that one entity brings about an action or state in another.