causativealternation
Causative alternation is a linguistic phenomenon in which a subset of verbs can appear in two related syntactic forms: a transitive causative construction and an intransitive anticausative (or inchoative) construction. In the anticausative use, the subject undergoes a change of state or a event without an overt external causer. In the causative use, an external agent causes the event to occur, producing a sentence in which the patient names the affected object and a distinct causer is added as the agent.
Across languages, the two forms often share the same verb root but differ in argument structure and
Examples in English illustrate the pattern:
- The door opened. The waiter opened the door.
- The ice melted. The sun melted the ice.
- The window broke. The child broke the window.
In English, causative alternation is largely lexical and syntactic rather than morphologically marked. In other languages,