A.

Definitions of Causative Verbs

The definition of causative verb has been explained by many experts.

Generally, Causative verb can be defined as verbs whose meanings include a

causal element. According to Ace and Subbotin (2014 : 75), causative verbs

express an action which is caused to happen. In other words, when someone

has something done for him/her, she/he causes it to happen. In other words,

someone does not actually do anything, but ask someone else to do it for me.

This is the sense of causative verbs. Causative verbs express the idea of

someone causing something to take place. Causative verbs can be similar in

meaning to passive verbs (see Passive Voice). Duranti (1997: 188) explained

that causative verbs are those verbs that describe events involving an agent

whose actions bring about a certain change of state in some entity. Typical

examples of causative verbs are kill, open. break, drop, buy.

The grammatical category causative has the following characteristics.

On the syntactic level, a causative involves an increase in valency by one unit

the non-causative verb; this increase is brought about by the addition of an

external agent, the causer. If the non-causative verb is monovalent

(intransitive), the causative verb is bivalent (transitive); if it is bivalent, the

causative verb is trivalent (doubly transitive).

Semantically, a causative refers to a causative situation, which consists

of two components: the causing situation or the antecedent, and the caused

situation or the consequent; the combination of these two results in a causative

situation. The causative relation between antecedent and consequent can be

expressed in many different ways: with an antecedent the weather was bad,

and a consequent we stayed in, for instance, one can say we stayed in because

of the bad weather, or the weather was bad, so that we stayed in, etc. However,

the only form of expression relevant to our purpose is the causative relation

expressed by a causative construction, as in the bad weather forced us to stay

in or the bad weather made us stay in.

B. Criteria of Causative verbs

The following criteria have been proposed for distinguishing causative

verbs from other transitive action verbs:

Causative verbs accept events and states of affairs as subjects,

whereas other action verbs accept only agents as subjects

(Thompson, 1987).
Causative verbs are transitive verbs that also have an intransitive

usage where the subject of the verb has the patient role (Szeto,

1988).
Causative verbs specify the result of the action, whereas other action

verbs specify the action but not the result of the action (Szeto, 1988).

Khoo (1995) adopted the third criterion as a working definition of

a causative verb in his analysis of verb entries in the Longman Dictionary

of Contemporary English (1987) to develop a comprehensive list of

causative verbs.

C. Types of Causative Verbs

 Causative verbs (also called lexical causatives) are verbs whose meanings

include a causal element. Examples include the transitive form of break and

kill. The transitive break can be paraphrased as to cause to break, and the

transitive kill can be paraphrased as to cause to die.

Thompson (1987) divided causative verbs into three groups:

Transitive causative verbs that also have an intransitive usage; for

example, x breaks y is paraphrased as x causes y to break.

Causative verbs that do not have an intransitive usage; the

transitive kill is paraphrased using the intransitive die, a different

word: X kills y is paraphrased as x causes y to die.

Causative verbs that do not have any intransitive verb that can be

used in the paraphrase; the past participle form of the causal verb is

used instead: X butters y is paraphrased as x causes y to be

buttered.
D. Several Causative verbs by Meaning

Cause

Bribe, cause, compel, convince, drive, force, get, have, impel, incite,

induce, influence, inspire, lead, make, move, persuade, prompt, push,

rouse, send, set, spur, start, stimulate.

Enable

Aid, allow, enable, help, leave, let, permit.

Prevent
 Bar, block, constrain, deter, discourage, dissuade, hamper, hinder, hold,

impede, keep, prevent, protect, restrain, restrict, save, stop.

E. Several Causative verbs by Forms

F. Examples of Causative Verbs in Sentence

1. LET

With Let, a person gives permission for another person to do an action.

1. His father let her go to cinema.

2. I am letting this equipment cool.

3. My dad let me use his motorcycle.

4. Would you let us to watch the movie?

GET

1. I want to get the house painted before summer.

2. We will have to get someone to fix the dishwasher right away.

3. Let us get some more exchanged for dollars.

4. Let us get our car fixed first.

MAKE

1. Are you going to make your son work part time in the bakery this Winter?

2. I can't seem to make this washing machine run.

3. Professor Philip made us type up our seminar reports.

4. I made the refrigerator work

HAVE

1. My science teacher had us give seminar reports

2. Tom had a tooth filled.

3. Have you had your lab reports taken yet?

4. I like the way you had the team member do the task.

5. We are going to have our car fixed before we go office.

Note: Both get and have are also used as passive voice. A simple trick to identify

the causative passives is, "to" word follows:

1. I will be made to do the job

2. I was made to clean the basket.

HELP

With help, a person assists another person to do an action.

1. He is helping me type my letter.

2. His wife always helps him do the office task.

 G. Conclusion

Causative verbs express an action which is caused to happen. Causative

verbs can be similar in meaning to passive verbs. Causative verbs are those

verbs that describe events involving an agent whose actions bring about a

certain change of state in some entity. Typical examples of causative verbs are

kill, open, break, drop, buy. The grammatical category causative bring

about by the addition of an external agent, the causer.

The criteria have been proposed for distinguishing causative verbs from

other transitive action verbs: Causative verbs accept events and states of

affairs as subjects, Causative verbs are transitive verbs that also have an

intransitive usage where the subject of the verb has the patient role, Causative

verbs specify the result of the action. Thompson (1987) divided causative

verbs into three groups : Transitive causative verbs that also have an

intransitive usage, Causative verbs that do not have an intransitive usage,

Causative verbs that do not have any intransitive verb that can be used in the

paraphrase.

Reference
Ace,Danny V. And Dmitry Subbotin. 2014. English Insights: The first full-
structured English grammar guide. Ebook : English Insights.
Duranti, Alessandro. 1997. Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge :
Cambridge University Press.
Green, R. 2013. The Semantics of Relationships: An
Interdisciplinary Perspective. Ebook : Springer Science
& Business Media.

ISBN 978-94-017-0073-3

Ni, Yueru. 2012.Categories of Causative Verbs: a Corpus Study of

Mandarin Chinese. Netherland:Utrecht University.
List of Causative Verbs in English with Examples

http://lifecoachbloggers.blogspot.co.id/2015/10/list-
causative-verbs-english-examples.html