Causative - Syntactic Causative Constructions

Syntactic Causative Constructions

A causative form or phrase can be thought of as a valency-increasing voice operation, which adds one argument. If the original verb is intransitive, then the causative construction as a whole is transitive: to fall → to make (sbdy./sth.) fall, to topple (sbdy./sth.), or indeed, to fell, a fossilised form from when causatives were an inflexional part of English grammar. If the original verb is transitive, the causative is ditransitive: to eat (sth.) → to make (sbdy.) eat (sth.), to feed (sth.) to (sbdy.).