English In
English, many anticausatives are of the class of "alternating
ambitransitive verbs", where the alternation between transitive and intransitive forms produces a change of the position of the patient role (the transitive form has a patientive direct object, and this becomes the patientive subject in the intransitive). This phenomenon is called
causative alternation. For example: •
He broke the window. →
The window broke. •
Some pirates sank the ship. →
The ship sank. Passive voice is not an anticausative construction. In passive voice, the agent of causation is demoted from its position as a core argument (the subject), but it can optionally be re-introduced using an adjunct (in English, commonly, a
by-phrase). In the examples above,
The window was broken,
The ship was sunk would clearly indicate causation, though without making it explicit.
Romance languages In the
Romance languages, many anticausative verbs are formed through a
pseudo-reflexive construction, using a
clitic pronoun (which is identical to the non-emphatic
reflexive pronoun) applied on a transitive verb. For example (in
Spanish, using the clitic ): • (Infinitive: ) • or or (Verbal
periphrasis or compound verb: in different positions, from the Infinitive: ) Another example in
French: •
Slavic languages In the
Slavic languages, the use is essentially the same as in the Romance languages. For example (in
Serbo-Croatian, using ): • In East Slavic languages (such as
Russian), the pronoun becomes postfix (or after a vowel in Russian). • • The suffix has a large number of uses and does not necessarily denote anticausativity (or even intransitivity). However, in most cases it denotes either passive voice or one of the subclasses of reflexivity (anticausativity, reciprocity, etc.) There is a class of verbs (
deponent verbs, which only exist in this reflexive form (the suffix can't be removed). These are commonly anticausative or autocausative, and commonly refer to emotions, behavior, or factors outside one's control. • • In addition, a verb may be put into an unaccusative/anticausative form by forming an impersonal sentence, with the verb typically either in its past tense neuter form, or in its present tense third person form: • Literally, • Literally, Note that the verb has neither agent nor patient, and therefore has valency zero: it is in the
impersonal passive voice. Here as well there is a
class of "
impersonal verbs", which only exist in this impersonal form: • Literally, The verb has no standard personal form. Instead of , to say , one must say , where is not but something that remains unspecified. (The personal form has, however, entered Russian vernacular, in the meaning .) • Literally,
Arabic In the
Arabic language, the form VII has the anticausative meaning. For example, means (the cause of his change is not known).
Urdu Urdu uses a large number of antiaccusative verbs. • •
Ainu In Ainu, there are two types of affixes that corresponding to the meaning of "by one's self", '
and '. The former is sometimes analyzed as anticausative and the latter is reflexive. {{interlinear|lang=ain|indent=3|glossing=link
Japanese In
Standard Japanese, productive morphology highly favors transitivization, in the sense that it has productive causativization, but no anticausativization. In the
Hokkaido dialects and Northern
Tōhoku dialect, however, the anticausative morpheme is employed with some verbs, such as , , and as a means of producing an intransitive verb from a transitive verb. {{interlinear|lang=ja|indent=2|glossing=link {{interlinear|lang=ja|indent=2|glossing=link
Bardi Bardi is an
Australian Aboriginal language in the
Nyulnyulan family which uses the root to denote anticausatives as part of
complex predicate constructions. For example, whereas one might causatively 'close' a door with the following construction: • (
y ERG closes
x ABS) a door might 'close' with the following construction • (
x ABS closes) In the underived construction, the
light verb is used with a coverb (or preverb) . In the anticausative construction, the light verb reduces the
valency of the predicate and the item which is closed becomes the subject. This is a regular alternation among complex predicates.
Turkish When an anticausative verb is used, the thing that is acted upon is placed as if it is the subject. Turkish converts the verb to an anticausative most commonly by the suffixes
-l and
-n. • (The word
door (
kapı) takes the accusative suffix here. • (
Kapı lost its case suffix and is treated as a subject) ==See also==