Pour une cartographie des causatifs en anglais contemporain

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to formalize the micro-system of the 4 causative verbs (i.e. make, have, cause and get) in modern English. The syntax of causative constructions is ambiguous between control and raising, which raises the problem of the semantic roles of both agent and theme arguments. We argue that those are to be analyzed as composite roles, which in turn leads us to propose a quadrant analysis of the 4 verbs along the two axes of direct vs. indirect causation and involved vs. involving causer. In the 3rd part, a vast corpus analysis shows how the theoretical model may predict and explain the different discourse effects.

Keywords

• causative constructions
• causer
• causee
• semantic roles
• corpus study