A contribution to the semantic subclassification of causative constructions in contemporary Norwegian: Effective causation

Abstract

In this article the author proposes a subclassification of causative semantic types in contemporary Norwegian, as expressed by the analytic causative constructions with the auxiliary verbs få and gjøre within the framework of prototype semantics. The focus of the article is one the so-called effective causation, such as Mosjon gjør hunden sliten, Mari fikk voksne menn til å gråte or Kjendiser gjør meg svett i hendene. The author analyzes its position among other proposed instances of indirect causation in Norwegian, characterized by the semantic features of the participants (here: the Causer and the Causee), their relationship in regards to the degree of involvement in the causative event and degree of control. The author establishes four subtypes of the effective causation based on the feature of animateness, and claims that the main criterial features of the effective causation are (1) the low degree of Causer involvement, where one cannot postulate any obligatory volitional activity, and the Causer is perceived as a circumstance, reason or a stimulus, (2) the affectedness of the Causee, which shares more features with the roles of Patient or Experiencer, rather than the (affected) Agent, and (3) the type of causing event, or the result, is construed as a spontaneous state or event the Causee undergoes, and is beyond its control (mainly expressed by verbs and adjectives denoting automatic responses). The construction type is thus always the intransitive analytic causative.