CHAPTER 4 VERBS AND SITUATIONS
A. Causative verb
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take place. Causative sentence is: a situation is brought about – caused – by whatever the subject noun phrase refers to, and the caused situation is described by the embedded clause.
For example:
(1) Jack had his house painted.
This sentence is similar in meaning to: Someone painted Jack's house or Jack's house was painted by someone.
Based on Griffith (2006, page 61), the meaning expressed by causative sentence indicates situation caused brought by whatever the subject noun phrase refers to and the caused situation is described by embedded clause.
Example of causative sentences with an entailment
Causatives Entailments
1. The thought made her gleeful. 1. She was gleeful.
2. The children got the kite to fly. 2. The kite flew.
3. Bad weather forces us to cancel the picnic.
3. We are cancelling the picnic.
4. His inexperience is causing the decisions to go unactioned.
4. The decisions are going unactioned.
5. I had the students read this article. 5. The students read this article.
6. The lock prevented him from opening the door.
6. He did not open the door (that time)
7. Bad weather forces us to cancel the
picnic. 7. She was gleeful.
8. His inexperience is causing the
decisions to go unactioned. 8. The kite flew.
Entailment is the principle that under certain conditions the truth of one statement ensures the truth of a second statement. Also called strict implication, logical consequence, and semantic consequence.
Entailment is the relationship between two sentences where the truth of one (A) requires the truth of the other (B). For example, the sentence (A) the president was assassinated. Entails (B) The president is dead.
An embedded clause is a type of subordinate clause that is placed within another clause (rather than before or after), and is usually
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marked by commas. The embedded clause is reliant on the main clause to work.
The causative on the left differ from corresponding sentences on the right in several ways:
1) They include a causative verb (make, get, force, cause, have, prevent in these examples).
2) The subject of the causative sentence is used to refer to whatever human, abstract or concrete – brings about the situation described by the sentence on the right
3) The causative has an embedded clause carrying the same proposition as the sentence to its right in the table. This is most clearly seen in I had (the students read this article), where the embedded clause is in parentheses.
(Even here, there has been a change. Think of how read is pronounced: in the causative as /rind/, the unteased base form of the verb, but as a past tense verb /rεd/ in the entailed freestanding clause.)
The verb in the main clause of a causative sentence is a causative verb and as stated above, the caused situation is described by the embedded clause.
For example, the person referred to as I caused the situation ‘the students read this article’ to come about. Cause is arguably a superordinate for the other causative verbs in table above. For example the causative verb force can be taken to mean cause’ an unwanted consequence’.
2. Form of Causative Verb
Generally, causative verbs consist of let, make, have, and get. It will be discussed one by one.
1. Let
Let can be taken to mean ‘let someone else to do something’. For example:
(1) My father lets me choose my own future career.
(2) The shepherd lets his sheep graze in the meadow 2. Make
'Make' as a causative verb expresses the idea that the person requires another person to do something. It can also be taken to mean force someone to do something. For example:
(1) Peter made her do her homework.
(2) The teacher made the students stay after class.
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'Have' as a causative verb expresses the idea that the person wants something to be done for them. This causative verb is often used when speaking about various services. There are two forms of the causative verb 'have'. For examples:
(1) They had John arrive early.
(2) She had her children cook dinner for her.
(3) I had my haircut last Saturday.
(4) She had the car washed at the weekend.
4. Got
'Get' is used as a causative verb in a similar way as 'have' is used with the participle. This expresses the idea that the person wants something to be done for them. The causative verb is often used in a more idiomatic manner than 'have'. For examples:
(1) They got their house painted last week.
(2) Tom got his car washed yesterday.
A stative predicate,
according to Comrie (1976:49), reports a state that requires no expenditure of energy and that continues until energy is expended to change that state; a dynamic predicate reports a situation that will only continue if there is a continual input of energy, but it ceases when energy is no longer expended. Thus the following sentences are stative and have stative predicates:
a) We waited.
b) The children were hungry.
c) Snow lay on the ground.
d) Ellen needed a dictionary.
A stative predicate is typically durative in aspect
A stative predication relates a situation that does not change during the time when the predication is valid.
Here are other such stative verbs. They suggest a continuing and unchanging state—but some of them, as we will see, can express change of state—can be activity predicates in certain contexts.
Verbs that express feeling: abhor, adore, desire, enjoy, envy, fear, hate, like, long for, mind, prefer, regret, want, and wish.
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Verbs that express other mental states: believe, doubt, expect, intend interest, know, suppose, suspect, think, and understand.
Verbs that express a relation between two entities: belong, consist, contain, cost, deserve, equal, fit, include, involve, keep, lack, matter, mean, need, owe, own, remain, require, resemble.
Verbs that express a physical stance or position: kneel, lean, lie, sit, and stand.
Verbs that express non-action: remain, stay, and wait.
Dynamic verbs include those that express some form of physical movement: come, drift, float, go, hop, jump, pound, rotate, run, swim, turn, vibrate, and walk.
Verbs of communication: argue, complain, discuss, explain, invite, question, report, say, shout, talk, translate, whisper, and write.
Verbs of perception that involve doing something: feel, listen, look at, look for, smell, sniff, taste, watch.
Consider these sentences:
1a Fred and Ethel argue from morning until night.
1b the basketball team practiced from September until November