User:Natalielo93/sandbox

Japanese
In Japanese, causative alternation is seen in ergative verbs and paired verbs. Ergative verbs are verbs that can be transitive or intransitive without morphological change, while paired verbs are verbs that require morphological changes in order to be read as transitive or intransitive.

An example of an ergative verb in Japanese:

(a)太郎くんは、扉を開いた. Taro-ga tobira-o hiraita Taro-NOM door-ACC opened ‘Taro opened the door.’ This is the causative use of the verb.

(b)扉 が 開いた. Tobira-ga hiraita Door-NOM opened ‘The door opened.’ This is the inchoative use of the verb.

An example of a paired verb in Japanese:

(a)平次が 銭を おとした. Heiji-ga zeni-o otoshita Heiji-NOM coin-ACC dropped 'Heiji dropped the coin.' This is the causative use of the verb.

(b)銭が おちた. Zeni-ga ochita Coin-NOM dropped 'The coin dropped.' This is the inchoative use of the verb.

Chinese
Mandarin Chinese is a language that lacks inflectional morphology that marks tense, case, agreement, or lexical category. The language also does not have derivational morphology to mark the transitivity of verbs. Instead, Mandarin Chinese uses verbal compounding to do causative alternation.

(a) 窗子 破了. Chuangzi po-le. window break-PRT 'The window broke.'

This is the inchoative use of the verb.

(b)*老張 破了 窗子. Laozhang po-le chuangzi. Laozhang break-PRT window Intended meaning: 'Laozhang broke the window.'

(c)老張打破了窗子. Laozhang da-po-le chuangzi. Laozhang hit-break-PRT window 'Laozhang broke the window.' This sentence shows that in order for Laozhang to have broken the window, he has to have completed an action in order for it to break; in this case, he hit the window.

Korean
Causative alternation in Korean is difficult to interpret. There have been many attempts to capture the restrictions on Korean causative alternation, but none of them capture the restrictions entirely.

Some verbs in Korean bear similarities to the paired verbs in Japanese. Morphological changes take place in order to show transitivity and intransitivity.

(a) 내가 문을 열었다. naega mun-eul yeol-eossda I-NOM door-ACC opened 'I opened the door.' This is the causative use of the verb.

(b)문이 열렸다. mun-i yeollyeossda door-ACC opened 'The door opened.' This is inchoative use of the verb.

Korean also bears similarities to Chinese in its verbal compounding.

(a) 철수는 죽었다. Cheolsu-neun jug-eossda Cheolsu      died 'Cheolsu died.'

(b) 경찰은 철수를 죽였습니다. gyeongchal-eun cheolsu-reul jug-yeossseubnida police-NOM    Cheolsu-ACC  died-made 'The police killed (made dead) Cheolsu.'