earticle

영어

Causative constructions have two kinds of meaning: direct and indirect causations. This paper discusses these meaning differences in the framework of the Minimalist Program and suggests that they come from a TENSE feature at the lower verb phrase. A syntactic causative construction has two TENSE features; one at the upper VP and the other at the lower VP. A lexical caustive construction has only one TENSE feature; the one at the upper VP. The presence of the TENSE feature at the lower VP makes a syntactic causative, and has indirect causation meaning permitting temporal mediacy between the causing and the caused events. Without the TENSE feature at the lower VP, a lexical causative has only direct causation meaning permitting no temporal mediacy between the two events.