On the Implicit Argument of Icelandic Indirect Causatives

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to understand the syntax of Icelandic indirect causatives (ICs), especially with respect to the implicit causee. We show that the complement of the causative verb must be at least as large as a VoiceP, and that it shares some properties with active VoicePs, and others with passive VoicePs. We make sense of this state of affairs by proposing that the causee, while phonetically silent, has an explicit syntactic representation, but as a fP rather than a DP. We further propose that ICs are built by stacking a second VoiceP on top of the lexical verb’s first VoiceP, and that this configuration, along with the underspecified interpretation of fP, leads to a special thematic interpretation of both the causer and the implicit causee. Our analysis suggests that there are certain core ingredients involved in building ICs—such as stacked VoicePs and an underspecified causee—but that the source of these ingredients can vary across languages and constructions, depending on the formal primitives that grammars make available to the language more generally.

Person matters in impersonality

“…A similar restriction has been attested for the silent causee of Icelandic indirect causatives, as shown by E. F. Sigurðsson & Wood 2020. The causee, if it remains implicit as in (21b), cannot be a nonvolitional causer such as a storm.…”

“…Sigurdsson & Wood link the animacy condition on the null causee to its ϕP nature. A ϕP is an impoverished argument, syntactically “smaller” than a full and referential DP (Landau 2010, E. F. Sigur ð sson & Wood 2020). They suggest that the animacy restriction may be related to ϕP status, given the existing relation between animacy and ϕ features.…”

“…Landau 2010 argues that only DPs, not ϕPs, can license secondary depictive predicates and bind anaphors. In fact, the null causee of Icelandic indirect causatives is argued to be a ϕP, which explains why this construction does not accept secondary predicates (E. F. Sigurðsson & Wood 2020). By contrast, the null subject of Basque impersonals can license secondary predicates naturally (Fernández & Berro 2021 Again, the availability of depictive predicates predicated of the implicit subject is another property that differentiates impersonals from passives.…”

The causative construction in the dialects of southern Italy and the phonologysyntax interface

“…However, it is well known (cf. Kayne 1975;Zubizarreta 1985;Burzio 1986;Alsina 1992;Guasti 1993;Sheehan 2016) that within this typology most Romance varieties occupy an intermediate position between the analytic and the morphological types. 1 In particular, the Romance causative, although superficially of the analytic type transparently combining two independent predicates (cf.…”

On Causee in Sason Arabic

“…This article examines the syntax of several indirect-causative constructions in Sason Arabic (Semitic, southeastern Turkey), focusing on the type of projection in which the embedded agent is introduced-thus contributing to the typology of these projections (cf. Zubizarreta 1985, Guasti 1996, Legate 2014, Harley 2013, Key 2013, Harley 2017a, Sigurðsson & Wood 2021)-and on the voice alternations that these projections may exhibit, particularly in connection with Legate 2014's analysis of passives. passivization facts, and the type of 𝜃-role the causee is assigned.…”