Properties of the Arabic language
4.2 Morphological properties
4.2.3 Second causative
Another aspect of Arabic worth mentioning here is the second causative. The second causative is found with verbs that are derived from a basic primary causative verb in a first step (14) or from a basic inchoative (15).
(14) Pakala ‘eat’ =⇒Pakkala ‘cause to eat/feed’
(15) t
˙acima ‘eat’ =⇒Pa-t
˙
cama ‘cause to eat/feed’ =⇒Pista-t
˙
cama ‘ask for food’
Languages which attest the second causative use different morphological operations to express the meaning associated with it. Some languages use a cumulative affixation, which is also the case in Arabic where the second causative is expressed
by doubling the causative markers of the primary causative form, such as in Huallaga and Quechua (16) .
(16) wan˜u-‘to die’ =⇒wan˜u-chi ‘to kill’ =⇒wan˜u-chi-chi ‘to cause to kill’ (Ku-likov, 1993, 123)
Other languages use “doubling with alternation” (Kulikov, 1993). They append a second causative marker but restrict it to be different from the first one. This case is found with a variety of Turkish languages (17).
(17) ¨ol- ‘to die’ =⇒ol-d¨ur- ‘to kill’ =⇒¨ol-d¨ur-t- ‘to have someone killed’ = ⇒¨ol-d¨ur-t-t¨ur- ‘to get someone to get someone to kill’ (Kulikov,1993, 124)
Another type of languages builds the second causative by adding a second causative marker combined with an alterated form of the first causative maker such as in Hindi (18).
(18) sun-n¯a ‘hear’ =⇒sun-¯a-n¯a ‘tell’ =⇒sun-v¯a-n¯a ‘cause to tell’ (Kulikov, 1993, 124)
Another type of languages under which Arabic can be categorized are languages which use for the primary and the second causative different and mutually exclusive markers. Thus in Arabic, as we have seen in example (15), the second causative verbPista-t
˙
cama ‘ask for food’ uses a different markerPista- than the one used in the primary causative.
Unlike languages like Turkish (17) which allow a degree of causation higher than three, Arabic allow only a third-degree-causation. However, it is restricted to a specific type of causative, namely the curative causation. The curative has the meaning of “ask somebody to CAUS-V” (19).
(19) calima ‘know’ =⇒callama‘teach’ /Pa-clama‘inform’ =⇒Pista-clama‘ask/seek for information/knowledge’
From a grammatical point of view, the second causative is valency increasing.
It introduces a third argument assigned the function of agent or causer. The two internal arguments are assigned the roles of objects and marked with accusative (20).
(20) a kataba saliim-un risaalat-an.
wrote Salim-NOM letter-IND+CAUS.
‘Salim wrote letter.’
b Pa-ktaba caliy-un Saliim-an risaalat-an.
CAUS-wrote Ali-NOM Salim-CAUS letter-IND+CAUS.
‘Ali made Salim write a letter.’
The third causative however is not valency increasing and behaves more like the reflexive (21).
(21) a Pakala cliy-un l-lah
˙m-a.
ate Ali-NOM DEF-meat-ACC.
‘Ali ate meat.’
b. Pakkala saliim-un caliy-an l-lah
˙m-a.
ate-CAUS Salim-NOMAli-ACC DEF-meat-ACC
‘Salim made Ali eat meat/ Salim fed Ali meat.’
c Pista-Pkala caliy-un saliim-an l-lah
˙m-a.
REFL-feed Ali-NOMSalim-ACC DEF-meat-ACC
‘Ali asked Salim to feed him meat.
From a semantic point of view, the second causative in Arabic introduces different meanings. We list the most common ones according to (Kulikov, 1993):
1. The double causative doubles the causative meaning of the primary verb.
This type of causative introduces a second participant realised as the agent (22).
(22) kataba ‘write’ =⇒Pa-ktaba/kattaba ‘cause to write’
2. Multiplicated causative: The meaning related to this type does not add a new caustive predicate and consequently a new participant, but multiplies the causation only of the primary verb. This type can be divided into:
2.1. The intensive causative intensifies the meaning of the primary causative verb (23).
(23) jamaca ‘to collect, gather’ =⇒jammac ‘amass/accumulate’
Many of these verbs restrict one of their participants to be a plural or a collective noun such as in (24).
(24) qatala ‘kill’ =⇒qattala ‘massacre’
2.2. The iterative causative introduces iteration of the event encoded by the primary causative verb. In most cases, the iteration involves a plural participant and the form is sometimes difficult to differentiate from the intensive (25).
(25) naqala‘transport’ =⇒naqqala‘transport more than one time/more than one object’
3. Other modifications:
3.1. The permissive causative: This meaning rather indicates a sense a permission than direct causation and is is often ambiguous with coercive causation (26).
(26) daxala ‘enter’ =⇒Pa-dxala ‘allow to enter/force to enter’
3.2. The assistive causative modifies the meaning of the primary causative toward a meaning of “allow x to verb” (27).
(27) calima ‘know’ =⇒callama ‘teach’
The second causative is found in many verb classes in Arabic and is accordingly used as part of Arabic the specific alternations (the second causative alternation) in section 6.1.3. The different meanings associated with the second causative can be used as a indicator to differentiate more classes. For instance, the curative second causative is only found with classes of verbs involving information transfer or change of possession or with classes of verbs that allow for the role of a beneficiary.
The second causative is a frequent, but not a regular phenomenon in Arabic.
They often interacts with periphrastic causative constructions and in some cases, the second causative and the periphrastic causative are used in complementarily manner. Thus, in (28) only the periphrastic causative is allowed, because the slot of the causative prefix is already occupied by another prefix Pa- (a situation similar to Korean (Yeo, 2011)). In (29), the second causative is used to express the permissive causative in cases where the morphological causative is ambiguous between the permissive and the coercive causative.
(28) a. Paqlaca kariim-un cani t-tadxiin-i.
stopped Karim-NOM fromDEF-smoking-GEN
‘Karim stopped smoking.’
b. Morphological causation
*Pa-qlaca d-dawaac-u kariim-an cani t-tadxiin-i.
CAUS-stopped DEF-drug-NOM Karim-ACC fromDEF-smoking-GEN
‘The drug made Karim stop smoking.’
c. Periphrastic causation
jacala d-dawaaP-u kariim-an yu-qlicu cani made DEF-drug-NOMKarim-ACC he+PRS-stop from t-tadxiin-i.
DEF-smoking-GEN
‘The drug made Karim stop smoking.’
(29) a. Pa-dxala mud
˙iif-u d
˙-d
˙ayf-a Pilaa bayt-i-hi.
CAUS-enter DEF-host-ACC DEF-guest-ACC in house-GEN-his
‘The host force/permit the guest to enter his house.’
a. jacala mud
˙iif-u d
˙-d
˙ayf-a yadxulu Pilaa bayt-i-hi.
made DEF-host-ACC DEF-guest-ACC enter in house-GEN-his
‘The host permits the guest to enter his house.’