Causative constructions describe a situation involving two events: (1) the causing event, in which the causer does or initiates something; and (2) the caused event, in which the causee (Cee) carries out an action, or undergoes a change of condition or state as a result of the causer’s action.

Coding of the causee refers to the grammatical form in which the causee appears, including case marking and syntactic function.[1]

This parameter examines causatives in which the verb referring to the caused event is lexically[2] transitive; the two arguments of the verb are the agent and the patient.

Types:

TrCeeA: The causee appears in the same form as it would appear in a non-causative declarative sentence.[3]

TrCeeP: The causee appears in the same form as the patient of a transitive verb in a non-causative sentence.[4]

TrCeeRec: The causee appears in the same form as the recipient of a ditransitive verb in a non-causative sentence.[5]

TrCeeInstr: The causee appears in the instrumental case.

TrCeeQuasinstr: The causee appears in a case whose primary function is not instrumental but can serve this function as well.

TrCeeObl: The causee appears in a non-instrumental oblique case.

When a language displays more than one type, two values can be listed. If one type is dominant (more frequent), a slash (/) can separate the two values, with the dominant value appearing first; if neither is dominant (equal frequency), they are listed with an ampersand (&) separating the two.

[1] Case marking should be understood here to include the use of adpositions as well as case affixes.

[2] The term “lexically” refers to what the “original” or “underlying” verb would be according to a generative analysis. For example, the underlying structure of the sentence The father makes his son eat spinach would be The son eats spinach (causee: son).

[3] In nominative languages, this appears as the case of the subject (nominative). This value only applies to languages in which causatives are exclusively periphrastic and sequential (value SeqPfrCC for the parameter Periphrastic causatives).

[4] In nominative languages, this appears as the case marking the direct object (accusative).

[5] In nominative languages, this appears as the case marking the indirect object (dative).