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] ditransitive; the three arguments of the verb are the agent, theme, and recipient. [3]

Types:

DitrCeeA: The causee appears in the same form as the agent of a non-causative transitive construction.[4]

DitrCeeP: The causee appears in the same form as the patient of a non-causative transitive construction.[5]

DitrCeeRec: The causee appears in the same form as the recipient of a non-causative ditransitive construction.[6]

DitrCeeInstr: The causee appears in the instrumental case.

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

DitrCeeObl: 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 made his son give the letter to the teacher would be The son gave the letter to the teacher (causee: son).

[3] The prototypical ditransitive verb is ‘give.’ In the sentence The boy gives the girl a flower, the boy is the agent, the flower is the theme (direct object of the ditransitive verb), and the girl is the recipient (indirect object of the ditransitive verb).

[4] 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).

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

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