Morphological causation (Northern Mansi)

SuffCC: Causation is expressed using a suffix on the action verb.


(1) ńawram ulas-t ūnli.
child bench-loc sit.prs.3sg
‘The child is sitting on a bench.’ (S. D.)

(2) ńawram oma-te-n ulas-t ūn-tta-we.
child mother-3sg-lat bench-loc sit-caus-pass.prs.3sg
‘The mother makes her child sit on a bench.’ (S. D.)


In Northern Mansi, morphological causation is expressed by the verbal derivational suffix -tt- (Riese 2001)(cf. (1), (2)). In example (2), the verb is in the passive voice and the causer is in the lative–dative case, which serves as an agent marker.

Author: 

Szilvia Németh