Verb and Situation

VERBS AND SITUATIONS
A. Causative Verb
a. Definition
In English, the causative form is used when we don't do someting ourselves,
instead we arrange for someone else to do it for us. Causative verbs express an
action which is caused to happen. In other words, when you have something done
for you, you cause it to happen. In other words, you do not actually do anything,
but ask someone else to do it for you. This is the sense of causative verbs. They
express the idea of someone causing something to take place.
For example:
Jack had his house painted.
This sentence is similar in meaning to: Someone painted Jack's house or
Jack's house was painted by someone.
Based on Griffith (2006, page 61), the meaning expressed by causative

sentence indicates situation caused brought by whatever the subject noun phrase
refers to and the caused situation is described by embedded clause.
Example of causative sentences with an entailment

Causatives Entailments
1. The thought made her gleeful. 1. She was gleeful.
2. The children got the kite to fly. 2. The kite flew.
3. Bad weather forces us to cancel the
3. We are cancelling the picnic.
picnic.
4. His inexperience is causing the 4. The decisions are going
decisions to go unactioned. unactioned.
5. I had the students read this article. 5. The students read this article.
The causative on the left differ from corresponding sentences on the right in
several ways:
1. They include a causative verb (make, get, force, cause, have, prevent in these
examples).
2. The subject of the causative sentence is used to refer to whatever human,
abstract or concrete – brings about the situation described by the sentence on
the right.
3. The subject of the causative sentence is used to refer to whatever – human,
abstract or concrete – brings about the situation described by the sentence on
the right.
4. The causative has an embedded clause carrying the same proposition as the
sentence to its right in the table. This is most clearly seen in I had (the students
read this article), where the embedded clause is in parentheses. (Even here there
has been a change. Think of how read is pronounced: in the causative as /ri:d/,
the untensed base form of the verb, but as a past tense verb /rεd/ in the entailed
free-standing clause.)
The verb in the main clause of a causative sentence is a causative verb and
as stated above, the caused situation is described by the embedded clause. For
example, the person referred to as I caused the situation ‘the students read this
article’ to come about. Cause is arguably a superordinate for the other causative
verbs in table above. For example the causative verb force can be taken to mean
‘cause an unwanted consequence’.
b. Form of Causative Verb

Generally, causative verbs consist of let, make, have, and get. It will be
discussed one by one.
1. Let
Let can be taken to mean ‘let someone else to do something’. Example:
(1) My father lets me choose my own future career.
(2) The shepherd lets his sheep graze in the meadow
2. Make
'Make' as a causative verb expresses the idea that the person requires another
person to do something. It can also be taken to mean force someone to do
something. Example:
(1) Peter made her do her homework.
(2) The teacher made the students stay after class.
3. Have
'Have' as a causative verb expresses the idea that the person wants something
to be done for them. This causative verb is often used when speaking about
various services. There are two forms of the causative verb 'have'. Examples:
(1) They had John arrive early.
(2) She had her children cook dinner for her.
4. Got
'Get' is used as a causative verb in a similar way as 'have' is used with the
participle. This expresses the idea that the person wants something to be done
for them. The causative verb is often used in a more idiomatic manner than
'have'. For examples:
(1) They got their house painted last week.
(2) Tom got his car washed yesterday.
B. Situation Types
Based on Vendler’s (1967) there are four classifications of situation types which
will be discussed in this chapter. It classifies into Achievement, State, Activity, and
Accomplishment.
Here the examples of the four types situation based on Vendler’s.
1) She got her ankle sprained.( achievement)
2) She had a sprained ankle. (state)
3) She had phisioteraphy. (activity)
4) She got better.(accomplishment)
1) Achievement
Achievement can be interpreted as instantaneous events without duration. As
stated by Griffith, (2006): ”Progressive aspect marks not only duration, but
extendedness in time and hence its unacceptability with the abrupt changes called
achievement.”
Progressive aspect here means situation viewed as in progress. It indicates
dynamic performance. i.e. a property of a mental representation of the situation.
Vendler’s achievements are not processes but events. Typically described by non-
durative, telic verbs such as recognise, find, stop.
2) State
States are non-dynamic situations which are have duration, do not change
during course; lack inherent endpoint such as such as be happy, believe, knowing
someone, being in love. Dynamic situations involving change and/or movement.
3) Accomplishment
Accomplishments are processes which have a natural endpoint. It is related
to change. But it provides the event as what we called limitation of time. It can be
separated into two endpoints (beginning and culmination) and a process. So,
accomplishment contains activities and achievements, which in turn contain state.
Accomplishment = activity (achievement(state))
4) Activities
Activities are open-ended process which are have duration without endpoint. For
example:
I am pushing a cart.
The act of pushing a cart doesn’t imply any necessary endpoint. sentences
describing activities can have a durative adverbial.
John pushed the cart for an hour
Agents and Goal

The four situation types can be classified according to goal-directedness and whether
or not there is an instigator (termed an agent). An agent is the referent of an argument
if the language encodes it as consciously responsible for what happens. Here the four
situation types classified on presence of goals and agents.
(1) States ( -Goal) (-Agent)
Axel owned a pair of jeans.
You sound hoarse.
Even small contributions count.
(2) Activities (-Goal) (±Agent)
This machine embroiders. agent
Someone was listening.
He slept.
(3) Achievements (+Goal) (-Agent)
Axel received a pair ofjeans.
I heard a bang.
She realised that 512 was 8 cubed.
(4) Accomplishments (+Goal) (±Agent)
The river flooded the meadow.
The court heard all the evidence.
They planted the field with rye.
The hikers walked to Crianlarich.
*Even small contributions carefully count,
*I carefully heard a bang.
A. Agents
Those two examples indicating that the subjects of states and achievements
are not agents, which is why they have been given a minus for the feature agent. If
such sentences are intransitive, like Even small contributions count, then they are
unaccusative. Activities and accomplishments are annotated ±for agency because
some of them have agents but some do not: courts can carry out their functions
carefully and someone can listen carefully, but some ofthe other sentences in the
lower half ofthe table are semantically weird with carefully, for example
*He carefully slept,
*The river carefully flooded the meadow.
Although agent is not a very interesting characteristic of activities and
accomplishments, the absence of agency from states and achievements does identify
one feature of their meaning clearly.
B. Goals
Achievements and accomplishments are directed towards goals end-points
after which the event is over: for instance the event encoded in Axel received a pair
of jeans has been achieved the moment Axel has those jeans; the action of the
meadow flooding has been accomplished when the meadow reaches a flooded state.
Among the tests that Vendler (1967) put forward for distinguishing among
situation types were time preposition phrases with in and for. Acceptability with an
in-time phrase, such as in twenty seconds or in four hours, diagnoses the presence of
a goal. She realised in twenty seconds that 512 was eight cubedindicates that the
flash ofrealisation came twenty seconds after some point that is not actually
specified in the achievement sentence – perhaps timing started when she was set an
arithmetical puzzle. And it is the same with achievement sentences generally: an
inphrase specifies, from some prior point external to the encoded situation, how
long it takes before the achievement happens.

Verb and Situation

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Verb and Situation

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VERBS AND SITUATIONS

Based on Griffith (2006, page 61), the meaning expressed by causative

Example of causative sentences with an entailment

b. Form of Causative Verb

John pushed the cart for an hour

Agents and Goal

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