Problem of Causativization in Amharic
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Date
1997-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The presence of an agent in the interpretation of 'astem'
forms and its absence 1n the basic stems define the
function of 'a-' as agentive or causative aff~x in Amharic.
The formal analysis is also plain that 'a-' atcaches to nonagentive
basic stems. The common interpretation of 'as-stem'
forms show double (that is, ultimate and immediate) agency in
relation to the resulting event whether the stems have agent
or not in their argument structure. This phenomenon has been
frequently stated in the literature as indirect causative
(Bender and Hailu, 1978), (Appleyard,1972) causative of the
passive (Leslau, 1967) and factitive (Bender and Hailu, 1978)
function of the affix 'as-' .
This paper verifies the observed passive representation
of the base of 'as-stem' causatives in terms of Prominence
Theory of Argument Structure (Grimshaw, 1990). According to
this theory, an external argument cannot be introduced to an
a-structure in which there is one. Hence, passivization of
agenti ve verbs is necessary in order to suppress the agent
(external argument), that is, to give way for the integration
of arguments in causativization . Accordingly, the so - called
'as-stem' causatives have been derivationally related to the
basic stems by analysing the causative form into 'a-s-stem',
representing passivization and causativization as separate
affixational processes.
By providing morphophonological explanations that relate
[sl to the passive morpheme /t-/ this approach offers a
unified account of causativization in Amharic .
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Problem of Causativization