Abstract

This thesis argues for a unified syntactic analysis of causatives. Previous literature has taken contrasts between Hungarian and Japanese morphological causatives as evidence that Hungarian causatives are derived in the lexicon via arity operations, while their Japanese counterparts are derived in the syntax via Merge and Agree. It is shown that the contrasts between Hungarian and Japanese causatives can be accounted for within the syntax, without needing to posit a separate computational component in the lexicon. Specifically, I argue that the locus of variation has to do with the size of the complements taken by Hungarian and Japanese causatives. Following Pylkkänen (2008)’s causative typology, I assume that Hungarian causatives embed little-v (i.e. they are ‘verb selecting’ in Pylkkänen’s terminology), while Japanese causatives embed Voice (i.e. they are ‘Voice-selecting’). Furthermore, I demonstrate that the syntactic analysis I propose accommodates empirical evidence that cannot be accounted for under a lexicalist analysis.