Causativity Expression and Cross-linguistic Variation of Resultative Constructions

This paper aims to propose a new account for the cross-linguistic variation of resultative constructions in natural languages. Specifically, I shall show why certain languages like English have the typical resultatives while others like Romance languages or Japanese systemically miss them. I shall first review Washio’s (1996, 1997) typological pattern for resultative constructions as well as the major approaches accounting for this pattern. Then, based on Mateu’s (2002) lexical-semantic approach, I shall argue that the formation of the typical resultatives is closely related to the morphological expression of causativity in a language. I shall classify the causative morphemes in a language into three types, namely P-causative, R-causative and D-causative ones and claim that the necessary condition for the presence of typical resultatives in a language is that its P-causative morpheme can be null. Then, I shall follow Tomioka’s (2003) adjunction analysis of V-V compounds in Japanese and show that the adjunction nature of V-V compounds in Japanese can be accounted for by the lexical nature of causativity in this language. Finally, I shall discuss the status of Chinese in Talmy’s (1991) and Washio’s (1996, 1997) typological patterns and summarize the major lexicalization patterns in English, Chinese, Romance and Japanese.