Semantic Transitivity in the "Into"-Causative. An Analysis

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, language: English, abstract: This essay discusses the into-causative, a rather modern subject in linguistics, and its semantic transitivity. The author argues that by using Hopper and Thompson¿s transitivity criteria it is not only possible to analyse the degree of transitivity of the into-causative but also to get insights in which contexts certain transitivity patterns occur.

In order to classify his findings, the author first examines these constructions with respect to Hopper and Thompson¿s features of ¿Mode¿ and ¿Affirmation¿. Afterwards, these features are further classified, and it is shown whether there are features that attract each other, also including the aspect of reflexiveness and voice. As a last step he illustrates the degree of semantic transitivity of the into-causative, using the features analysed in this study.