Have you walked the dog yet? The ergative causativization of intransitives

Abstract

In this article we characterize the construction type exemplified by Have you walked the dog yet? as the causativization of an intransitive according to the ergative model. This characterization refers to the view on transitivity/ergativity in English according to which distinct transitive versus ergative semantic role configurations should be distinguished for both two- and one-participant structures. By analyzing Have you walked the dog yet? as a special case of ergative causative, its specific grammatico-semantic characteristics can be explained and the extension of the category can be delineated more sharply. We then propose that, with manner-of-motion verbs, this construction type can encode six rather different subtypes of causation. We argue that a number of long-standing questions, such as whether a circumstance of direction is obligatory or optional, and whether the relation between the participants in the process should be described by features such as volitive, coercive, or enabling, can be solved by relating them to the subtypes, rather than to the construction as a whole.¹