Turkish Causatives are Recursive: A Response to Key 2013
Publication Date
4-1-2025
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Linguistic Inquiry
Volume
56
Issue
2
DOI
10.1162/ling_a_00472
First Page
401
Last Page
414
Abstract
It is claimed in Key 2013 that Turkish, despite allowing multiple causative morphemes on a single complex verb, does not in fact allow causative recursion, where one causing event is embedded by another causing event. This squib argues against Key’s conclusion, using evidence from eventhood diagnostics to show that “double” causatives in Turkish encode two distinct, syntactically represented causing events in addition to the caused event. Thus, Turkish causatives are indeed recursive. This finding supports approaches to productive affixal causatives that allow recursive embedding of the same category over approaches that rely on a fixed functional hierarchy.
Funding Number
856421
Funding Sponsor
European Research Council
Keywords
argument structure, causative, morphology, recursion, syntax, Turkish
Department
Linguistics and Language Development
Recommended Citation
Yining Nie. "Turkish Causatives are Recursive: A Response to Key 2013" Linguistic Inquiry (2025): 401-414. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00472
Comments
The published version of the article will be available on 2025-07-01 due to embargo policy