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

Comments

The published version of the article will be available on 2025-07-01 due to embargo policy

Department

Linguistics and Language Development

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS