Causation and dispositions: Towards a semantic characterization of the French causative verb laisser
Causation and dispositions: Towards a semantic characterization of the French causative verb laisser

Summary/Abstract: The French causative verb laisser can enter two different constructions: a monoclausal one resembling the faire-infinitive construction (Kayne 1975, Alsina 1992, Guasti 1996, Folli & Harley 2007) and a biclausal one. While differences in interpretation between these two constructions have been pointed out (Kayne 1975, Enghels & Roegiest 2012), the link between structure and conceptual representation has not been clearly defined yet. In this paper, we tackle the syntax and semantics of causative laisser adopting as a background Talmy’s (1988) force dynamics model of causation. We further show that the link to the selectional restrictions of the causative verb can be made by considering forces as dispositional causal properties (Fara 2001), that is, properties that become relevant with respect to the role of an entity in a causal chain.

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