notes

  • the causative helper verb means to cause someone to do something
    • goes onto the あ stem
    • 「せる」 for godan verbs and 「させる」 for ichidan verbs
      • sounds similar to the receptive helper (「れる」/「られる」)
      • the receptive is related to 「ある」(self-move) and the causative is related to 「する」 (other-move)
    • sliding scale between “allow to do” and “compel to do”
  • in 「水が犬に飲まれた。」, there are two actors and two verbs
    • the main verb is 「れた」/”got”, which is done by 「水」/”water”
    • the other verb is 「のま」/”drunk”, which is done by 「犬」/”dog”
  • in 「０が犬を食べさせた。」, there are also two actors and two verbs
    • the main verb is 「させた」/”caused”, which is done by 「０が」/”I”
    • the other verb is 「食べ」/”eat”, which is done by 「犬」/”dog”
  • can be seen as either the object or target of an action of what is doing the causing
    • if the caused action has an object, it will be marked with を
    • the target of the causation will be marked with に
  • the receptive helper verb can be attached to the causative helper verb
    • “got made to do”
    • 「せられる」 for godan verbs and 「させられる」 for ichidan verbs
    • causative-receptive sentences have three verbs
    • ex: 「私は０が野菜を食べさせられた。」 means “As for me, (I) got compelled to eat vegetables.”
      • 「０が」/”I” is the actor of the primary action 「られた」/”got”
      • 「させ」/”compelled” is the secondary action, but has no actor in this case
      • 「０が」/”I” is the same actor as before for the tertiary action「食べ」/”eat”
      • the primary and tertiary actors are the same, the secondary actor is different

        resources

  • youtube