Agency in Persian Causative Constructions: An RRG Account

There has been much discussion of Persian causatives from different perspectives among grammarians: Lotfi (2008) from the perspective of Talmys theory of Force Dynamics; Golfam & Bahrami(2009) from typological andcognitive perspective and Dehghany (2008) from a contrastive perspective (Persian and Azari). All these approachesare directed towards how causative constructions are realized in Persian. Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) differsfrom other theories of syntax in terms of its technical features. This article is an exploration of agency in Persian causatives in the framework of RRG . Based on the typology of causative constructions proposed by Song (1996) and Comrie(1992) as well as adapting Lotfi s (2008) examples, Persian causatives are surveyed in terms of beingimplicative or non-implicative as well as the existence of the notation Do (agent marker) in their logical structures. Itis concluded that in Persian PURP-type causative (or analytic in Comrie s term) is non-implicative; that is, theresulting state of affairs is not necessarily entailed. Unlike Persian PURP-type causatives, COMPACT-type (lexical & morphological causatives in Comrie s term) and AND-type causatives are grouped together as non-purposive causatives for which agency and the insertion of agent marker Do in the logical structure depends on extra promptswhich signal the volition of the effector in doing the action. It further seems that in Persian like English, few verbs are lexically agentive and their application in clauses is the main factor in determining the agency of the causer.

Keywords:

Agency , Typology , Causative , Logical Structure