The Causative/Inchoative Alternation, and the Decomposition of Little v

Abstract

Morphological evidence in causative/inchoative pairs in Turkish is analyzed to determine the derivational relationship between the transitive and intransitive members of the pairs. Three patterns are found: 1. The transitive member is derived from the intransitive; 2. The intransitive is derived from the transitive; 3. Both members are independently derived from a common base. For a complete explanation of the data, it is proposed that the verbalizing head little v decomposes into a verbalizer (little v proper) and a discrete ‘flavor’ morpheme (CAUSE, BECOME, etc.).