The Devil Made Me Do It: Causative Verbs (Part V: Geek Edition)

Where Does the Causative Pattern Come From?

This entry is for the true grammar geeks out there.  In fact, I may be the only one who finds this interesting, but here it is anyway.

There is a theory of grammar (not just English grammar) called Transformational Grammar.  The simplest way I can describe it is to say that everything comes from a clause.  For example, look at the sentence The books sitting on the table are mine.  Because there are two verbs, there must be two clauses.

• The books are mine.
• The books are sitting on the table.

Then, by following the rules of transformation, you make two changes.  First, the books is changes to that in order to make an adjective clause.

• The books that are sitting on the table are mine.

Next, following the rules of reduction (making the sentence shorter by taking away unnecessary words), the pronoun that and the helping verb are can be eliminated, leaving you with the core sentence.

• The books sitting on the table are mine.

You can use the same kind of transformation to explain causative verbs.  In the sentence, My wife made me sleep on the couch, there are two clauses buried in the structure.

• My wife made me do something.
• I slept on the couch.

First, you must plug in the parts of the second clause into the pattern of the first clause.  I becomes me, slept becomes sleep because you need a bare infintive in this statement.  The rest stays the same.

• My wife made me sleep on the couch.

It is important to note that the object of made is not just me.  The object is the entire infinitive clause and me is actually the subject sleep.

If you want to add information about why, you can add a third clause.

• My wife made me sleep on the couch.
• I was snoring loudly.

To connect a reason, you can use the conjunction because.

• My wife made me sleep on the couch because I was snoring loudly.

If you want to take the transformation a step further, which may or may not be a good choice.  (It’s the writer’s decision)  Since snoring can also be a noun, you can use the preposition because of instead of the conjunction.  In order to keep the ideas of I and loudly, they must be changed into forms that can connect to a noun.  The subject pronoun I becomes the adjective pronoun my and the adverb loudly become the adjective loud.

• My wife made me sleep on the couch because of my loud snoring.

Congratulations for making it this far.

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(I really appreciate questions, comments and suggestions.  Feel free to post them in the Comments section below.  However, I don't often see them right away.  Instead, you can use the Questions and Comments link  below or join my Facebook group Mr. K's Grammar World.)

Useful Links

• Questions or Comments
• Causative Verbs Practice
• Mr. K's Grammar World (Website)
• Mr. K's Grammar World (Facebook)
• The Devil Made Me Do It: Causative Verbs (Part I)
• The Devil Made Me Do It: Causative Verbs (Part II - Other Causative Verbs)
• The Devil Made Me Do It: Causative Verbs (Part III - The Passive Voice)
• The Devil Made Me Do It: Causative Verbs (Part IV - Adjectives and Verbs)
• The Devil Made Me Do It: Causative Verbs (Part V - For the True Grammar Geek)