Acquisition of French Causatives: Parallels to English Passives

• Main Authors: Jason Borga, William Snyder
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-05-01
• Series: Languages
• Subjects: first language acquisition; relativized minimality; causatives
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/3/2/18

Guasti (2016) notes similarities between English get- and be-passives, and Romance causatives of the faire-par and faire-infinitif types, respectively. On this basis she conjectures that faire-infinitif will show an acquisitional delay similar to that found for English be-passives, which are not mastered until sometime after the age of four. Here, this prediction is tested and supported for French faire-infinitif causatives of transitive verbs. To explain the delay, the Universal Freezing Hypothesis (UFH) of Snyder and Hyams (2015) is extended to this type of causative: a restriction on movement is recast as a restriction on AGREE. A novel prediction, that faire causatives involving unergative or unaccusative verbs will be acquired much earlier, is also tested and supported. Finally, English get-passives and French “reflexive causative passives” are examined in light of the fact that both are acquired substantially earlier than age four.