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Causative stems (Ⅱ & Ⅳ)

Stem Ⅱ faʕʕala, yufaʕʕilu فَعَّلَ، يُفَعِّلُ (called the D-stem, D for “doubled radical”) and Stem Ⅳ ʔafʕala, yufʕilu أَفْعَلَ، يُفْعِلُ both can have a causative or intensive meaning.

Causative

Causative verbs mean “make [object 1] do [object 2]” when they are derived from a transitive verb meaning “do [object 2],” and mean “make [object 1] do” when they are derived from an intransitive verb. Thus, a causative verb is inherently transitive, that is, it must govern at least one object. It governs two objects (ditransitive) when derived from a transitive verb and one object when derived from an intransitive verb.

Like other verbs, causative verbs can be action verb or non-action verbs. Non-action causative verbs mean “make [object] become something.”

Causative verbs are commonly derived from nouns, with the meaning “make [object] become noun.”

Following are examples.

The meaning of denominal causative verbs is not always to be taken literally. For example, the verbs kabbara and ʔakbara have the literal meaning “he made [object] big(ger)” but they can also mean “he considered [object] big” or “he exaggerated the size of [object].” Likewise, kaððaba and ʔakðaba mean literally “he made [object] a lying [person]” but what they really mean is “he considered [object] a lying [person]” or “he accused [object] of being a lying [person].”

When derived from nouns indicating place, direction, or time, causative verbs have the meaning “be(come) in place/time,” “head into place/direction,” or “spend time.”

A characteristic of causative verbs is that they can be frequently used as middle-voice verbs with reduced transitivity. English has many such verbs of alternating voice and transitivity, e.g. the verb break is active-voice and transitive in “He broke the glass” but middle-voice and intransitive in “The glass broke.” (Verbs whose voice and transitivity change like this are called ergative.) For example, the Stem Ⅱ ħaǵǵara, yuħaǵǵiru حَجَّرَ، يُحَجِّرُ , which is derived from the noun ħaǵaruṋ حَجَرٌ “stone(s),” can mean either “petrify [object]” or “become petrified.” The Stem Ⅳ ʔaslama, yuslimu أَسْلَمَ، يُسْلِمُ can mean either “surrender [object]” or “surrender self.”

Intensive

Intensive verbs indicate more intense actions, the intensity being of character, duration, or frequency.

The intensive meaning of Stem Ⅳ was not recognized by the grammarians of CA. However, the many verbs of this stem that are said to be synonymous with their Stem Ⅰ cognates are likely to have been originally intensive, like the following examples.

Note

In the modern vernacular dialects, Stem Ⅳ has practically disappeared. It remains only vestigially in some dialects. But Stem Ⅱ remains very productive. This development is unsurprising because Stem Ⅱ and Stem Ⅳ had identical meanings and eliminating one of them eliminated a redundancy.

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