1 When causative means 'intensive ' George Aaron Broadwell University at Albany, State University of New York March 21, 1997 Workshop on structure and constituency in languages of the Americas Winnipeg, Manitoba 1 Introduction 1.1 Choctaw 1) Hattak-at taloowa-tok. man-nm sing-pt ‘The man sang.’ 2) Abano poli-yat hattak taloowa-chi-tok. preacher-nm man sing-caus-pt ‘The preacher made the man sing.’ This causative suffix triggers a.) an increase in the valence of the verb stem, and b.) a change in grammatical relations, i.e. non-causative subject ÷ causative object. Another common interpretation of the causative implies an instrument: 3) John-at i -kaah achiifa-tok. John-nm 3-car wash-pt ‘John washed his car.’ 4) John-at i -kaah achiifa-chi-tok. John-nm 3-car wash-caus-pt ‘John made (s.o.) wash his car.’ [causative] ‘John used (s.t.) to wash his car.’ [instrumental] These are unsurprising uses of the causative, seen in many other languages. However, consider the following pair: 5) John-at ashanni-tok. John-nm twist-pt ‘John twisted it.’ 6) John-at ashanni-chi-tok. John-nm twist-aff-pt ‘John twisted it hard/ twisted it with difficulty/ twisted it and broke it.’