linguistic morphology In linguistics, morphology is the study of words, including the principles by which they are formed, and how they relate to one another within a language. Most approaches to morphology investigate the structure of words in terms of morphemes, wh ...

, causative mood serves to express a causal relation, e.g., a logical inference relation, between the current clause and the clause or sentence it refers to. It occurs, for example, in

Eskimo-Aleut The Eskaleut ( ), Eskimo–Aleut or Inuit–Yupik–Unangan languages are a language family native to the northern portions of the North American continent, and a small part of northeastern Asia. Languages in the family are indigenous to parts of ...

languages. Causative mood is not to be confused with the unrelated notion of

causative voice In linguistics, a causative (abbreviated ) is a valency-increasing operationPayne, Thomas E. (1997). Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 173–186. that indicates that a subject either ...

, a valency-shifting operation in many languages.

Inuktitut

Inuktitut Inuktitut ( ; , Inuktitut syllabics, syllabics ), also known as Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the North American tree line, including parts of the provinces of ...

, the causative is used to link propositions that follow logically. It is much more broadly used in Inuktitut than similar structures are in English. The causative is one of the most important ways of connecting two clauses in Inuktitut:

West Greenlandic

West Greenlandic (), also known as West Greenlandic (), is the primary language of Greenland and constitutes the Greenlandic language, spoken by the vast majority of the inhabitants of Greenland, as well as by thousands of Greenlandic Inuit in Denmark proper (i ...

, the causative (sometimes called the ''conjunctive'') is used to construct subordinate clauses that express cause or time (when in the past) (Fortescue 1990, p.314). It is used to mean "because", "since" or "when", sometimes also "that". The causative is used also in main clauses to imply an underlying cause.Bjørnum(2003) pp. 43–44

Yup'ik

Central Alaskan Yup'ik Central Alaskan Yup'ik may refer to: * Central Alaskan Yup'ik people * Central Alaskan Yup'ik language Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directio ...

, the causal suffix ''-nga'' is used to form subordinate clauses that are translated as "because", or "when".

References

{{Reflist Linguistic morphology Linguistics terminology