Licensing of Instrumental Case in Hindi/Urdu Causatives

Abstract

In this paper, I revisit the licensing and interpretation of instrumental case-marked nominals in Hindi/Urdu causative constructions to argue against the hypothesis that the se-marked phrase corresponds to a demoted agent. Rather, I will argue that a more unified analysis of se-phrases can be achieved through an event-structural analysis, in line with the standard interpretation of other adverbials in the syntax. Since the ‘intermediate agent’ interpretation is only possible with indirect causatives in Hindi/Urdu, the event structural analysis proposed here also has implications for the direct vs. indirect causation distinction in the syntax.