This volume presents fifteen original papers dealing with various aspects of causative constructions ranging from morphology to semantics with emphasis on language data from Central and South America. Informed by a better understanding of how different constructions are positioned both synchronically (e.g., on a semantic map) and diachronically (e.g., through grammaticalization processes), the volume affords a comprehensive up-to-date perspective on the perennial issues in the grammar of causation such as the distribution of competing causative morphemes, the meaning distinctions among them, and the overall form-meaning correlation. Morphosyntactic interactions of causatives with other phenomena such as incorporation and applicativization receive focused attention as such basic issues as the semantic distinction between direct and indirect causation and the typology of causative constructions. Table of ContentsPreface ix Appreciation Philip W. Davis xi Abbreviations xiii Introduction: Some basic issues in the grammar of causation Masayoshi Shibatani 1 Cooperation and interpersonal manipulation in the society of intimates T. Givón and Phil Young 23 Verbs of interpersonal causality and the folk theory of mind and behavior Bertram F. Malle 57 The causative continuum Masayoshi Shibatani and Prashant Pardeshi 85 Causation, constructions, and language ecology: An example from French Michel Achard 127 Tarascan causatives and event complexity Ricardo Maldonado and E. Fernando Nava 157 Some constraints on Cora causative constructions Verónica Vázquez Soto 197 Olutec causatives and applicatives Roberto Zavala 245 On some causative doublets in Classical Nahuatl Michel Launey 301 The notion of transfer in Sikuani causatives Francisco ueixalós 319 Causative constructions in Akawaio Anatol Stefanowitsch 341 Causation in Matses (Panoan, Amazonian Peru) David W. Fleck 373 Causativization and transitivity in Shipibo-Konibo Pilar M. Valenzuela 417 Causatives in Asheninka: The case for a sociative source David Payne 485 Guaraní causative constructions Maura Velázquez-Castillo 507 Index 535