Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

In English, causation can be expressed with either a lexical or periphrastic causative verb. Lexical causatives include both the notion of CAUSE and the notion of RESULT (frequently change-of-state) (e.g. Mulder sunk the boat); Periphrastic causatives encode the notion of CAUSE without the notion of RESULT (e.g. Mulder made the boat sink). According to many linguists, these two kinds of sentences have different meanings: lexical causatives are used for situations involving direct causation while periphrastic causatives are used for situations involving either direct or indirect causation. This research investigated how this distinction might be cognitively determined. Subjects watched 3D animations of marbles hitting one another and then described the scenes and enumerated the total number of events. When causers were inanimate, lexicalization and enumeration were guided by physical contact. When causers were animate, lexicalization and enumeration were guided by factors other than physical contact, possibly intention or ultimate causation. The results suggest how different kinds of causation and their expression might be related to the perception of events.