The fare causative derivation in Italian

Much of the literature on Italian causatives is concerned with the syntactic status of the constructions, their derivation from a Deeper Structure, and the lexical status of the causative verb employed. I will review a selection of such claims, pointing out that some of these claims may not in fact be as strongly backed by the available data as implied. I then move on to describe some basic properties of the Italian fare causative, presenting independent linguistic evidence of its use. Some interesting generalizations emerging from this analysis are presented here, with regard to intentional versus non-intentional readings and with how differently marked Causees conveys different meanings. These observations will also be analysed in the light of known typological universals relating to causative structures.