Cross-Linguistic Constraints on Subjecthood in Causative Psych Verbs: An Experimental Investigation of Korean, Mandarin Chinese and English

This study investigates whether crosslinguistic constraints on subject selection in physical causative constructions extend to causative psychological verbs (psych verbs, e.g., frighten, surprise), with a focus on subject volitionality. According to Wolff et al.’s (2009) initiator hypothesis, languages tend to restrict subjecthood in causative events to entities that can plausibly initiate a causal chain. While this has been established for physical causatives, it remains unclear whether similar constraints apply in psychological causation. To test this, we conducted an Acceptability Judgment Task in which native speakers of Korean, Mandarin Chinese, and English rated grammatical sentences varying in subject volitionality. The results showed that only Korean speakers consistently dispreferred non-volitional subjects, suggesting that their subject selection is more constrained by volitionality. These findings indicate that the initiator hypothesis extends beyond physical causatives to psych verbs and that crosslinguistic variation in subject selection persists across domains.