The article describes the causativization processes in Karitiana, a language of the Tupi stock, spoken in the state of Rondônia, Brazil. All intransitive verbs can be affected by synthetic or morphological causativization (transitivization) through a causative morpheme {m-} which allows the addition of an external argument (the subject agent or cause) to an intransitive sentence, making it transitive. Analytical or periphrastic causativization occurs by means of an auxiliary causative typoong. This auxiliary verb causativizes biargumental verbs with transitive or intransitive base. The periphrastic auxiliary selects only a structure in which an external argument in the sentence is pre-existent (agent or cause), so an intransitive verb will occur in that structure only if the verb was causativized/transitivized before by the morphological causativizer {m-}.
Causativization; Transitivization; Syntax; Karitiana language; Tupi stock