Abstract

It is proposed to derive the two distinct French anticausative constructions from the interplay of two functional heads, Voice and v, where non-active Voice dominates the morpheme se, and v is the verbal head introducing a dynamic subevent and assigning the Agent role. The middle anticausative derivation (Le vase se casse ‘The vase breaks’) results from the insertion of se under non-active Voice, coupled with the absence of a vP projection. By contrast, the active anticausative derivation (Le vase casse ‘The vase breaks’) results from the use of active Voice with a v projection lacking a specifier. It is shown how these hypotheses account for the derivation of change of state verbs, verbs of movement, as well as the middle anticausative construction with a typically agentive verb, construire ‘to build’.