Explaining the link between agentivity and non - culminating causation ∗

This paper offers an account for why, cross-linguistically, denying the whole change of state encoded by causative verbs is easier with agent than with causer subjects. It does so by extending the theory of the progressive developed in Varasdi (2014a,b) to non-culminating readings of causative verbs, not only in progressive but also in perfective sentences. It additionally sustains two claims about the difference between agentive and nonagentive ongoing causation events: Only the former (a) can in principle start before their potential effects start and (b) are systematically ‘indicative’ of these potential effects.