Part 4 · grammar — Chapter 15 · voice possibility

The causative ka

Some actions have two authors: the one who performs them and the one who set them in motion. The teacher does not read the book; the child reads it, because the teacher arranged it. The causative particle ka puts that arrangement into grammar.

With an intransitive verb, the causer takes the subject position and the original actor becomes the object:

lopia nulae
child sleep
"The child sleeps"

mia lopia ka nulae
1SG child CAUS sleep
"I make the child sleep"

With a transitive verb, the same shift happens and the original object stays where it was:

mia thia nophi ka theo
1SG 2SG story CAUS read
"I make you read the story"

ka says nothing about how the causing was done: force, persuasion, invitation, or simply leaving the book where it would be found. Context carries that. What the grammar insists on is only that the influence itself be visible: this action had a second author, and here they are, in subject position, on the record.

With tense and aspect

ka is a Slot 1 voice particle (like the passive se, it restructures who acts) and sits in the fixed order: tense, aspect, then voice, as a block before the verb:

mia thia to ka theo — "I made you read"
mia thia so ka theo — "I will make you read"
mia thia si ka theo — "I am making you read"
mia thia ki ka theo — "I have made you read"
lopia se ka nulae — "The child is made to sleep"
mia lopia ka na nulae — "I must make the child sleep"

The voice pair is fixed se ka; with modals, voice precedes modality (ka na must make, ka po can make), the modal scoping the whole caused event. And ka ma denies the causation itself, the honest refusal of authorship: mia lopia to ka ma nulae, "I did not make the child sleep." Making someone refrain is said with its own verb or two clauses.

What the visibility is for

Most languages let influence hide. "The child read the book" can be said by the teacher who required it, and no grammar objects. Phi objects. If you were the cause, saying so costs one syllable, and not saying so is a choice you made.

That visibility matters most where influence is easiest to overlook, in teaching, parenting, leading:

lo miona lopia ka shonela
PL person child CAUS learn
"The people have the children learn"

Growth rarely happens alone; ka lets a community say so plainly, and it lets the question of responsibility be asked with the facts already on the table. Who acted is one answer. Who arranged the acting is another. Phi keeps room for both.

Causing states

Qualities are not verbs in Phi: nothing is "cleaned" or "calmed" in a single word. A state is entered with kelu (become), the quality standing before it, and caused with the same machinery every other verb uses:

lurekoi seroli kelu
fruit mature become
"The fruit ripens"

mia noru hiso ka kelu
1SG bowl clean CAUS become
"I clean the bowl"

mia lopia shena ka nai
1SG child calm CAUS be
"I keep the child calm"

ka kelu brings something to a state; ka nai holds it there. The quality stays what it is (a descriptor), and the causing stays where causing always lives: in Slot 1, on the record.