Semantics of Spanish causatives involvinghacer

This paper examines the semantics of two Spanish causative constructions ‐ the hacer‐plus‐infinitive construction and the hacer‐plus‐subjunctive construction using Natural Semantic Metalanguage to describe the semantic invariants of these two constructions. The analysis is limited to sentences which have animate causers. From the analysis of such sentences, it can be demonstrated that the two constructions have similar but distinct meanings. The hacer‐plus‐subjunctive construction encodes some idea of intentionality which is absent from the hacer‐plus‐infinitive construction. Where the construction with the subjunctive is used, the action involved is often (though not always) indirect, or mediated, rather than direct, in which case the infinitive is usually (but not always) used.