Faka-Niue: Understanding cause in Niuean

This paper examines the causative prefix faka - in Niuean, a Polynesian language. Faka - can attach to a noun, adjective or verb, to create a verb or adverb. Usually a verb formed with faka - is causative, though faka - can instead denote intention or distance, and it appears to provide a reflexive sense in many cases. Faka - can attach to transitive stems and when it does, either the internal argument of the stem verb is unexpressed or it is expressed as an instrumental applicative, and the stem is unergative. The paper discusses the causative typology of Pylkkanen (2002). It is argued that Niuean is not a voicebundling language nor is it a voice-selecting causative, although the external argument of the stem verb can be expressed. Instead, Kim’s (2008) analysis of Korean is adopted, with modification, and it is posited that the complement of faka - can be either a verb phrase or an applicative phrase.