The Factitive in German
Authors: Primer Sylvester 
Published: April 2006

The design of the present article is a discussion of some points of
special interest in the factitive construction in German and its comparison
with that of the same case in the cognate languages; this will best be
attained by an historical tracing of this construction as far back as
possible and expedient, and by showing its later and special development on
German soil. Clearness will necessitate a discussion of the nature and
functions of this case and its relations to the accusative (to which it is
now more nearly allied) and to the other cases. Inasmuch as the factitive
case forms part of the predicate it will involve the consideration of the
predicative idea, or the relation of subject, verb and object to one
another, since these three ideas, according to Becker, the idea of action
expressed by the verb, the idea of being, either as agent of the action, as
in case of the subject, or as objective and terminal point of the force of
the verb, as in case of the passive object, form when united that antithesis
of action and being out of which the sentence is developed. The intimate
relation of the active subject and passive object appears in that “what is
predicated of the subject as an action, may be predicated of the object as
suffering,” whenever it becomes subject, but always so that it forms a
direct antithesis to the real agent. Both are again intimately connected
with the verb as its support or immediate complement and modifier. The
subject, however, always represents something general and indeterminate
while the verb, either in itself or with its complement or modifier, i. e.
the predicate, is specific. It would appear, then, that the verb contains
not only the idea of motion or the active force in the sentence, but it also
unites in itself the additional idea of substance, not necessarily appearing
as substantive, but rather in the motion which of itself forms the synthetic
bond between the subject and this substantive element of the verb. These two
elements of the verb, the substantial or predicative and the verbal or
copulative, form the predicative idea of every sentence. Whenever the verb
contains more of the substantial element it becomes firmer and
self-supporting and we call it intransitive, but when the verbal element
predominates and the substantial element is to a greater or less degree
eliminated, then the verb seeks support and durability in a new substance,
the object becomes the necessary complement, and we call the verb
transitive; hence the frequent transition from one State to the other (cf.
Rumpel in Hübschmann Zur Casuslehre, p. 59.). The very nature of the
transitive verb requires an immediate complement for the completion of its
sense, which the self-reliant intransitive verb can dispense with, though
capable of modification by an added substantive. Still a third class of
verbs, which do not form a complete thought even when qualified by an
object, require besides the regular object an additional complement or
modifier for the completion of the predicative idea. This may properly be
called the verbal objective to the object; it is also called essive or
predicative case, better known as the factitive. The nature of this
additional complement, its relation to the regular object and the verb must
claim our attention for a moment before we proceed to special
cases.