How does the causative passive form of the verb work?

The causative form of a Japanese verb is the 'to make (someone) do' or 'to let (someone) do' form. An equivalent of this verb form doesn't exist in English.

For example, kuruma wo ugokaseta, from ugoku "to move", means 'I made the car move'.

Making causative forms of verbs
Type of verb Ending Examples
godan, or "consonant" (*) -seru kaku, "write", becomes kakaseru
tatsu, "stand", becomes tataseru
yomu, "read", becomes yomaseru
ichidan, or "vowel" (*) -saseru miru, "see", becomes misaseru
kakeru becomes kakesaseru
kahen (**) -saseru kuru, "come", becomes ko-saseru
sahen (**) -saseru suru becomes se-saseru (***) or saseru

To make causative into passive forms, one attaches -rareru to the mizenkei of -seru or -saseru.

Causative-passive forms of verbs
Type of verb Ending Examples
godan, or "consonant" (*) -serareru kaku, "write", becomes kakaserareru or kakasareru
tatsu, "stand", becomes tataserareru or tatasareru
yomu, "read", becomes yomaserareru or yomasareru
ichidan, or "vowel" (*) -saserareru miru, "see", becomes misaserareru
kakeru becomes kakesaserareru
kahen (**) -saserareru kuru, "come", becomes kosaserareru
sahen (**) -saserareru suru becomes sesaserareru or sareru

For the godan verbs, instead of -se-rareru forms, the -sareru forms shown in red above also commonly occur. The ending -serareru is gramatically correct for godan verbs. But the -sareru forms are more common than the -serareru forms. However, for ichidan and kahen verbs, -sareru forms do not exist. For example, mi-sareru, kake-sareru, ko-sareru are impossible.

This godan sareru causative-passive verb ending usually doesn't appear in textbooks.

Now let's consider what the -sareru forms of passive causative are. I think they are either:

The latter idea is based on the assumption that mizenkei of a godan verb plus suffix -su produces another godan verb of causative meaning. For example, yaru (to do something) becomes yarasu (to make/let someone do something). Thus yarasu can be used as a godan verb, although the usage is not standard.

Examples of yarasu:

The forms marked with '*' above are not natural but may be possible. The rentaikei (see What is the 'i' verb ending?) form of yarasu is quite possible. So it can be said that yarasu itself is a godan verb.

Acknowledgements

Edited from a post to sci.lang.japan by ITO Kazumitsu


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