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Causatives in Have and Get

The term causative is used here for a form which is used to express several different meanings, one of which is cause. The causative takes a sentence and converts it into a subordinate clause; a new relation is added to the sentence, indicating the entity which caused the original sentence to take place:

We can start with an active sentence:

Subject
(nominative)		 verb
(3S simple non-past)		 object
(accusative)
He eats the cake.

To make a causative, we convert this sentence into a subordinate clause (marked []), which has the accusative plus infinitive formation: the subject is put into the accusative case (the form normally used for objects), and the verb is converted into an infintive (without to). In front of this we put a new subject (the causer of the event) and the auxiliary have:

Main clause Subordinate clause
Subject
(nominative)		 verb
(simple past)		 subject
(accusative)		 verb
(infinitive without to)		 object
(accusative)
I had [him eat the cake].

Or, we can use the auxiliary get; in this case, the verb of the subordinate clause is an infinitive with to:

Main clause Subordinate clause
Subject
(nominative)		 verb
(simple past)		 subject
(accusative)		 verb
(infinitive with to)		 object
(accusative)
I got [him to eat the cake].

If we start with a passive sentence, then instead of converting the verb to an infinitive, we simply remove the auxiliary verb to leave the passive participle:

Original sentence:
Subject
(nominative)		 auxiliary verb main verb
(participle)
He was rewarded.

Causative with have:
Main clause Subordinate clause
Subject
(nominative)		 verb
(simple past)		 subject
(accusative)		 main verb
(participle)
I had [him rewarded].

Causative with get:
Main clause Subordinate clause
Subject
(nominative)		 verb
(simple past)		 subject
(accusative)		 main verb
(participle)
I got [him rewarded].

As usual, the form with get tends to be more colloquial and the form with have tends to be more formal.

Adversity and Benefit

Exactly the same forms can be used to express adversity and benefit. The new relation which is added to the sentence is not the person who caused the event, but someone who lost or suffered as a result of it (adversity) or someone who gained or benefitted from it (benefit).

Benefit, starting from an active sentence:
Original sentence: My pay was increased.
'Causative' of benefit: I had [my pay increased].

Adversity, starting from a passive sentence:
Original sentence: My wallet was stolen by a thief.
'Causative' of adversity: I got [my wallet stolen by a thief].

This leads to ambiguity:

I had [my car stolen].

This sentence could mean 'I suffered from having my car stolen' or 'I arranged to have my car stolen'.

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