obj:agent: agentive object
In a causative construction the obj:agent relation attaches the infinitive verb to his agent, when the latter is the syntactical object of the sentence
(this initial agent has been demoted and became the object of the causative construction).
For example, in the following sentence, ses petits is the true agent of the verb “sauter” (Ses petits ont sauté dans la mare).
This nominal phrase can be pronominalized as follows: La cane les a fait sauter dans la mare. The use of the pronoun les clearly shows that ses petits is the syntactical object of the sentence.
La cane a fait sauter ses petits dans la mare. \n The duck made its ducklings jump into the pond.
aux:caus(sauter,fait)
nsubj:caus(sauter,cane)
obj:agent(sauter,petits)
Mon père a une femme de ménage. Il la fait venir le mercredi. \n My father has a cleaning lady. He makes her come on wednesdays.
aux:caus(venir,fait)
nsubj:caus(venir,Il)
obj:agent(venir,la)
The infinitive verb governs the syntactical subject of the sentence (i.e. the causer) with a nsubj:caus relation and the causative verb with an aux:caus relation.
N.B.: For more details about the analysis of causatives see this page.
obj:agent in other languages: [apu] [fr] [hy] [tl]