The causative (CAUS) is one of two affixes that can change the number of participants associated with a verb (the other is the anti-causative discussed below). The causative prefix rii- adds an additional participant, a causer, to the verb's argument structure. This changes a verb meaning X to meaning make X or cause someone to X. Compare the following two sentences, the first active, the second causative:
Eyara PFV-cry[3SG:NOM] He cried.
Eriiyaraasa-ha. PFV-CAUS-cry-3SG.ACC=1SG.NOM I made him cry.
As the above examples show, the causative is morphologically straightforward, prefixing to the verb stem. The behavior of the surrounding NPs is a bit more complicated and will be discussed in the second argument realization page.
The anti-causative (AC), as the name suggests, is kind of reverse causative. Specifically, the anti-causative prefix ke- removes a participant, the agent, and the resulting verb is one that is internally-caused, instead of externally caused. Compare the following two sentences, the first active, the second anti-causative:
Ewenan a tsowos PFV-break.in.2-TR[3SG.NOM] ABS INS.NMLZ-spear He broke the spear in 2.
Ekewena a tsowos PFV-AC-break.in.2[3SG.NOM] ABS INS.NMLZ-spear The spear broke in 2.
The anti-causative is very often used with certain verbs that denote activities that animates do to themselves. One such example is given below:
Ekekater a keriyos. PFV-AC-dress ABS man The man dressed.
This use contrasts with reflexives, which are largely confined to events construed as having a clear external cause (as well as being the choice for when subjects act on themselves as obliques).
The marking of noun phrases in anti-causative sentences will also be discussed in the second argument realization page.
A great many transitive verbs can enter the demoted object construction without any change to their morphology, other than the absence of the transitive suffix, which might be expected given they (now) have no direct object. However, certain classes of verbs (principally the change of state verbs and the verbs of contact by impact; examples are given here) need more 'help': they require the antipassive (ANTIP) suffix -(i)s.
One such verb that requires this is tsat, hit, as shown below (Note that verbs, such as tsat, ending in -t are the only consonantal stems which take the above suffix as -s; all other consonantal stems require the i):
Tsats ta riyos. hit-ANTIP LOC people He hits people.
Another verb requiring this suffix is tsos, kill, as in:
Tsosis-ti ta ekori. kill-ANTIP=3PL.NOM LOC bear They kill bears.
Note that, contrary to all the other affixes discussed in this section, this is a suffix, appearing in the same place as the transitive suffix.
| Noun | Gloss | New Verb | Gloss |
| yat | one | watsat | be first |
| war | ten | watar | be tenth |
| tsawa | success | watsawa | be successful, have success |
| eher | cold | wateher | be cold |
| kitsa | sharp, pointed thing | wakitsa | be sharp, pointed |
In rare instances when causative rii- and denominalizer wa(t)- are both present, rii- precedes wa(t)-, as in:
Eriiwatsatiisa-ha ya taran. E- rii- wat- yat- iisa =ha ya taran. PFV- CAUS- DENOM- one- 3SG.ACC =1SG.NOM DAT clan.leader I made him frontrunner for the clan leader job. (lit. I made him first for clan leader.)
The directionals are next set of affixes in the verb. They semantically place the event in space, though this has been semantically extended in many cases. They are required by some verbs for certain meanings (like riitsiyeren, revive (lit. make alive up), disallowed by others, and are optional with still others (like quos, go, come). The directionals are:
| Directional | Rough English Equivalent | -qua- | (towards speaker/some point) |
| -yo- | (away from speaker/some point) |
| -tsi- | up |
| -no- | down |
| -hi- | along |
As a final derivational process, verbs can also be nominalized. However, because nominalized verbs have more nominal properties than verbal properties, nominalizations are covered on the derivational nominal morphology page.