A causative construction is sometimes described as involving "two events". [...] I prefer a quite different characterization - a causative construction involves the specification of an additional argument, a causer, onto a basic clause.
- Dixon (2004), a pag.332

All causative constructions have in common the addition of an A argument (the causer) to an underlying clause and this provides the basic semantic/syntactic criterion for recognizing a causative construction in a given language.
- Dixon (2004), a pag.334