These are examples of the causative rule, found in English and many other languages, which takes an intransitive verb meaning “to do something” and converts it to a transitive verb meaning “to cause to do something”: The butter melted. Sally melted the butter. The ball bounced. Hiram bounced the ball. The horse raced past the barn. The jockey raced the horse past the barn. The causative rule can apply to some verbs but not others; occasionally children apply it too zealously. But it is not easy, even for a linguist, to say why a ball can bounce or be bounced, and a horse can race or be raced,
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