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Made-up example to illustrate what I mean by "double causative", since that may be an abuse of terminology:

Suppose your grandmother always forces your kids to eat okra, which they hate. You think this is unreasonable and the kids should be allowed to eat what they want. As the grandmother is about to come over, you say to your spouse, "Don't let grandma make the kids eat okra!"

My guess would be something like this:

おばあさんに、子供たちにオクラを食べさせることをさせないで!

Is my attempt correct? What is the most natural way to express this meaning?

alcas
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2 Answers2

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No, it is not correct, sorry to say. You literally created a "double causative" in:

「[食]{た}べさせることをさせないで」

But we would not use this structure in a natural setting. It sounds quite wordy and awkward.

Most naturally, we would say something like:

「おばあさんに、子どもたちにオクラを食べさせないようにしてね( or しようね)。」

For more clarity, one could insert 「[無理]{むり}に」= "forcibly" and say:

「おばあさんに、子どもたちに無理にオクラを食べさせないようにしてね( or しようね)。」

Needless to say, 「してね」 is a friendly request and 「しようね」 is volitional.

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    Thanks. I guess what I really want to ask, then: is there *any* context in which you'd stack two causative *(s)ase* morphemes like I tried to do in my original sentence, and if so, how would you do it? – alcas Aug 27 '14 at 22:31
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    That is just not possible in Japanese. –  Sep 19 '14 at 23:23
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I'd go for the slightly different construction below:

おばあさんに、子供たちにオクラを食べさせないようにしてください。

Make sure that grandma does not make the children eat Okra.

paullb
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  • Apologies. Thanks you. Fixed. If the use of に is wrong please feel free to go ahead and change it. – paullb Sep 19 '14 at 09:40