本論文旨在審視中文使動性是否具有連續性。使動性的來源主要有兩種觀點：衍生語法認為使動性是由句法位移得到，而詞彙語法則認為使動性是詞彙本身所賦予的。本文根據「直接性」、「動力學」和「及物性」三個面向研究中文使動詞和使動結構的使動性，結果可分為高、中、低三個層次。高使動性傾向由中文使動詞表現而低使動性則傾向由使動結構表現。使動性的差異不僅支持詞彙語法對使動性來源的解釋，對衍生語法認為使動性源自於句法結構的說法提出反駁，也符合自然語言的象似性原則。 / Derivational grammarians propose that causativity comes from the syntactic structures whereas lexicalists suggest it is incorporated within the formation of the lexicon. This thesis aims to investigate Mandarin lexical and periphrastic causatives to see if their causativity varies depending on the category of causative to which they are assigned. Three frameworks are adopted here to examine causatives from diverse perspective, directness, force-dynamics and transitivity. This combined framework is utilized to examine Mandarin lexical causatives and typical periphrastic causatives including 使shi, 令ling, 讓rang, 叫jiao1, and 教 jiao2 constructions. The results indicate that causativity forms a continuum in which the degree of the causativity of lexical causatives ranges from high to intermediate but that for periphrastic causatives ranges from intermediate to low. The variation in the degree of causativity proves that the derivational account is incorrect. Moreover, this study supports the lexicalist viewpoints that the causativity has variations because it is integrated in the lexical formation. In addition, more evidence, such as adverb placement and resultative compound formation, is provided to demonstrate that lexicalist accounts take the advantage of explaining the causativity. Finally, the variation of causativity has demonstrated that the shorter the forms are, the greater the degree of causativity is. This observation conforms to the principle of iconicity, and is encoded in humans’ cognition and the natural language.