Arguments in favor of a particular decompositional approach to word meaning are presented and contrasted with other theories. The approach in question uses semantic markers to represent word meanings. The semantic marker analysis of English causative verbs is outlined and illustrated, showing how such an analysis could account for the semantic properties and relations of sentences in which the verbs occur, and how it could account for some of the psychological evidence reported in the literature. A list of references is included. (MSE)