Original	Revision
Although economic improvement may be caused by tourism, the investment and and operational costs of tourism must also be considered.	Although tourism may lead to economic improvement, the investment and operational costs of tourism must also be considered

Is cause an appropriate verb to use here? And if not, what alternatives are there? In the course of the consultation we did a 'quick trawl' of cause*, with results similar to the following (the 'Deep Object' appearing after the Active verb in citations 1-20 and before the Passive verb in citations 21-30):

 1 iumph, because the Home Secretary had been caused a few moments of discomfort. Here was one of th 
 2 return of the money. The main charges will cause a furore among MPs on the Commons Public Account 
 3 been carefully balanced, "which should not cause a haemorrhaging of building society deposits". ! 
 4 pened, "the resultant explosion would have caused a major disaster involving a considerable loss  
 5  the east German city of Halle. The report caused a public outcry against neo-Nazi violence in Ge 
 6 y condition of the digestive tract. It can cause abdominal pain, severe diarrhoea, constipation,  
 7 oss domestic product. Such a measure would cause acute embarrassment to the UK, which would need  
 8  of VAT on domestic heat and lighting will cause administrative chaos unless it is defeated this  
 9 Temple, other journalists and athletes has caused anger and bitterness, Radford, who only took up 
10 e trial Three men accused of conspiring to cause explosions on or before October 9, last year, an 
11  main story has been the wet weather which caused flooding over parts of southern Britain, as wel 
12  satisfaction. On one visit to the city he caused great offence by using the word "aesthetics".   
13 y effect, if any, of legal sanctions is to cause grief and ignorance. The morality or immorality  
14 nfall for February. Another tropical storm caused havoc over the Australian state of Queensland  
15 realise, of course, that your actions will cause his death. But this is not why you remove the or 
17 ed discussions of male harassment that may cause resentment among male workers. Often, experts sa 
18 le buying ''impure'' substances that could cause serious physical harm. Dabbling, evidently, does 
19 fs quoted by ministers. Unemployment could cause tension at home. "But my main worry is financial 
20  ladder to office: "Gimme a job or I might cause trouble. "It is a time-honoured tactic, so that,

21 woman joins the team to replace a casualty caused by a frozen sprout, brings in a murder mystery  
22  a director, Chris Muir. "A delay has been caused by differences of opinion and interpretation be 
23 the claim that the American Revolution was caused by disagreements over the doctrine of the Trini 
24 d bribes for official contracts. The shock caused by Mr Portillo's 'exaggeration' was so great th 
25 phed if the West had financed the hardship caused by Russia's speedy transition to a market econo 
26  claims from people suffering from illness caused by stress at work, the Association of British I 
27  will see a rebound from the heavy setback caused by the weakness of the Do-It-All joint operatio 
28 rective of the terrible injuries and scars caused by this repulsive attack." In Bonn the federal  
29 story for some people. Alarm is also being caused by tighter contracts being laid down by local a 
30 wn to the department. Her brain damage was caused by whooping cough vaccine, for which the then 

1. The Deep Objects ('Effects') of cause highlighted in red are overwhelmingly negative in connotation, from the relatively mild discomfort (1) and resentment (17) through to the more powerful havoc (14) and death (15). (cf Stubbs 1995). The one exception in this sample would appear to be the American Revolution (23), though, given the effect of all the other contexts in which we find cause, we may suspect that the writer does not think that that was such a Good Thing after all.

2. With this verb the relation between the Cause (which may be human - see citations 10, 12, 20 etc.) and Effect is relatively direct and immediate.

31 to ignite a civil war that would certainly lead to a complete destruction of Yemen as a single sta
32 r to Mrs Bottomley. "Further cuts can only lead to the loss of life." But the authority, which fa
33 cle to take them to court. 'This will also lead to a delay in getting a settlement and fixing thei
34 verseas to satisfy demand in Britain. That leads to a deterioration in Britain's trade balance, wh
35  not envisaged as a total ban, which would lead to accusations that the TCCB was merely maximising
36 ny retreat from free market policies could lead to economic collapse, and renewed confrontation wi
37 er, Thwaites warns that the decision could lead to further miscarriages of justice. "Anyone who th
38 mong the three classroom organisations may lead to more problems in schools than last year. Then, 
39 n the 12th February 1938, a northerly gale led to severe flooding down the east coast. The Februar
40 arguments behind the present conflict also led to the first world war, which was ignited by the as

41 h good if his disconcerting outburst is to lead to a frank discussion about the future of Zionis
42 odle from this man's pen might, one feels, lead to a great discovery. Galileo is as global as hi 
43 omic deregulation and free- market reforms led to a massive boom on the Bombay stock market; infla
44 ng and searching. It reports that this has led to a notable improvement in drug finds in the priso
45 e flexible working arrangements. This will lead to a relatively strong growth in productivity and 
46 le His indomitable spirit was a force that led to great successes on the field in later years, cli
47 ence of any gains. Claims that trusts have led to greater efficiency are difficult to substantiate
48 to the customer. It is not as if subsidies lead to lower prices. If they did, then why is it that 
49 vember. It concluded that the courses have led to 'significant benefits to parents in terms of con
50 tc) and to believe that free markets would lead to some sort of rural utopia is a delusion. As the

1. The split between negative and positive (or at least non-negative) objects was now approximately 50/50 (this has been emphasised in the printout above, citations 31-40 being negative, and 41-50 being positive). In other words, an expectation of a negative result does not seem to be 'built into' lead to as it is built into cause. The approximately 50/50 split between negative and positive contexts was confirmed from an examination of 500 contexts of lead to.

2. Apart from the difference in connotation, lead to differs both syntactically and semantically from cause:
   • lead to is not used with a human subject, and does not appear in the passive.
   • lead to is less direct than cause, implying a series of steps between cause and effect.

As an afterthought to the work during the consultation, I decided to investigate the contexts of the passivisable bring about as an alternative substitute for cause. 500 citations showed a large preponderance (>80%) of Objects with positive connotations when bring about was Active. Citations 51-60 present a random sample:,

51  fundholding has been the key reform in bringing about improvements in health care and in hea
52 fe I have striven for peaceful means to bring about a democratic South Africa,'' he said. Wh
53 ich tend to raise skill levels. To help bring about a dynamic economy that creates many new 
54 n Miert this week as part of efforts to bring about a compromise that will allow the TAA and
55 l that if properly managed a process to bring about a lasting peace, a permanent peace, can 
56 out witnesses. ''It's very difficult to bring about a successful prosecution,'' says Hellewe
57 d ensure a competitive market for coal, bringing about real price reductions. Electricity fr
58 e role of cultural prestige projects in bringing about a long-term economic revival. They ha
59 ld have to say, What can you do to help bring about full employment?  'You can only get full
60 er believed it was a similar error that brought about his downfall here. ''I was happy enoug

 
61 ingless budgets, and a financial crisis brought about by loss of revenue.  The authors, the 
62 that in many cases the illness has been brought about by a lifestyle that it finds at best u
63 al disaster. Lack of cash and the chaos brought about by the break-up of the Soviet Union ha
64 ly true if the lower inflation had been brought about by improvements to the supply side. Ho
65  to adapt to the harsh economic changes brought about by President Boris Yeltsin's reforms. 
66  story. The decline in profits, largely brought about by problems at Texas, the company's DI
67 ed to examine whether cot deaths may be brought about by abnormally small airways in babies'
68 cting the distortion of women's history brought about by the greater visibility of upper-cla
69 that the moral decay in this country is brought about by the lack of responsibility among th
70  resent the false reputation for danger brought about by Islamic fundamentalist violence. As