Questions about "farigxi"

Question

I do not understand this verb. It's parts, far and igx, would make me think that it means "get made" as in

The cookies were made in 20 minutes / La kuketoj farigxis dum 20 minutoj

However, I have seen farigxi mean "become" as in

She became a doctor / Sxi farigxis kuracisto

So

She got made into a doctor?????

This doesn't make sense. Why not just say

Sxi igxis kuracisto

And farigxi can be reserved for a more literal meaning of "get made"?

PMEG says, on this page https://bertilow.com/pmeg/gramatiko/specialaj_priskriboj/perverba/subjekto.html#i-gia:

fariĝi (= “komenci esti”): La domo fariĝis alta. Mia frato fariĝos doktoro. Fariĝis tre varme en la ĉambro.
iĝi (= “komenci esti”): La mistero iĝas pli kaj pli stranga.

So igxi and farigxi have the exact same meaning of "komenci esti"? What is going on here?

Answer 1

The suffix -iĝ· has slightly different meanings, depending on the type of the word to which it's being appended. Using it instead of a passive phrasing (Maria naskis Jesuon en Betlehemo. → Jesuo naskiĝis en Betlehemo.) is only one of its purposes.

Some uses of the suffix -iĝ·

-iĝ· appended to a property-word (usually an adjective) produces a verb that indicates that the subject receives that property:

• pala (pale) → paliĝi (turn pale)

-iĝ· appended to an intransitive verb (a verb without direct object) means that the subject begins the corresponding action, or that the subject performs the action involuntarily.

• sidi (sit, = be in a seated position) → sidiĝi (sit, sit down = become seated, get into a seated position)
• morti (die) → mortiĝi (lose one's life)

-iĝ· appended to a transitive verb (a verb with a direct object) means that the subject does this action to itself or by itself, or that we don't care about the actual actor.

• La knabo turnis sian kapon. (The boy turned his head.) — La tero turniĝas ĉirkaŭ sia akso. (Earth turns around its axis. There's nothing/nobody turning the Earth, it turns by itself.)

fariĝi

fari is a transitive verb. (It usually has a direct object):

• Mi faras kukojn. — I make cakes.
• Oni faris lin generalo. (They made him a general.)

The sentence

La kuketoj fariĝis dum 20 minutoj.

would thus mean that the cookies somehow made themselves (or at least that it was as if they did so, i.e. they were very easy, quick and non-laborious to make, so that it didn't really matter who did that little work.)

Ŝi fariĝis kuracisto.

means that she made herself become a doctor. (Not that she forced herself, but that she worked towards becoming a doctor and succeeded. Think maybe of the term "self-made man".) In practice, it's used pretty much synonymous with just iĝi (become) (see PMEG).

Answer 2

Consider how broad the verb "to make" can be in English, just as in Esperanto:

They made her a star.

He made it rain.

I made it more pleasant.

These examples are practically just causative: "They [caused] her [to become] a star", for example.

Meanwhile, -iĝ- is an intransitivizer, which in this case essentially leaves us with this sense "to become". That having been said, "She became a doctor" doesn't strictly go hand-in-hand with "She was made a doctor", because -iĝ- doesn't necessarily say anything about whether an action was done to someone/something, as PMEG points out:

la sufikso IĜ, [kiu] montras ŝanĝon de stato sen ekstera kaŭzanto.

… but in the case of far/i it doesn't matter, because its meaning is as broad as the English verb "to do". If you prefer, you can think of "fariĝi" like "do become", "did become", etc. "She did become a doctor".