Recently came upon sentences where the causative form is used to make a suru-verb a transitive one.
eg. この城を完成させるのに、...
Are all suru verbs, intransitive by default? If so, does this use of the causative form apply to all suru-verbs?
Answer
Update to previous comment
Transitivity/intransitivity is a function of whether the verb takes a direct object or not. So as long as the する verb can take a direct object, it can be said to be transitive.
However, having done a little bit of research on this now, it seems there are many する words that are called "ergative verbs", or 能{のう}格{かく}動{どう}詞{し}. Such verbs can be both transitive and intransitive, as T.Allred already mentioned. 完成する would fall into this category. Others would include the following, as per Japanese Wikipedia:
「閉鎖する」（「工場を閉鎖する」「工場が閉鎖する」）、「生成する」、「連続する」、「停止する」など
Unfortunately, it seems that the typically straightforward rules of conjugation in Japanese fall apart when it comes to transitive/intransitive する verbs. Based on everything I've been able to find on the subject, it seems that the best way to determine the status of a する verb is to A) find as many sample sentences as you can (via jisho.org, etc) to determine the most common usage, or B) rely on an actual comprehensive physical Japanese dictionary, as they apparently make notations regarding the status of each verb.
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