Complex Event Nominals in English and Spanish. A Comparative Approach

Abstract

Grimshaw (1990) argues that only nouns that refer to what she calls complex events —nouns that have an internal aspectual analysis— have argument structure. She also proposes (following Emonds (1985)) that nouns have no direct theta-marking capacity. Thus, argument-taking nouns cannot directly accept arguments because they are defective theta markers; they will only take arguments when they combine with a preposition. This paper analyzes the behavior of complex event nominals in English and Spanish as well as the behavior of CPs within NPs and matters of control in infinitival purpose clauses. We suggest that the relationship between event control and astructure is not as simple as one could infer from Grimshaw's account of the phenomenon.