This book is a cross-linguistic investigation of the way grammar deals with aspectual classes, that is, states (Mary knows French), activities (Mary ran), accomplishments (Mary ran to school), and achievements (Mary arrived). Such investigations deal with phenomena related to, for example, duration (and the lack thereof) and end-states and end-locations. The book focuses on issues at the lexicon-syntax interface and aims to construct a theory of the lexicon-syntax connection. The interpretation or aktionsart. They consider problems such as the extent to which variation in verbal meaning and thematic information can be determined in the syntax, and how the interpretation of various syntactic constructions is including those that take as their starting point the lexical-syntactic framework of Ken Hale and Samuel Jay Keyser, prominent among which is their own chapter. develops insights into the general theoretical question of universal grammar and acquisition as well as into the specific nature of the lexicon-syntax interface. It is, in sum, an original and distinctive contribution to modern syntactic theory.

This collection of new work focuses on issues at the lexicon-syntax interface. It presents innovative analyses of theoretical issues of aspectual interpretation in a variety of languages. The authors address questions such as to what extent can variation in verbal meaning, and thematic information can be determined in the syntax, and how the interpretation of various syntactic constructions is derived, once lexical information is minimized. A subset of the articles develops theories that take as their starting point the lexical-syntactic framework of the late Ken Hale and Jay Keyser, prominent among which is their own chapter.