This book presents a syntactic analysis of predicate types in Spanish and English and two psycholinguistic experiments on unaccusativity in these languages. Assuming the minimalist framework (Chomsky, 1995), Sanz proposes a parametric account of how event types are syntactically and morphologically encoded in Spanish and English. In chapter 1, Sanz argues that unaccusative verbs and other predicate types (transitive and unergatives) map onto different action types (activities, accomplishments, achievements, and states) in phrase structure. These event types, or Aktionsart, are encoded in the features of a functional projection Event Phrase. The features of this projection vary in Spanish and English. In Spanish, the projection has uninterpretable features and interpretable telicity features, which are checked overtly in the syntax by the clitic se, as in constructions like Juan se tomó una cerveza “Juan drank a beer” or El barco se hundió “The boat sank.” In English, the Event Phrase lacks uninterpretable features. Consequently, it has semantic content but is syntactically inactive. English calculates telicity in a projection within the VP called Transitive Phrase, where the features [±measure] are checked.

In chapter 2, Sanz presents the syntactic and semantic evidence for her analysis in Spanish and discusses constructions with the clitic se as an aspectual marker, as in the causative-inchoative alternation, accomplishment verbs, unaccusative verbs, and others. Chapter 3 discusses of resultative constructions, verb-particle constructions, constructions with goal phrases, passives, and middles in English. In these two chapters, Sanz shows how interpretable (semantic) features may be encoded in different functional projections depending on the language and how languages may employ different mechanisms for feature checking.

Chapter 4 deals with unaccusatives and passives. The issue of whether unaccusativity is purely a semantic or a syntactic phenomenon is hotly debated in the linguistics literature. Sanz extends her analysis of Event Phrase to these constructions in the two languages and adds to this debate by showing that in Spanish the distinction is syntactic, whereas in English it is semantic. In Spanish, the argument of unaccusative verbs behaves like the object of a transitive sentence because it must check the feature [+telic] overtly in the syntax. In English, telicity is not checked in the syntax; therefore, the arguments of unaccusative and unergative verbs are syntactically similar. As for passives, there is also an interesting distinction in the two languages, which Sanz captures in her Event Phrase structure account: In Spanish they are eventive, whereas in English they are ambiguous between a stative or eventive interpretation.

The final chapter presents two psycholinguistic experiments with native speakers of English and Spanish, respectively. Using a written probe recognition task to study the processing of NP traces left by their antecedents, Sanz tests her proposal on unaccusativity in the two languages. In this psycholinguistic technique, a syntactic trace is assumed to facilitate comprehension of the antecedent. Assuming that unaccusative verbs with preverbal subjects in Spanish leave a trace, Sanz hypothesized that native speakers (NSs) should respond faster to sentences with unaccusative verbs than to those with unergative verbs. Because unaccusative verbs in English presumably leave no trace, NSs in the English experiment were expected not to show an effect for verb. Results showed that only subjects who were classified as sequence-sensitive comprehenders in Spanish showed the predicted effect with unaccusative verbs. The opposite effect was found with sequence-insensitive comprehenders. As predicted, no such difference in reaction times between unaccusative and unergative verbs was observed in English, regardless of type of comprehender. Sanz concluded that the visual probe recognition technique is sensitive to syntax and that her analysis is correct. However, as the author admits, the probe recognition task is quite controversial, so I believe further experimentation with other on-line tasks is warranted before concluding that the analysis proposed here is correct.

From the perspective of SLA, this book is extremely useful for those who work on the acquisition of syntax, the lexical-semantics interface, and psycholinguistics. In recent years, the acquisition of unaccusativity in SLA has received significant attention in English and other languages. Because Sanz offers a parametric account of English and Spanish, the ideas and analysis presented in this book easily lend themselves to conducting similar experimentation in SLA and bilingualism within the minimalist framework. However, readers not familiar with current generative linguistic theory might find the book highly specialized. Because this work originated as a dissertation, the introductory chapter is not general enough. As a result, a great deal of technical terminology related to aspect, lexical semantics, and the mechanics of the minimalist framework is not properly defined.