Interaction of Objects and Aspect

Abstract

In the previous chapters, I have argued that, within the VP, there is a landing site position for objects and that this position is the Specifier position of an event-related category, Inner Aspect. This raises the question of whether there is any relation between objects and aspect. In our discussion of aspectual predicate classes in the last chapter, we saw that the shape of the object can affect the aspectual predicate class. This is at least suggestive of a link between objects and Inner Aspect. In this chapter, I look at the relationship more closely, especially as it relates to grammatical issues such as case marking and syntactic position. I show how they may be related and then answer specific questions about this relationship.