Reviewed by Ana Bravo, University of Granada

The structure of stative verbs investigates the nature of stative verbs starting from the semantic distinction between Davidsonian and Kimian states. It consists of eight chapters, plus author and subject indexes. Chs. 1 (1–2) and 8 (199–206) contain the introduction and conclusion respectively. Ch. 2 (3–36) is a presentation of both the state of the art and of the theoretical background. Chs. 3 through 6 are devoted to the analysis of different types of stative verbs. Ch. 7 (173–98) offers an integrated account of event structure and argument licensing.

The book presents two main achievements. First, it challenges the traditional view of stative verbs in current linguistic theory. R succeeds in showing that the structure of stative verbs is not necessarily simple. This is the case of verbs, examined in Ch. 3, that display a systematic stative/eventive ambiguity, such as decorate. The eventive reading is seen in Irmi is filling the vase with water, while Water is filling the vase illustrates the stative. Other verbs that undergo the stative/eventive alternation are object-experiencer verbs that assign accusative case, like depress in The joke depressed Irmi; perception verbs, where hear is the stative variant of listen; and dispositional verbs, e.g. help. According to the author, they all denote a causal relationship, and hence in lexical-semantic structure they will contain the aspectual operator cause. The causal relation will hold between two events in case of the eventive variant, but between two states in case of the stative reading. In terms of lexical-semantic structure, the eventive reading exists if one or both of the aspectual operators, do and become, are added. It follows that a verb need not have a simple eventive structure to be stative.

Verbs examined in Chs. 4 and 5 allow only for a stative reading: subject-experiencer verbs (love), dative-experiencer/possesor verbs (fit, belong to), measure verbs, verbs that select for a PP-complement (such as border in The property borders the river), and verbs of position (lie), but not those of body posture (e.g. crouch). Verbs of internal causation, like gleam and squeal, are shown to be eventive in Ch. 6. The lexical-semantic structure of a non-ambiguous stative verb lacks any aspectual operator. As a result, they express a single eventuality.

Stative verbs, therefore, do not form a uniform class, neither in terms of their lexical-semantic structure nor in terms of their semantic class. Nevertheless, there exists only one class of stative verbs: the Kimian statives, and no Davidsonian statives.

The second main achievement of the book is its explanation of eventuality structure. On the one hand, it does away with the Davidsonian event argument, with one consequence that adverbs are anchored on one of the aspectual operators. On the other, it convincingly argues in favour of the hypothesis of Hale and Keyser (1993) that the number of possible eventuality structures is finite.

This book will be of interest to scholars of stative verbs and of eventuality structure in general, as well as to those interested in the relationship between causation and agency. Researchers of the verbs classes examined will also find very interesting proposals concerning their lexical-semantic structure.

Reference

Hale, Kenneth, and Samuel Jay Keyser. 1993. On argument structure and the lexical expression of syntactic relations. The view from building 20, ed. by Kenneth Hale and Samuel Jay Keyser, 53–108. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.