Uninflected Complements of Verbs of Physical Perception in Spanish

Verbs of perception in Spanish admit a wide range of complements in regard to their categorial realization. Here, the semantic & structural differences between two types of nonfinite complements - complements of infinitive & complements of gerund - are analyzed. Although the alternation seems to be reduced to an aspectual contrast, there exists a series of differential behaviors which can only be explained by means of syntactic structures which differ for the two types of complements. Such structures must account for the fact that while the infinitive clause needs to be interpreted as the verification of an event, in the case of the gerund an object is needed - a referential NP - that receives a secondary predication. 38 References. Adapted from the source document