Dos formas de estar callado : nominalizaciones desinenciales

Abstract

The research on the properties of nominalizations is one key empirical domain where crucial questions about the organization of grammar have tried to be answered: how are the morphology, the syntax and the semantics of a word intertwined? In this paper we address zero derived deverbal nouns in Spanish (the equivalent of attack) and we argue that, despite the presence of a desinence, this morpheme cannot be responsible for the grammatical category of the word. It is not empirically correct to propose, either, that there is a zero nominalizer in Spanish. We argue that the solution is to let the base of the word synthetically spell out both the nominalizer and the verb.