The Fundamentally Simple Logic of Language Learning a Second Language with the Tools of the Native Speaker

Chapter 1: How subject, direct object, and indirect object really work

1.1. Introduction

1.2. The verber is always the subject, but the subject is not always the verber

1.3. Distinguishing the direct object from the indirect object

1.4. Verber, verbed, and beneficiary

1.5. Conclusions

Chapter 2: Perfect auxiliary selection using verber and verbed

2.1. Verber, verbed, and beneficiary in languages with a have/be distinction

2.2. Further evidence for a subject that is the verbed

2.3. If the verbed can be expressed as the subject, so can the beneficiary

2.4. Evidence from English that the subject is the beneficiary

2.5. Conclusions

Chapter 3: Solving the transitivity paradox

3.1. Introduction

3.2. The problem: sentences that are intransitive by case but transitive by meaning

3.3. The solution to the paradox

3.4. Dative overriding in four languages belonging to three different families

3.5. Dative overriding in English (leísmo in English)

3.6. Case created the transitivity paradox; verber and verbed solve it

3.7. Connecting leísmo and "accusative a"

3.8. An outline of a verber/verbed theory of case in English

3.9. Conclusions

Chapter 4. There are verberless sentences, but no subjectless ones

4.1. Introduction

4.2. An outline of a verber/verbed theory of case in English

4.3. There are verberless sentences, but there are no subjectless ones

4.4. A sentence with a mandatory direct obeject and an indirect object in English. Or an insult turned into a teaching moment

4.5. Simplifying linking by one third: indirect objects need not be part of argument realization

4.6. From Hopper & Thompson, Tsunoda, and Malchukov to Burzio. Or how transitivity is not only discrete; it is binary

4.7. Everything is connected

4.8. Conclusions

Chapter 5. The case for the true gustar (Italian ‘piacere’) verbs in Spanish

5.1. Introduction

5.2. "Indirect objects" that pass the verbed inference are verbeds, not verbees

5.3. The true gustar (verberless) verbs in Spanish

5.4. Word order, verberless sentences, and the Naked Noun Constraint

5.5. Indefinite object deletion

5.6. Why ‘encantatarias/encantadas’ are so different from ‘encantadoras/encantadas’

5.7. Is the only object of ayudar ‘help’ direct or indirect?

5.8. Conclusions

Chapter 6. A brief comparison with other theories of linking (argument realization)

6.1. Introduction

6.2. Reducing Dowty (1991) protoproperties from ten to two simple inferences

6.3. Psych(ological) verbs need no longer be a headache for linguists

6.4. Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) macroroles

6.5. Primus (1999, 2014) protorecipient

6.6. Beavers (2010) proposal to change Dowty’s protopatient properties

6.7. Ackerman & Moore (1999; 2001) bounding entity

6.8. Some implications for linguistic theory and for language teaching

6.9. Conclusions

Biography

Luis H. González is Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at Wake Forest University. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Davis. His main areas of research are semantic roles, case, reflexivization, clitic doubling, differential object marking, dichotomies in languages, Spanish linguistics, and second language learning. He is the co-author of one book and the author of three other books:

• Gramática para la composición. 2016. 3^rd ed. Washington: Georgetown University Press. A Spanish advanced grammar and writing textbook, now in its third edition. Co-authored with M. Stanley Whitley.
• Cómo entender y cómo enseñar por y para. 2020. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/9780367688295
• Four Dichotomies in Spanish: Adjective Position, Adjectival Clauses, Ser/Estar, and Preterite/Imperfect. 2021. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/9780367517281

• The Fundamentally Simple Logic of Language: Learning a Second Language with the Tools of the Native Speaker. 2021. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/9780367347819

"One should not confuse simplicity with absence of strategy, lack of planification or –even less– a simplistic approach to a problem. The monograph The fundamentally simple logic of language, by Luis H. González, is a prime example of the type of work that, through a deep understanding of the matter, is able to produce a simple explanation of a set of phenomena that is anything but simplistic."

Antonio Fábregas, Borealis – An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics, 13(2)