Acknowledgments

This book has been many years in the making and has benefited from the help of too many people to list here. I offer my apologies in advance to those who I inevitably leave out. The Department of Linguistics at the University of Southern California provided a stimulating environment in which to develop and refine the ideas advanced in this work. I particularly thank María Luisa Zubizarreta and Roumyana Pancheva for their interest in my work, their constructive criticism and constant support. The audiences of the Chicago Linguistics Society (2014), the Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (2015) and the Linguistic Society of America (2018), among others, provided much helpful feedback in preliminary parts of this work. In retrospect, I know this book would not exist without Gema Chocano, who sparked my interest in generative grammar, and María Jesús Fernández Leborans, who introduced me to lexical aspect.

I am grateful to the editors Werner Abraham, Elly van Gelderen and Kees Vaes for their interest in my work and their help throughout the publication process. My gratitude also goes to my generous informants and to an anonymous reviewer for insightful feedback. The support and love of my parents, Alfredo and Carmen, has been crucial to make this book happen: I dedicate it to them.