Where Morphology and Syntax Clash::A Case in Japanese Aspectual Verbs

1. There have been a series of papers discussing the type of underlying structure of English sentences with the aspectual verb begin''. Perlmutter (1970), on the basis of such sentences as those in (1), has argued that begin functions both as a transitive verb and as an intransitive verb. While a recent short paper by Ross (1972) supports Perlmutter's claim, Fischer & Marshall (1969) have argued that begin functions only as an intransitive verb in sentences like (1).