Abstract
This ms. article was accepted for publication in Hispania in June 2004. It is scheduled to appear in March 2005.
How do second language learners of Spanish know that a washing machine is una (máquina) lavadora, una máquina que lava, una máquina de lavar, una máquina para lavar o una máquina de lavado but not *una máquina lavante? On the other hand, how do they know that a waiting list is neither *una lista esperadora, *una lista esperante nor *una lista que espera but una lista de espera? Finally, why is exciting news una noticia emocionante and not *una noticia emocionadora or *una noticia de emoción? This article proposes a way for speakers of English to predict the Spanish equivalent of these and countless similar pairs of adjectival gerund + noun phrases.
Key words: adjectival gerund, blocking, unergativity, psychological verbs, thematic roles, translation, unaccusativity