ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters in this book. The book discusses that there are three aspectual verb types, durative, telic, and stative aspect that determine the basic orientation of a verbal root. The book shows shifts from intransitive to transitive verbs and from intransitive to copula verbs and draws conclusions about the mental representation of argument structure. It focuses on changes in the aspectual type and the kinds of aspect and theta-roles connected to a verb. The book also discusses changes in the morphological marking of argument structure as possible causes for these changes. It explains why argument structure matters to linguistics and beyond, what debates go on regarding argument structure and the role of language change for the faculty of language. All languages have verbs for eating, building, and saying and those verbs would have an Agent and a Theme connected with them.
