This thesis investigates the semantics of complement coercion (CC). The most prominent account of this phenomenon is due to Pustejovsky (1991, 1993), who essentially argues that it can be explained via a type-shift in nominal complements. However, this analysis suffers from two major empirical drawbacks. For one, it incorrectly predicts the ungrammaticality of certain sorts of coordinate constructions. It also overgeneralizes, predicting that the full range of aspectual verbs (AVs) in English should allow CC. It turns out, however, that only a subset of these verbs do. This thesis develops a theory of complement coercion which can account for the coordinate structure data and for the pattern of CC availability in AVs.This thesis advances a type-based analysis of CC in AVs. Specifically, it is proposed that AVs which allow CC differ in their type from those that do not. This analysis also captures the insight that the coercing verb, rather than the complement, is responsible for CC via an operator which shifts intransitive verbs that modify properties of times (such as AVs) into transitive verbs. Due to the proposed type difference between the two AV subclasses, it turns out that only certain AVs will allow CC. What emerges is a theory of CC which can account for data that eluded previous analyses and also makes novel predictions about the relationship between CC and other facets of tense and aspect in English.
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