Recasting agent exclusivity in passive nominals

This paper studies the thematic restrictions on by-phrases in passive nominals, focusing on Spanish. I argue that Spanish passive nominals are not subject to the agent exclusivity effect, as such nominals can have by-phrases introducing experiencers and possessors. The real requirement, I contend, is that the external argument denotes a human entity. I further show that Romanian passive nominals behave in the same fashion. I discuss apparent cases of inanimate by-phrases in Spanish and argue that they are actually instances of causal adjuncts, and thus are not true external arguments. My account makes the prediction that, crosslinguistically, passive nominalizations do not discriminate against non-agents: rather, agent exclusivity, when found, is a side effect of the interplay between aspectual restrictions and the requirement that the external argument denote a human entity.