Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

104 4. AKATEK, A `TYPICAL' MAYAN LANGUAGE
d. watx'-; ta man lalan-oj-; a-mulna-i
good-B3 if NEG PROG-IRR-B3 A2-work-ITV
`It's good if you're not working.'
Non-verbal predicates (NVPs) are negated the same way than the
progressive marker lalan, namely by man ::: oj. An example with a
numeral functioning as NVP is presented in (40).
(40) a. b'aab'el-in an
rst-B1 CL1s
`I'm the rst.'
b. man b'aab'el-oj-in an
NEG rst-IRR-B1 CL1s
`I'm not the rst.' Watatani (1994)
The transitive verb ootaj `know' is used in the next chapter as a verb
of cognition that enforces a propositional interpretation of its complement
clause. In Akatek, this verb di ers from other transitive verbs
regarding aspect and negation marking. Even though ootaj behaves
like a transitive verb taking both set A and set B pronominal a xes
and occurring in the initial position in the sentence as in (41), ootaj
cannot takeany of the aspect markers described above and it is negated
like lalan and like non-verbal predicates with man ::: oj as is shown
in (42), or only with man. The reason is that the concept of knowledge
is not open to aspectual modi cation. Ootaj `know' is a stative verb.
Stative verbs like know do not allow the progressive or the imperative
mood as shown in (43) for English (Vendler, 1967).
(41) ;-w-ootaj hun winaj tu' an
B3-A1-know one man DEM CL1s
`I know that man.' Penalosa & Say (1992)
(42) man ;-w-ootaj-oj ta eyman chi-ach-mulna-i
NEG B3-A1-know-IRR COND quickly IMPF-B2-work-ITV
`I didn't know you would work so fast.'
Penalosa & Say (1992)
(43) a. *I am knowing (or loving, recognizing, and so on).
Vendler (1967), 99
b. *Know!
An overview of tense, aspect, progressive aktionsart and negation marking
in Akatek is provided in Table 4. Bracketed A or B indicates which
person marker is absent inintransitive constructions. For perfective,