Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

106 4. AKATEK, A `TYPICAL' MAYAN LANGUAGE
(45) chi-;-s-tej kam naj [wakax kaw tz'ontaj ]
IMPF-B3-A3-gore die he [cow very skinny ]
`He kills the malnourished cows.' Penalosa & Say (1992)
The above example shows a VSO order of lexical arguments. However,
in Akatek the reverse order of lexical NPs, VOS, is also grammatical.
As a result, structural ambiguity arises, i.e. it is also possible
to interpret (45) as `The malnourished cows kill him'. Ambiguity is
generally avoided via adequate context or dealt with according to an
agency hierarchy, as shown in Zavala (1992b) and Schule (1993).
Finally, while independent pronouns do not exist for rst and second
person, Akatek has independent pronouns for third person referents.
For example, the pronoun naj `he' can occur in addition to the
pronominal pre x y- on the verb as shown in (46).
(46) in-y-ootaj naj an
B1-A3-know he CL1s
`He knows me.'
Based on the above observations, the structures of basic intransitive
and transitive sentences in Akatek can be summarized as follows: In intransitive
sentences, tense, aspect or negation pre xes (TENSE/ ASP/
NEG) precede a pronominal pre x (B) and the verb stem, which -in
case no other constituent, e.g. an NP or a CL, follows - obtains an intransitive
thematic vowel (ITV). Besides being unmarked for case, the
lexical argument is optional and follows the verbal complex. If there
is indication for a clitic, it will occur sentence nally. The structure of
intransitive constructions is presented in (47).
(47) TENSE/ASP/NEG- B- Vintr (-ITV) (NP) (CL)
Transitive constructions follow the same pattern as intransitive constructions.
The main di erence is that in transitive constructions, both
core arguments are a xed to the verb. The direct object is a set B preor
su x as illustrated in (48-a) and (48-b), respectively. The subject
is a set A pre x. Instead of an intransitive, a transitive thematic vowel
(TTV) occurs in nal position if set B is not su xed. Lexical NPs expressing
subject and direct object are unmarked for case and in Akatek,
as has been mentioned before, these NPs are exible in their postverbal
order and optional. The transitive structures are represented in (48).
(48) a. TENSE/ASP/NEG- B- A- Vtr (-TTV) (NP, NP) (CL)
b. TENSE/ASP/NEG- A- Vtr -B (NP, NP) (CL)