Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

3. CONCLUSION 131
Regarding the parameter of word order, Mayan languages are verbrst
(VXY). I have demonstrated that at least the xed VOS and the
exible VOS/VSO languages of the Mayan family conform to the generalizations
established by Keenan (1978) for VOS languages. With
respect to case and agreement marking the former occurs only on indirect
objects (IO) while the latter is instantiated by pronominal a xes
on the verbal complex indicating subject (S) and object (DO). There
is complete identitybetween ergative marking and possessive marking,
i.e. trans A is marked on the verb via the same set of pronominal
a xes (set A) as the possessor (POSS) on the possessed noun. The
agreement marking basically follows an ergative pattern and in part
of the family splits to an extended ergative pattern under certain
conditions.
3. Conclusion
In this chapter I acquainted the reader with the most salient grammatical
and typological features of Mayan languages. I aimed at presenting
general characteristics of the Mayan language family as well
as speci c features of Akatek Maya. Considering the usual diversities
that exist even within such a homogeneous language family, e.g. the
exceptional SVO word order of Chort , Akatek can be considered a
representative member of the family. In the case of extended ergativity,
however, it only represents a subgroup of the family, since at
least a third of the family members do not exhibit this second marking
pattern.
The rst section served as an introduction to basic grammatical
features of Mayan languages. In section 1.1, I illustrated the uniqueness
of Mayan languages regarding their person marking system in
verbal as well as in non-verbal predication, in possessive and in prepositional
constructions. In section 1.2, I pointed out that independent
pronouns in Akatek have developed from noun classi ers, which isan
innovation that only took place in a subbranch of the family. Also, I
distinguished nouns from verbs by describing the di erent structures
of noun phrases and of the verbal complex. Section 1.3 served to illustrate
the basic characteristics tense, aspect, aktionsart, modality and
negation in Akatek. It was shown that negation interacts with aspect
and that there is a variety ofverbal aktionsart and modality markers.
In section 1.4 strategies for the marking of grammatical relations
were discussed. Nouns as well as pronouns are optional and lack case
marking while the verbal complex by itself constitutes a complete sentence.
In addition, lexical arguments are optional and unmarked for
case. I followed Mithun (1986b) in classifying Mayan languages as