Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

142 5. PERCEPTION VERB COMPLEMENTS IN AKATEK
(14) max ;-y-il-on eb' xin yel-; chi-;-y-al
PERF B3-A3-see-SUF they then true-B3 IMPF-B3-A3-say
naj
he
`They saw that he had spoken the truth.'
Penalosa & Say (1992)
(15) il-a'-; chi-;-w-al an
see-TTV-B3 IMPF-B3-A1-say CL1s
`Consider what I am telling you!' Penalosa & Say (1992)
In combination with the directional kan `remain', ab' takes on a meaning
of `understand':
(16) x-;-y-ab'-kan
ix Mikin
PERF-B3-A3-hear-DIR:remain NCL Micaela
`Micaela understood it.'
The meaning range of the verb il also extends into the `social' domain,
where it is used to express `to care, look after':
(17) chi-;-il-wi no' naj Xhunik
IMPF-B3-see-AP PRO:animal NCL Juan
`John takes care of animals.' Zavala (1992b), 216
The verb ab'le, which has been shown to express taste above, can also
be used to indicate `ask' or `inquire' as shown in the following example:
(18) ;-y-ab'le ix Mikin ta-tol
B3-A3-ask NCL Micaela COMP-COMP
`Micaela inquired if you left.'
ach-'el-toj
B2-leave-DIR
The meaning extension of PVs into the cognitive domain, which has
been shown to exist cross-linguistically in chapter 2, also occurs in
Akatek. This meaning extension is a prerequisite for the ability of PVs
to occur with proposition denoting complements.
2.4. Summary. Ihave shown some of the main features of the
basic Akatek PVs il `see' and ab' `hear'. Both can be used for active
as well as for passive perception. As a consequence, there is no distinct
group of active PVs like in English that could be used to identify event
denoting complements. However, both il and ab' semantically extend
into the cognitive domain. Therefore, I predict that both PVs can
also take complements that are primarily proposition denoting. The