Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

3. PVCS OF TYPE2 155
(53) a. x-;-y-il ix Mikin aw-'el-toj *ek'al/
PERF-B3-A3-see NCL Micaela A2-leave-DIR many/
*maasanil
all
`Micaela saw all your/ your many leavings.'
b. x-;-y-il ix Mikin y-el-toj ek'al/
PERF-B3-A3-see NCL Micaela A3-leave-DIR many/
maasanil anima
all people
`Micaela saw many/ all people leave.'
Ihave shown that type2 PVCs are not like NPs in that they cannot
take determiners, and they cannot be pluralized.
3.1.5. Passive. In chapter 3, I have shown that passivization of
PVs with either the PVC subject or the whole PVC as the subject
of the passivized PV is highly restricted for English PVCs. In order
to investigate whether this restriction also applies to Akatek, I rst
describe the structure of passive constructions in Akatek. After that, an
investigation of the passivization of complex perception constructions
involving a type2 PVC inAkatek follows.
Zavala (1997) identi es three morphological passive constructions
in Akatek: the le-passive, the cha-passive and the b'il-passive. The
passivized verbs are marked only with set B pronominal a xes - because
they are intransitive - and su xed with one of the passive su xes:
-le, -cha, or-b'il.
There are two varieties of le-passives. Both are su xed with the
passive morpheme -le (PASS). One type of le-passive is obligatorily
agentless, an example is given in (54). The other is optionally followed
by an oblique object denoting the agent, which is marked with the
preposition uu `because of, by', as illustrated in example (55) by y-uu
eb' `by them'.
(54) max ;-tx'otx'-le s-mulna-il naj unin
PERF B3-show-PASS A3-work-NMZR NCL boy
`The job was shown to the boy (lit.
shown).' Penalosa & Say (1992)
the boy's job was
(55) chi-tzu'-le
naj y-uu eb'
IMPF-reprimand-PASS he A3-by they
`He was scolded by them.' Penalosa & Say (1992)