Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

158 5. PERCEPTION VERB COMPLEMENTS IN AKATEK
(63) a. *[Jill hit Peter] was seen by Jim.
b. *[Jill] was seen [hit Peter].
c. *[Peter] was seen [be hit by Jill].
As can be seen from the ungrammaticality of (62) and (63), for English
NI-PVCs none of the theoretical options are grammatical. In the
following, I investigate both options in Akatek: passivization of the
complement aswell as passivization of the matrix predicate.
Passivization of a type2 complement is grammatical with all three
passive constructions presented above. Example (64) shows a type2
le-passive, example (65) a cha-passive, and (66) a b'il-passive based on
the active transitive construction from example (59-a) above.
(64) x-;-y-il ix Mikin in-ma'-le aw-uu an
PERF-B3-A3-see NCL Micaela A1-hit-PASS A2-by CL1s
`Micaela saw me being hit because of/ by you.'
(65) x-;-y-il ix Mikin in-ma'-cha aw-uu an
PERF-B3-A3-see NCL Micaela A1-hit-PASS A2-by CL1s
`Micaela saw you hitting me/ managing to hit me.'
(66) x-;-y-il ix Mikin (tzub'il/ tol)
PERF-B3-A3-see NCL Micaela (COMP/ COMP)
ma'-b'il-in aw-uu an
hit-PASS/PF-B1 A2-by CL1s
`Micaela saw (that) you have/had hit me.'
The main structural di erence between independent passives and type2
passives is that they pre x set A instead of set B pronominal a xes.
This is the case only for le- and cha-passives. The b'il-passive constructions
su x a set B marker like a non-verbal predicate. Hence,
b'il-passives embedded by PVs cannot be interpreted as type2 PVCs,
but as type1 PVCs. This analysis is supported by the possibility to
add the complementizers tol and/or tzub'il to the complement as in example
(66). As a result of its implication of perfectivity and its status
as a type1 complement, the b'il-passive cannot denote an event. AsI
will show in the section on type1 PVCs, this is in accordance with the
observation that non-verbal predicates cannot function as type2 complements,
but only as type1 complements with optional complementizers,
and the b'il-passive in fact is a non-verbal predicate structure. The
le- and the cha-passive however, maintain the event interpretation of
the complement, with the di erence between the two being that the
cha-passive adds a sense of achievement as re ected in the translation