Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

168 5. PERCEPTION VERB COMPLEMENTS IN AKATEK
(89) [ja'-; ix Malin] x-;-ma'-on [naj Xhunik]
[CFT-B3 NCL Mary] PERF-B3-hit-SUF [NCL John]
'It is Mary who hit John.' Zavala (1992b), 258
If the direct object of a transitive verb is clefted, the verbal morphology
remains unchanged in comparison to a `basic' construction,
as illustrated in example (90). Thus, cleft constructions involving the
direct object are distinguished from cleft constructions involving the
subject by changes in the morphology of the transitive verb: subject
cleft is marked, object cleft is unmarked.
(90) [ja'-; naj Xhunik] x-;-s-ma' [ix Malin]
[CFT-B3 NCL John] PERF-B3-A3-hit [NCL Mary]
'It is John who Mary hit.' Zavala (1992b), 257
If the subject of an intransitive verb is clefted, compared to the
clefting of the subject of a transitive verb, no changes in verbal morphology
occur, since there is no need to distinguish between subject
and object cleft.
(91) [ja'-; naj Xhunik] x-;-wey-i
[CFT-B3 NCL John] PERF-B3-sleep-ITV
`It is John who fell asleep. Zavala (1992b), 216
Third person arguments are always clefted by ja', which appears without
a su x due to the fact that third person set B markers are unrealized.
Usually, a lexical instantiation of the clefted constituent follows
the cleft particle, e.g. naj Xhunik `John' in (91). For rst and second
person arguments, the morphology of the cleft particle changes
as shown in Table 7, resulting in cleft pronouns for rst and second
person. 12 Table 8 provides an overview of cleft constructions of transi-
Table 7. Clefted rst and second person pronouns and
clitics (Zavala (1992b), 225)
Person/Number CFT + B CL ) PRO CL
1s ja'+in an ) jein an
2s ja'+ach ) jach
1p inclusive ja'+on (wej) ) jeon (wej)
1p exclusive ja'+on on ) jeon on
2p ja + ach wej ) jexh wej
12 Recall that there are no independent pronouns for rst and second persons
in Akatek. Clefted pronouns depend on the cleft particle ja'.