Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

172 5. PERCEPTION VERB COMPLEMENTS IN AKATEK
b. jach ;-y-il ix Mikin s-ma'-on naj
PRO2s B3-A3-see NCL Micaela A3-hit-SUF NCL
Xhunik
John
`It was you who Micaela saw John hitting (you).'
The direct object of the complement clause can be raised to the
position of the direct object of the matrix predicate as demonstrated
in (101-a). It is ungrammatical to retain the object marking on the
type2 complement (101-b), which is possible in example (100-a), where
no object raising has occurred.
(101) a. jach x-ach-y-il ix Mikin s-ma'-on
PRO2s PERF-B2-A3-see NCL Micaela A3-hit-SUF
naj Xhunik
NCL John
`It was you whom Micaela saw John hit.'
b. * jach x-ach-y-il ix Mikin
PRO2s PERF-B2-A3-see NCL Micaela
ach-s-ma'-on naj Xhunik
B2-A3-hit-SUF NCL John
`It was you whom Micaela saw John hit.'
The whole type2 complement can also be clefted as demonstrated
in example (102) for the intransitive complement aweltoj `your leaving'
and in (103) for the transitive complement atzok'on si' `your cutting
rewood'. These constructions indicate that the perception happens
precisely at the moment when the perceived event takes place. With
atype2 complement denoting an event that has no concrete beginning
and end as e.g. amulna `your working', PVC cleft is unacceptable as
shown in example (104).
(102) ja'-; aw-el-toj (x)-;-y-il ix Mikin.
CFT-B3 A2-leave-DIR PERF-B3-A3-see NCL Micaela
`Micaela saw you leaving (at the moment you were leaving).'
(103) ja'-; ;-a-tzok'-on si' (x)-;-y-il ix
CFT-B3 B3-A2-cut-SUF
Mikin.
Micaela
rewood PERF-B3-A3-see NCL
`Micaela saw you cutting
were cutting wood).'
rewood (at the moment you