Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

178 5. PERCEPTION VERB COMPLEMENTS IN AKATEK
questioned, relativized, or clefted, as long as at least one
of the arguments was third person. The agentive voice
verb cross-referenced the agent, though the patient is still
expressed or implied with no overt modi cation.
Smith-Stark's considerations did not include all aspects of antipassives,
such as nominalization (Smith-Stark, 1978). In sum, the diachronic
analysis of the su x -on explains the synchronic usage of this su x in
question formation, relativization, and cleft in Akatek. Note that these
syntactic processes only result in antipassive structures, i.e. in detransitivized
constructions, when the subject is questioned, relativized, or
clefted. The role of the -on in type2 complements and in discourse,
where the verb is not detransitivized, remains unexplained.
Synchronically, *-(V)n developed into a su x -ni in many Mayan
languages, e.g. in Jakaltek. In Jakaltek, the su x corresponding to
-on-i is -n(i). A synchronic analysis of the su x -n(i) in Jakaltek
(Craig, 1976a) shows a high degree of overlap with the function of
-on(-i) in Akatek. However, Craig (1976a) carefully distinguishes
between two homophonous -n(i) su xes. One marks operations on
subjects of transitives, the other marks transitive type2 complements
and verbs of coordinated transitive clauses. In the latter case both
subject and object pronominal a xes occur on the su xed verb, while
in the former only the object pronominal a x remains. This remaining
of the object pronominal a x on the verb is appropriate for intransitive
verbs, which take set B a xes as their only arguments. As shown
in the examples below, Jakaltek marks all operations on subjects of
transitives, the set A pronominal a x is deleted and -n(i) is su xed
to the verb (Craig, 1976a). This is the case in relativization (120-a),
clefting (120-b) and question formation (120-c).
(120) a. x-;-ul naj x-;-'il-ni ix
PERF-B3-arrive he PERF-B3-see-SUF she
`He who saw her arrived.'
b. ja'-; naj x-;-'il-ni ix
CFT-B3 he PERF-B3-see-SUF she
c.
`It is he who saw her.'
mac x-;-'il-ni ix
who PERF-B3-see-SUF she
`Who saw her?' Craig (1976a), 143f.
The function of the -n(i) su x is to resolve the ambiguity resulting
from the deletion or movement of postverbal NPs of transitive verbs
(Craig, 1977). NPs are not marked for case. If both arguments are