Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

196 5. PERCEPTION VERB COMPLEMENTS IN AKATEK
(171) a. x-ach-w-a' xew an
PERF-B2-A1-put rest CL1s
`I made you rest.' Zavala (1992b), 320
b. x-;-(y)-a' ix naj xew-oj
PERF-B3-A3-put she he rest-IRR
`She made him rest.' Zavala (1992b), 321
The third CV described in this study is ujte `chase'. As illustrated
below, in a causative construction with ujte the CVC verb can either
directly follow the CV as in (172-a), or it can be located at the end
of the construction as in (172-b). The third option for the location of
the complement verb is in between the two lexical arguments, where
it can either be a bare type3 verb (172-c) or a type2 verb carrying
a pronominal a x for the causee (172-d). The meaning of all four
constructions is alike.
(172) a. x-;-y-ujte wey naj unin ix Mikin
PERF-B3-A3-chase sleep NCL child NCL Micaela
b. x-;-y-ujte ix Mikin naj unin wey-oj
PERF-B3-A3-chase NCL Micaela NCL child sleep-IRR
c. x-;-y-ujte ix Mikin wey naj unin
PERF-B3-A3-chase NCL Micaela sleep NCL child
d. x-;-y-ujte ix Mikin s-wey naj unin
PERF-B3-A3-chase NCL Micaela A3-sleep NCL child
`Micaela sent the child to sleep.'
The following examples show the CV chej `ask s.o. to do s.th.', chejtoj
14 `send s.o. to a location', or chejte `make/force/urge s.o. to do
s.th. (repeatedly)'. In example (172-d) above, the intransitive type2
complement occurs in clause medial position. I have not shown so far
whether type2 CVCs can occur at the end of the complex structure or
directly behind the CV. If the complementverb is moved to the end of
the complex construction, type2 complements are ungrammatical with
the su x -oj (173-a), but grammatical with the intransitive thematic
vowel -i (ITV) as can be seen in example (173-b).
(173) a. * ;-s-chej ix Mikin naj unin s-wey-oj
B3-A3-ask NCL Micaela NCL child A3-sleep-IRR
`Micaela asked the boy to (go to) sleep.'
14 This verb consists of chej `ask s.o. to do s.th.' and toj, which is a directional
indicating `thither'.