Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language
Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language
Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language
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4. PVCS OF TYPE1 201<br />
- PNOMs accept determ<strong>in</strong>ers and can be pluralized. Passivization or<br />
cleft<strong>in</strong>g of the PVC subject or object is grammatical for type2 PVCs<br />
but not for PNOMs. The two PVCtypes share all semantic characteristics<br />
that were taken <strong>in</strong>to consideration. Temporal simultaneity<br />
is required as well as complement predicates that express perceptible<br />
processes. Ungrammatical are negation, sentential ad<strong>verb</strong>s and the<br />
modal auxiliaries ske'/ be able. Especially the conformity of both PVC<br />
types regard<strong>in</strong>g the semantic criteria demonstrates that type2 PVCs<br />
<strong>in</strong> <strong>Akatek</strong> - like PNOMs <strong>in</strong> English - are unambiguously event denot<strong>in</strong>g.<br />
I have thus con rmed Hypothesis II. At least one PVC type<br />
is exclusively event denot<strong>in</strong>g. While type2 PVCs are marked by a<br />
nom<strong>in</strong>aliz<strong>in</strong>g su x that only occurs on transitive <strong>verb</strong>s, PNOMs are<br />
marked by a participial su x. In addition to the structural and semantic<br />
characteristics that the nom<strong>in</strong>al PVCs <strong>in</strong> <strong>Akatek</strong> and English<br />
share, both PVC types can alternatively be embedded by the follow<strong>in</strong>g<br />
non-PV matrix predicates (see Table 12): non-<strong>verb</strong>al predicates like<br />
<strong>Akatek</strong> watx' `be good' or English be slow, aspectual <strong>verb</strong>s like <strong>Akatek</strong><br />
laa `end' or English beg<strong>in</strong>, and causative <strong>verb</strong>s like <strong>Akatek</strong> chej `force'<br />
or English cause.<br />
Table 12. Matrix predicates of <strong>Akatek</strong> type2 <strong>complements</strong><br />
and English PNOMs<br />
Matrix predicate e.g. for e.g. for<br />
type <strong>Akatek</strong> type2 English PNOM<br />
PVs il `see' see<br />
CVs chej `force' cause<br />
Aspectual auxiliaries laa `end' beg<strong>in</strong><br />
Non-<strong>verb</strong>al predicates watx' `be good' be slow<br />
In sum, type2 PVCs <strong>in</strong> <strong>Akatek</strong> are nom<strong>in</strong>alized PVCs like the English<br />
PNOMs, so that <strong>in</strong> both <strong>language</strong>s nom<strong>in</strong>alized <strong>complements</strong> are<br />
used to denote events. The second typeofPVCs that occurs <strong>in</strong><br />
<strong>Akatek</strong> is the topic of the next section.<br />
4. PVCs of type1<br />
Type1 PVCs have the structure of <strong>in</strong>dependent sentences and can<br />
takeavariety of complementizers: wh-complementizers like b'ey `where'<br />
or tzetal `what', the conditional complementizer ta `whether, if' and tol<br />
and tzub'il, both mean<strong>in</strong>g `that'. The latter two complementizers result<br />
<strong>in</strong> PVC types similar to that-PVCs <strong>in</strong> English. Examples for type1<br />
PVCs with the complementizer tol are provided <strong>in</strong> (182) for il `see' and
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