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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218 5. PERCEPTION VERB COMPLEMENTS IN AKATEK<br />
The morphological evidential marker ab' can cliticize to the complementizer<br />
tol as can be observed <strong>in</strong> example (232). Zavala (1992b)<br />
calls this evidential marker a reportative. This is re ected <strong>in</strong> the translation<br />
of the example with `it is said...'.<br />
(232) tol-ab' chi-;-y-awte-toj ach'e tu' ix<br />
COMP-EV IMPF-B3-A3-call-DIR boy<br />
y-i<strong>in</strong>-taj<br />
A3-<strong>in</strong>-DISTR<br />
DEM she<br />
`It is said that she calls the young men after her.'<br />
Franco (1993)<br />
In type1 PVCs, the above evidential cannot occur with the PV il `see' as<br />
can be gathered from the ungrammaticality of the constructions shown<br />
<strong>in</strong> example (233). With the PV ab' `hear', on the other hand, type1<br />
PVCs with either complementizer, i.e. with tzub'il or with tol, can take<br />
the evidential ab' as demonstrated <strong>in</strong> example (234). The addition of<br />
the evidential <strong>in</strong>dicates that the <strong>in</strong>formation orig<strong>in</strong>ates from hearsay. 17<br />
(233) *x-;-y-il naj <strong>in</strong>-mam an<br />
PERF-B3-A3-see NCL A1-father CL1s<br />
tol-ab' x-;-kam no' chee<br />
COMP-EV PERF-B3-die NCL horse<br />
`My father saw that the horse died.'<br />
tzub'il-ab'/<br />
COMP-EV/<br />
(234) x-;-y-ab' naj <strong>in</strong>-mam an tol-ab'/<br />
PERF-B3-A3-hear NCL A1-father CL1s COMP-EV/<br />
tzub'il-ab' x-;-kam no' chee<br />
COMP-EV PERF-B3-die NCL horse<br />
`My father heard that the horse died.'<br />
In sum, type1 PVCs can be modi ed by modal auxiliaries and clitics,<br />
some of which can and some of which cannot modify type2 <strong>complements</strong>.<br />
The sentential ad<strong>verb</strong> yel `be true' can also modify type1 PVCs,<br />
which is a de n<strong>in</strong>g property ofproposition denot<strong>in</strong>g <strong>complements</strong>.<br />
Furthermore, type1 PVCs of ab' hear can obta<strong>in</strong> a hearsay evidential<br />
marker, which makes their <strong>in</strong>terpretation as propositions unambiguous.<br />
4.3.5. Summary. Table 14 shows the semantic characteristics of<br />
type1 PVCs that have been <strong>in</strong>vestigated <strong>in</strong> this section. Temporal<br />
17 The restriction that the reportative ab' cannot cooccur with il `see' <strong>in</strong> <strong>Akatek</strong><br />
is paralleled by a restriction <strong>in</strong> Japanese, that the hearsay evidential rashii cannot<br />
modify <strong>complements</strong> of miru `see' as is shown <strong>in</strong> chapter 6.