Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

248 7. CONCLUSION
The sense modality hierarchy does not only re ect the lexicalization
sequence passive PVs follow, but also, which additional meanings along
the sense modality hierarchy a passive PV can cover. For example in
Akatek, ab' `hear' is also used to cover the lower sense modalities of
touch, taste, and smell, which have no distinct lexical realizations
as is the case for example in English.
The hierarchy also predicts that PVs higher up in the hierarchy are
more likely to extend their meaning into the cognitive domain than
those on the lower end. In Akatek both il `see' and ab' `hear' extend
their meaning into the cognitive domain. Passive PVs that have acquired
an additional cognitive meaning are special matrix predicates.
In languages with a complementation system, passive PVs can take
at least two di erent complement types provided that the cognitive
extension of passive PVs is universal (Hypothesis I).
2. PVC types
The di erentPVCtypes were described according to their semantic
and their structural characteristics and identi ed as one of six di erent
complement types (Noonan, 1985): indicative complements (INDs),
subjunctive complements (SUBs), paratactic complements (PARAs),
in nitives (INFs), nominalizations (NMLZs) and participles (PARTs).
Ihave shown in chapter 3 that in English, there are more PVC types
than the ones investigated. For example, I explicitly excluded whclauses,
adverbial clauses and small clause constructions as well as participial
adjunct clauses from the investigation. Excluding participial
adjunct clauses from the investigation, i.e. Noonan's PART complement
type, reduces the prospective typology of PVCs to ve complement
types: IND, SUB, PARA, INF, and NMLZ.
I described ve PVCtypes in English: NI-PVCs (INFs), ing-PVCs
(INFs), PNOMs (NMLZs), to-PVCs (INFs) and that-PVCs (INDs).
The non-PVC complement type INOM was added to the investigation
because on the one hand INOMs contrast well with PNOMs and on the
other they share a number of structural and semantic characteristics
with to-PVCs and that-PVCs. Akatek has two di erent types of PVC,
referred to as type1 and type2. Type2 PVCs are NMLZs comparable to
the NMLZ PNOMs in English. Type1 PVCs occur in two varieties, as
INDs or as SUBs. They only di er in the complementizers they take.
3. Interpretation of PVC types
The goal of this study was to establish correlations between structural
PVC types and two semantic types: events and propositions.