Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

22 2. PERCEPTION VERBS AND THEIR COMPLEMENTS
sense modalities with respect to their cross-linguistic lexicalization is
presented. In section 3, two ways of meaning extension for PVs are
described. First, one PV can cover the meaning of one or more of the
sense modalities. Second, PVs can semantically extend into the cognitive
domain. Both types of meaning extension are oriented along the
lexicalization hierarchy. Finally, evidence from the etymological development
of Indo-European (IE) perception verbs is presented in support
of the observed meaning extensions. In section 4, the complementtypes
that occur with matrix PVs are presented based on Noonan's typology
of complement types (Noonan, 1985). In addition, typological ndings
regarding classes of complement taking predicates, especially of
non-PV matrix predicates, are cited.
1. The lexical eld
A lexical eld like the eld of perception verbs is characterized by
the intricate interaction of eld speci c and eld independent components.
Field independent components apply to all verbal lexical elds
while eld speci c components characterize individual lexicalization
elds like that of perception verbs. For the lexical eld of perception,
the most important eld speci c components are the ve sense modalities:
vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. These interact
with the three eld independent components called active, passive,
and copulative (Viberg, 1984). 1 Viberg's paradigm predicts that
a maximum of 15 di erent basic perception verbs (PVs) can be lexicalized
cross-linguistically: an active PV, apassive PV, and a
copulative PV for each of the ve sense modalities. Of course, a
language can have many more verbs expressing perception. Viberg's
study as well as mine are restricted to basic PVs like smell, while PVs
like sni are classi ed as non-basic.
The selection of a speci c grammatical subject as base, i.e. either
the perceiver or the object of perception, allows to distinguish between
active and passive PVs on the one hand and copulative PVs on the
other. Experiencer based verbs are distinguished from source based
verbs in that the former take as subjects animates that undergo a
certain experience while the latter choose the experienced entity as
subject. Both active and passive PVs select the perceiver as their
grammatical subject and are thus classed as experiencer based verbs,
see (2-a) and (2-b), respectively (Viberg, 1983). Copulative PVs select
1 Active and passive does not refer to voice distinctions here. In the course
of the study active and passive PVs are distinguished from passivized (active or
passive) PVs.