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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74 3. PERCEPTION VERB COMPLEMENTS IN ENGLISH<br />
However, with active perception <strong>verb</strong>s like watch a passive to construction<br />
is impossible as demonstrated <strong>in</strong> (80), an observation which<br />
supports the analysis that subjects of event denot<strong>in</strong>g PVCs cannot<br />
be passivized with <strong>in</strong> nitival to.<br />
(80) *John was watched to build a boat. Mittwoch (1990), 119<br />
Declerck (1983) presents further evidence aga<strong>in</strong>st the analysis that<br />
the passive with to is the passive counterpart of an active NI-PVC.<br />
He demonstrates that passives with <strong>in</strong> nitival to share structural and<br />
semantic properties of proposition denot<strong>in</strong>g to-PVCs and of that-<br />
PVCs but not those of event denot<strong>in</strong>g NI-PVCs.<br />
The typological relevance of passivization of PVs with di erent<br />
types of <strong>complements</strong> becomes apparent by look<strong>in</strong>g at other <strong>language</strong>s.<br />
Bennis & Hoekstra (1989) note that <strong>in</strong> <strong>language</strong>s that have passive<br />
<strong>in</strong> ections on the ma<strong>in</strong> <strong>verb</strong> as is the case <strong>in</strong> Swedish, the PVC<br />
subject can be passivized as illustrated <strong>in</strong> example (81-b). For passive<br />
constructions that consist of an auxiliary <strong>verb</strong> and a passive participle<br />
as e.g. <strong>in</strong> Dutch, English, and Swedish, the PVC subject cannot be<br />
passivized as demonstrated for Swedish <strong>in</strong> example (81-c).<br />
(81) a. Jag hor Peter sjunga en sang.<br />
I hear Peter s<strong>in</strong>g a song<br />
b. Peter hordes sjunga en sang.<br />
Peter was.heard s<strong>in</strong>g a song<br />
c. *Peter blev hord sjunga en sang.<br />
Bennis & Hoekstra (1989), 37<br />
My analysis of passivization processes <strong>in</strong> perception constructions <strong>in</strong><br />
<strong>Akatek</strong> <strong>in</strong> chapter 5 supports this analysis. In <strong>Akatek</strong>, there are three<br />
morphological passives that can be applied to PVs with <strong>complements</strong>.<br />
The highly restricted ability of complex perception constructions <strong>in</strong><br />
English to passivize seems to be either the result of the lack of a morphological<br />
passive (Bennis & Hoekstra, 1989), or must be counted<br />
as idiosyncratic to English and other European <strong>language</strong>s.<br />
3.8.2. Complement-to-subject rais<strong>in</strong>g. Besides the passivization of<br />
the PV with S-to-S rais<strong>in</strong>g out of the PVC, the whole PVC can also be<br />
raised to the PV subject position (PVC-to-S rais<strong>in</strong>g). Clearly, NI-PVCs<br />
and to-PVCs cannot be passivized, while passivization of a that-PVC<br />
is grammatical:<br />
(82) a. *[John cook d<strong>in</strong>ner] was seen last night.<br />
b. *[Mary to be quali ed for the job] was seen by Jim.
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