Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

4. CRITERIA FOR THE SEMANTIC CHARACTERIZATION 79
idiomatic expressions can be clefted, and those constitute unambiguous
ing-PVCs. In other words, many ing-PVCs are ambiguous between
ing-PVCs, reduced relative clauses and NP adjuncts, so that the ability
ofing-PVCs to undergo PVC cleft might be an instance of reduced
relative clauses or NP adjuncts and not of `true' ing-PVCs.
In the following section the structural description of the complement
types is complemented by their semantic characterization. The
semantic description of the PVC types permits assigning one of the two
semantic types identi ed in section 1.2 to each PVCtype.
4. Criteria for the semantic characterization
The semantic properties of the complement types characterize the
semantic types that were identi ed in section 1.2: events, i.e. events,
processes, and actions, and propositions, i.e. propositions, facts,
and results. Events can only be perceived while they happen. Hence,
the complementmust be encoded as temporally simultaneous with the
matrix clause if events are expressed. `Temporally simultaneous' expresses
the restriction that the temporal reference of the matrix clause
and of the complement clause need to be minimally identical. `Minimally'
in that the action of perceiving the event and the happening of
the event need to overlap to a degree su cient for observation. For
proposition denoting complement types no restriction of this kind
exists.
The type of predicate of the complement also plays a role in distinguishing
event denoting PVCs from proposition denoting PVCs.
Two conditions have to be met for a PVC denoting an event. First,
the PVC predicate has to express a state, process or action which
can be perceived by our senses, and second, the object of perception
must be subject to some sort of transformation, i.e. it cannot be stative
(Monnich, 1992b). This means that stative predicates, especially
those describing imperceptible states, cannot occur in complement
types that are restricted to an event interpretation. Especially
verbs expressing mental states like know should not occur in such a
complement type.
Negation transforms processes into states, so that negated complements
cannot obtain an event interpretation (Vendler, 1967;
Monnich, 1998). This means that event denoting complementtypes
do not allow sentential negation.
Modality modi es the meaning of a clause in such away that it reects
the speaker's judgment regarding the likelihood of the expressed
proposition (Quirk et al., 1985; Lyons, 1977). The application of