Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

80 3. PERCEPTION VERB COMPLEMENTS IN ENGLISH
modality to the complement types under investigation is therefore restricted
to proposition denoting complement types. As a semantic
category, modality is realized in languages chie y by lexical and morphological
means. Lexically, sentential or modality adverbs and modal
auxiliaries or modal particles are used. Morphologically, mood categories
such as subjunctive, imperative, or irrealis are marked on the
verb or in the form of modality particles. A special role is assigned to
morphological markers of evidentiality, which indicate how the information
conveyed in the proposition was obtained, e.g. via perception,
inference or hearsay (Holzapfel, 1996; Palmer, 1986). In English,
the notion of evidentiality is expressed via modal auxiliaries, perception
verbs, adverbs, or idiomatic phrases:
(96) a. John must have arrived. Anderson (1986), 274
b. I hear Mary won the prize. Anderson (1986), 274
c. It had evidently been under snow. Chafe (1986), 267
d. Ihave it on good authority that Mary won the prize.
Anderson (1986), 276
That markers of evidentiality can be used to mark PVC asproposition
denoting has been discussed in chapter 2, section 4.1. Since
a detailed investigation of the phenomenon of modality isbeyond the
scope of this thesis, I restrict my observations regarding English PVC
to sentential adverbs like probably and modal auxiliaries like be able to.
In addition to the above criteria, Noonan (1985) lists the choice
of complementizer as a ecting the semantics of a complement type.
Since there is only one complementizer in English PVCs, the choice of
complementizer does not play a role in English. However, I investigate
whether the complementizer that and the in nitival particle to have
any semantic value.
In sum, I have selected the ve most salient parameters contributing
to the semantic characterization of English PVCs, which I also considered
applicable to the analysis of Akatek. The following list of questions
is used as a guideline for the semantic description of the complement
types under investigation: 14
1. Is the PVC restricted to temporal simultaneity with the matrix
predicate?
2. Can the PVC contain imperceptible or stative predicates?
3. Is sentential negation possible?
14 More criteria, especially regarding the truth theoretic properties of PVCs,
are discussed in Barwise & Perry (1983); Declerck (1983); Dretske (1969);
Higginbotham (1983); Mittwoch (1990), among others.