Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

4. CRITERIA FOR THE SEMANTIC CHARACTERIZATION 85
(113) ?Terry knows that Mary has been surprisingly/ admittedly/
tragically kidnapped. Koktova (1986), 69
Note that not all types of modal adverbs prevent the interpretation
of the complement asanevent: adverbs of manner (114), frequency
(115), or duration (116) can modify events provided that an interpretation
of repeated action or duration is feasible.
(114) I felt the house tremble violently. Vendler (1968), 57
(115) a. Isaw John jump once.
b. *I saw John jumping once. Gee (1977), 480
c. ??I saw John rarely walk to work.
Higginbotham (1994a), 9
(116) Isaw John sit in his usual place for half an hour.
Mittwoch (1990), 110
The modal auxiliary be able to is grammatical only with INOMs and
that-PVCs but ungrammatical with all the other complement types:
NI-PVCs, ing-PVCs, PNOMs and to-PVCs:
(117) a. *He smelled Mary be able to beeswax the oor.
b. *He smelled Mary being able to beeswax the oor.
c. *He smelled Mary's being able to beeswax of the oor.
d. He remembered Mary's being able to beeswax the oor.
e. *He smelled Mary to be able to beeswax the oor.
f. He smelled that Mary had been able to beeswax the oor.
However, van der Leek & Jong (1982) note that under certain
conditions Dutch modals can occur with NI-PVCs as for example
shown in (118). On the other hand, modal auxiliaries such asmust are
ungrammatical as modi ers of all complement types except for that-
PVC:
(118) Ik heb haar nog nooit zoveel snoep zien mogen eten als die
keer.
`I have never seen her be allowed to eat as many sweets
as that time.' van der Leek & Jong (1982), 113
(119) a. *He saw the president must arrive/ arriving.
b. *He saw the must arriving of the president.
c. *He remembered the president's must having arrived.
d. *He saw the president tomust be friends with everyone.
e. He saw that the president must have arrived.
Vendler (1968), 78