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This paper presents an account of sf-(middle) verbs in Icelandic that treats -st as the head of a functional phrase-object agreement (AgrO)-and argues that, consequently, sf-formation is a syntactic rather than a lexical process. Supporting evidence includes the fact that -st is a clitic rather than an inflectional or derivational element attached to the verb. This analysis has the advantage that sf-verbs, which on the surface appear disparate in their interpretation (e.g., reflexive vs. passive), can be unified under a single syntactic operation. The differences in interpretation fall out from argument structure properties of individual verbs. A consistent mapping between morphology and syntax is obtained.

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Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on Pragmatics and Grammatical Structure (1997)