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same type as 4 or IVb, the appearance of D (mér) being
conditioned by other adjuncts to V. Fillmore’s cases denoted
I, F, and L are not mentioned by the speaker in connection
with the appearance or lack of -st. The traditional categories
are somewhat ill defined in that Börnin klœddust would fit both
categories 1 and 2, while finna would appear to fit both
categories 4 and 6.
Sigríður Valfells: To Professor Flalldór Halldórsson: (1) My
presentation is, of course, based upon the well-known premise
that any past participle (and, according to the theory of
abstract syntax, any verb) can be either verbal or adjectival,
and that, accordingly, such a phrase as bókin var seld will be
systematically ambiguous. Upon the question of usage there
seems to be a difference of judgement: in my opinion, bókin
var fundin is ambiguous in exactly the same way as bókin vor
seld. If there is a real difference between selja and finna with
respect to passivization, it should be made clear in explicit,
formal terms, not by some vague appeal to questions of usage.
At present I do not see how such a distinction would be made.
(2) I simply want to repeat that my paper is only a first-
step attempt to account for the middle-voice forms in Icelandic.
Within the scope of such a short paper I cannot hope to ac-
count adequately for all instances of the -st form; the examples
of verbs occurring only in the middle voice are indeed an
interesting problem, but I have chosen not to consider them
here, on the assumption that the ‘regular’ middle-voice forma-
tions, viz., those with corresponding active and passive forms,
must be considered the primary problem.
(3) I stand corrected in the case of njótast, since it does
occur in the middle voice as a reciprocal. On the other hand,
I want to insist that the more important question is why verbs,
such as njóta, leita, etc., taking a genitive object do not undergo
normal passivization or occur as agentless in the middle voice.
Thus we cannot have *hann nauzt, hann beiðst, hann leitaðist (as
distinct from the locution leitast við). This is a nontrivial
problem, and one of the more opaque in Icelandic syntax.