ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an overview of syntactic classes of verbs in Icelandic. The chapter argues that the traditional division into intransitive, transitive, and ditransitive verbs is a very important one in Icelandic and must be expressed by some kind of syntactic mechanism such as strict subcategorization frames. Furthermore, it also argues that although there is obviously a relationship between syntactic strict subcategorization and the semantic properties of verbs, it is not possible to predict strict subcategorization on the basis of meaning. Thus it is not the case that a verb which is semantically a two place predicate will always be a simple transitive verb taking a direct object. It could, for instance, be strictly subcategorized for a prepositional phrase. This chapter, then shows that the CCs occur in virtually all positions where NPs occur in Icelandic verb complementation, as long as it is semantically plausible.
