More generally, a reflexive verb has the same semantic agent and patient (typically represented syntactically by the subject and the direct object).
The presence of the reflexive pronoun changes the meaning of a verb, e.g., Spanish abonar 'to pay', abonarse 'to subscribe'.
In all of these language groups, reflexive forms often present an obstacle for foreign learners[2][3] (notably native speakers of English,[citation needed] where the feature is practically absent) due to the variety of uses.
In modern Scandinavian languages, the passive (or more properly mediopassive) voice is used for medial, especially reciprocal, constructions.
"Autocausative" reflexive denotes that the (usually animate) "referent represented by the subject combines the activity of actor and undergoes a change of state as a patient":[8] "Anticausative" reflexive denotes that the (usually inanimate) subject of the verb undergoes an action or change of state whose agent is unclear or nonexistent.
"[9] In many cases, there is a semantic overlap between impersonal/anticausative/autocausative constructs and the passive voice (also present in all Romance and Slavic languages).
[9] On one hand, impersonal reflexive constructs have a wider scope of application, as they are not limited to transitive verbs like the canonical passive voice.
[11]In each of these cases, the reflexively inflected verb now forms a new stem to which additional morphology may be affixed, for example waarmba-adhi 'returned' may become waarmba-adhi-lmugu (return-REFL+PST-NEG) 'didn't return.'
[13] pammanthonoone.NOMtup[ideophone]ko’o-rr-rspear-RECP-PST.PFVnhanganul3SG.REFLwatpdeadpam thono tup ko’o-rr-r nhanganul watpman one.NOM [ideophone] spear-RECP-PST.PFV 3SG.REFL deadOne man speared himself dead, whack!Or the reverse wherein an apparent reciprocal assertion has reflexive morphology: pul2DU-NOM/ERGrunc-e-rcollide-REFL-NOM.PFVpul runc-e-r2DU-NOM/ERG collide-REFL-NOM.PFVThey two collided with one other.In actuality, the broader function of the reciprocal verb is to emphasize the agentivity of the grammatical subject(s), sometimes to directly counteract expectations of an external agent--as in the first example above.
Conversely, the reflexive verb can have precisely this function of backgrounding the agentivity of the subject and bringing the focus to the effect that was wrought upon the undergoer(s) as in the second example above.
"The door opened" is expressed in Hungarian as "Az ajtó kinyílt", from the verb kinyílik, while the passive voice is rare and archaic.
There are numerous verb pairs where one element is active and the other expresses middle voice, something happening apparently on its own, rendered in English like "to become, get, grow, turn" (something).