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    5.2 The auxiliary of going and its selection restrictions
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    The auxiliary of going gunge ‘go’ usually selects an infinitive or a to-infinitive, but it may also select a PP infinitive. When accompanied by a to-infinitive, it must be an infinitive without a middle field, that is, a reduced infinitive. This is discussed in more detail in the sections below.

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    [+]1. The auxiliary of going selecting a bare infinitive

    The auxiliary of going combines with bare infinitives of body posture. Verbs of body posture are: sitte ‘sit’, stounde ‘stand’ and läze ‘lie’. Some examples are given below:

    1
    Sitte gunge.
    sit go
    To sit down.
    2
    Sin Suun is deer goud sitte geen.
    his son is there good sit gone
    His son married well there (into that family).
    3
    Die Heeuwer is läze geen.
    the oats is lie go
    The oats are lying down.

    The second example illustrates that there is also idiom formation, indicating that there has been clause union. The examples also indicate that the verb of going selects a bare infinitive, that is, an infininitive in schwa, not the gerundial infinitive ending in –n. This is interesting, because the verb of going in West Frisian selects the gerundial infinitive. The verb of going characteristically combines with verbs of body posture. However, it combines with other verbs as well:

    4
    Uus Babe is bie dät Fugelskjoten mäd dän eerste Pries strieke geen.
    our father is at the bird.shooting with the first prize stroke go
    Our father won first prize at the shooting party.

    There is also the following example, involving the combination of the auxiliary of going with a preposed verb of activity:

    5
    Donsjen gunge wol dät Wucht.
    dunsje.GI gean wol that girl
    The girl wants to go and dance.

    This is an example in which the main verb and the verb of going have been preposed. Remarkably, the verb of going now selects the gerundial infinitive. The example is from poetry (source: [GesLechSie-SeeKroune 1977]). Consider also the following example:

    6
    Iek gunge oafte foar Mame ienkoopjen.
    I went often for mother in.buy
    I often went and bought things for mother.

    Again the gerundial infinitive is used, and it again involves a verb that is not a verb of body posture. An infinitive may also be left dislocated, and resumed by means of resumptive pronoun, as in the following example:

    7
    Äize säike dät geen je mäd de Fuurke.
    bait seek that went they with the fork
    Seeking out worms, they did it with the pitchfork.

    The infinitive has the form of an ordinary infinitive, presumably because it counts as a citation infinitive. The resumptive pronoun satisfies the selection restrictions of the verb of going.

    To sum, if the auxiliary of going combines with a bare infinitive, the bare infinitive almost always involves a verb of body posture. This is usually found in older sources, and it is going out of use. Instead of sitte gunge ‘go sit’, the Low German loan sik sätte ‘set oneself’ is now quite current. When the verb of going combines with an activity verb, the main verb infinitive doesn’t have the form of an ordinary infinitive but of a gerundial infinitive.

    [+]2. The auxiliary of going selecting a to-infinitive

    The combination of the verb of being with a to-infinitive was already discussed in: VP > Types of to-infinitival constituents >Reduced and full to-infinitives of purpose (4.5). What is notable is the following. If the auxiliary of going selects a to-infinitive, the to-infinitive is not accompanied by any other material. There are no objects, there is no middle field, there are no accompanying adverbials. The infinitival constituent is found to the right of the verb cluster. An example is given below:

    8
    Foar loange Tid geen in Strukelje moal ‘n Mon wai tou Boomoutakjen.
    for long time went in Strukelje once a man away to tree.off.branch
    A long time ago in Strukelje, a man went away to cut off branches from trees.

    So if the verb of going selects a to-infinitive, it must be an infinitive without a middle field.

    [+]3. The auxiliary of going selecting a PP infinitive

    The verb of going can also select a PP infinitive (Laker & Kramer 2022). Some examples are given below:

    9
    Deer ging et an ’t hauen.
    there went it at the fighting
    Then the fighting began.
    10
    Dan geen dät an ’t Wullekrasjen un dan an ’t Spinnen.
    then went it at the wool.carding and then at the spinning
    Then they began to card the wool and to spin.

    The last sentence features an object incorporation. Both sentences are impersonal, and they have an ingressive meaning: they express the beginning of an ongoing action. The construction can also have a personal subject, as in the following example:

    11
    Fluks geen ju bie dät Brood an ’t Kneden.
    quickly went she at the bread at the kneading
    Quickly she began to knead the bread (dough).

    This is a peculiar example. The implied object of the PP infinitive is present in the middle verb of the verb of going as a PP of location. In 19th century sources, there is a variant of the construction featuring the indefinite article:

    12
    Do ging et an ‘n Nukkersjen.
    then went it at a wriggling
    Then the wriggling began.
    13
    Do ging et an ‘n Hauen.
    then went it at a fighting
    Then the fighting began.

    The construction tends to be impersonal. Thus it is chiefly used to mark the beginning of an ongoing activity without the participants in the action (subject and object) being expressed.

    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra, Bouke Slofstra
      Category: Saterfrisian Syntax
      Version: 1.0, December 2023
      Version history:
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      1.0 Eric Hoekstra, Bouke Slofstra December 2023
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