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    As an adjunct specifying an activity to do in an exclamative interrogative
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    An incorporating infinitival can be found as an adjunct to the light verb dwaan do and to modals. The relevant construction is a main clause phenomenon. It takes the form of an exclamative interrogative expressing annoyance, introduced by the question word wat what. An example is given below:

    1
    Wat dochst doch hieltyd te út- en ynrinnen?
    what do.2SG DcP always to out and in.walk
    Why are you continually walking in and out?

    The sentence implies that the speaker would like the person referred to by the subject of the clause to stop walking in and out. So the example above can also be adequately translated as: could not you stop continually walking in and out? The question word does not have its customary interpretation of being an inanimate question word, but it seems to shift to being interpreted as a question word of reason.

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    The construction is also found with modal verbs, such as moatte must and wolle want:

    2
    a. Wat woe er dêr te healwiisdwaan?
    what wanted he there to foolish.do
    Why did he want to be fooling around there?
    b. Wat moat dat dêr te rare kluchten útheljen?
    what must.2SG that there to strange tricks out.take
    What are you up to fooling around there?

    The second example above shows, incidentally, that a bare plural premodified by an adjective may be incorporated. The construction involves durative aspect, which was also the case with incorporated to-infinitivals with verbs of body posture.

    Incorporation is not obligatory in this construction, as shown below:

    3
    a. Wat dochst doch hieltyd út- en yn te rinnen?
    what do.2SG DcP always out and in to walk
    Why are you continually walking in and out?
    b. Wat moat dat dêr rare kluchten út te heljen?
    what must.2SG that there strange tricks out to take
    What are you up to fooling around there?

    The non-finite complementiser may not be present in this construction:

    4
    a. *Wat dochst doch hieltyd om te út- en ynrinnen?
    what do.2SG DcP always for to out and in.walk
    Why are you continually walking in and out?
    b. *Wat moat dat dêr om te rare kluchten útheljen?
    what must.2SG that there for to strange tricks out.take
    What are you up to fooling around there?

    In fact, the non-finite complementiser is found with an incorporated to-infinitive neither in this construction nor in any other, unless it is a type of incorporation that is also found with tensed verbs. So it seems that a distinction must be made between incorporation merely targeting infinitives and incorporation targeting both infinitives and tensed verbs, see also incorporation into to-infinitivals.

    The construction discussed in this section does not allow the non-finite complementiser, regardless of whether incorporation has taken place:

    5
    a. *Wat dochst doch hieltyd om út- en yn te rinnen?
    what do.2SG DcP always for out and in to walk
    Why are you continually walking in and out?
    b. *Wat moat dat dêr om rare kluchten út te heljen?
    what must.2SG that there for strange tricks out to take
    What are you up to fooling around there?

    The incorporating to-infinitival clause can also be realised as a main clause, in which there is neither a question word nor a light verb or a modal, as shown below. In this case, incorporation is optional as well. The first example features incorporation, the second one does not:

    6
    a. Dy doar hieltyd te iepenwaaien!
    that door always to open.blow
    How that that door is always being blown open
    b. Dy doar hieltyd iepen te waaien!
    that door always open to blow
    How annoying, that door is continually being blown open

    These main clause to-infinitivals feature an expressed subject, namely dy doar that doar. The tensed sentence corresponding to the infinitival clause features dy doar that doar as the subject:

    7
    Dy doar waait hieltyd open
    that door blows always open
    That door is continually being blown open

    Normally speaking, to-infinitival clauses do not allow their logical subject to be overtly expressed. Instead, the logical subject is usually controlled by an argument of a predicate selecting the to-infinitival clause. It is unclear whether the subject is formally part of the projection of the to-infinitive. Note, incidentally, that the subject cannot be doubled by a D-pronoun in the infinitival construction:

    8
    a. *Dy doar dy hieltyd te iepenwaaien!
    that door that always to open.blow
    How that that door is always being blown open
    b. Dy doar dy waait hieltyd open
    that door that blows always open
    That door is continually being blown open
    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra
      Category: Frisian Syntax
      Keywords: exclamative interrogativeincorporating infinitival
      Version: 1.0, December 2015
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Eric Hoekstra December 2015
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