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    Incorporation into to-infinitivals as compared to tensed verbs
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    Frisian was seen to exhibit incorporation with to-infinitives, whereas Dutch lacks incorporation with to-infinitives. The phenomenon of incorporation in itself is also found in other syntactic contexts beside to-infinitivals.

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    Incorporation may take place with ordinary infinitives, as shown below:

    1
    a. Ik sjoch him fotoynplakken
    I see him photograph.in.glue
    I see him sticking photographs in an album
    b. Se liet him fotoynplakke
    she let him photograph.in.glue
    She let him stick photographs in an album

    As can be seen from the examples above, incorporation may take place both with the ordinary infinitive, which normally ends in sjwa, and with the gerundial infinitive, which always ends in a nasal. Incorporation is also found inside a nominalisation:

    2
    a. It fotoynplakken is hast dien
    the photograph.in.glue is almost done
    They have almost finished sticking photographs in an album
    b. It oprêden fan it hûs is hast dien
    the up.clean of the house is almost done
    They have almost finished cleaning up the house

    Incorporation may also target finite verbs, as in the following examples:

    3
    a. Heit ierappeldolt de hiele dei
    father potato.digs the whole day
    Our father is digging potatoes all day long
    b. Ik ha noch net messeslipe
    I have yet not knife-sharpened
    I have not been sharpenign knives

    On the whole, incorporation targets collocational activity verbs which have a habitual implication. So it is the same combinations of verb and object which are found in incorporated structures, regardless of whether these structures are to-infinitivals, normal infinitivals, nominalisations or tensed verbs.

    In one respect, incorporation targeting tensed verbs differs from incorporation targeting untensed structures. Incorporation targeting tensed verbs cannot just target a particle:

    4
    a. Hâld ris op te oprêden
    hold DcP up to up.clean
    Stop cleaning up (all the time)
    b. *Hy oprêdt de hiele dei
    he up.cleans the whole day
    He is cleaning up the whole day

    The ungrammatical example improves in case an incorporated object is added:

    5
    ?*Hy hûsoprêdt de hiele dei
    he house.up.cleans the whole day
    He is cleaning up the house the whole day

    The ungrammaticality may be due to some aspectual matter. What is even more remarkable, is that noun incorporation into the tensed verb is allowed below the particle, so that the noun intervenes between particle and verb, but in that case the particle is not selected by the verb. An example is given below, involving the intensifying particle oan to:

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    Moatst mar oan-prikkebarne
    must.2SG DcP to-stick.burn
    You must burn lots of sticks

    The incorporated object shows up between the particle and the untensed verb. Normal cases of particle and object incorporation feature the order in which the particle precedes the object, as in the example below:

    7
    Moatst mar fotoynplakke
    must.2SG DcP photograph.in.glue
    You must stick photographs in an album

    It is not allowed with a tensed verb:

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    ?*Hy fotoynplakt mar raak!
    he photograph.in.glue DcP a.lot
    He is intensively sticking photographs in an album

    Combination of the two particle structures is ungrammatical:

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    *Moatst mar oan- fotoynplakke
    must.2SG DcP to- photograph.in.glue
    You must stick lots of photographs in an album

    A similar example of incorporation below the particle involves the intensifying particle ta to:

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    No kinne wy mar ta-brijite
    now can we DcP to-porridge.eat
    Now we can eat lots of porridge

    The verb must be untensed:

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    *Do ta-brijytst mar raak!
    you to-porridge.eat DcP a.lot
    You eat quite a lot of porridge

    A related case involves the detensifying particle om around, which can be viewed as the contrary of intensifying particles. This particle also allows object incorporation below it, as shown below:

    12
    Ik lit net mei my om-kedsjemenne
    I let not with me around-cob.drive
    I do not let myself be pissed around

    Again the incorporating verb may not be tensed:

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    *Se om-kedsjemenne mei my
    they around-cob.drive with me
    They piss around with me

    So, object incorporation into untensed verbs is allowed below intensifying and detensifying particles, provided the verb is untensed, just as particle incorporation itself is allowed with untensed verbs only.

    On the whole, tensed verbs are more restrictive with respect to the elements which may undergo incorporation than infinitives, as was shown above with respect to particles. The same observation can be made for obligatory adjuncts. They may incorporate into infinitives, but not into tensed verbs, as shown below:

    14
    a. Omdat se oan in trapeze hong te gefaarlik-dwaan
    because she to a trapeze hung to dangerous-do
    Because she was courting danger, hanging from a trapeze
    b. *Se gefaarlikdocht no al de hiele dei
    she dangerous.do now DcP the whole day
    She has been courting danger the whole day
    extra
    Literature

    More details can be found in Dyk (1997).

    References
    • Dyk, Siebren1997Noun incorporation in FrisianLeeuwardenFryske Akademy
    About this article
    Author(s): Eric Hoekstra
    Category: Frisian Syntax
    Keywords: incorporationto-infinitivalsinfinitivesfinite verb
    Version: 1.0, December 2015
    Version history:
    version editor(s) date remarks
    1.0 Eric Hoekstra December 2015
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