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    Selecting a bare infinitive
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    The four verbs of body posture are: sitte sit, stean stand, lizze lie and hingje hang. The copula bliuwe stay shares with gean go the property that it combines with a restricted set of bare infinitives, namely the four verbs of body posture. An example is given below:

    1
    Op 'e Harm Harkesparren nei, dy't Oktober ta út wol hingjen bliuwe koene
    on the Harm Harkes.pears to which october to out DcP hang stay could
    Except for the Harm Harkes pears, which could remain hanging on the tree until november
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    The copula bliuwe stay combines with a restricted set of bare infinitives, namely the four verbs of body posture and occasionally with a few verbs expressing a locational aspect, more specifically permanence of location, such as stykjen stick and wenjen live. Below are two examples in which the complement is headed by a verb of body posture:

    2
    a. Do kinst noch bêst wat sitten bliuwe om in pantsjefol tee
    you can DcP easily a.bit sit.GI stay foar a cupful tea
    You can stay sitting here a bit longer for a cup of tea
    b. Mar ien sa'n Grienlânsk baaske bleau stean
    but one such.a Greenlandic lad stayed stand
    But one such a Greenlandic lad stopped running

    Below we present two examples in which the complement is headed by a locational verb:

    3
    a. In staak fan it laach bleau wenjen op 'e âlde Holdinga State ûnder Eanjum
    a branch of the lineage stayed living at the old Holdinga manor below Eangjum
    A branch of the lineage continued to live at the ancient Holdinga manor south of Eangjum
    b. Ik trape troch oant ik yn de snie stykjen bleau
    I walked through until I in the snow stick stayed
    I kept walking until I got stuck in the snow

    The bare infinitive takes the form of a gerund. An ordinary infinitive is not allowed:

    4
    *In staak fan it laach bleau wenje op 'e âlde Holdinga State ûnder Eanjum
    a branch of the lineage stayed living.OI at the old Holdinga manor below Eangjum
    Members of a branch of the lineage continued to live at the ancient Holdinga manor south of Eangjum

    The copula bliuwe stay is still grounded in a locative interpretation, although it may acquire an overtone of durative aspect. Its locative interpretation correlates with its selectional restrictions, although it is not clear how exactly. Bliuwe stay also combines with some verbs which have been derived morphologically from the verbs of body posture mentioned above:

    5
    De kâns op in buike bliuwt bestean
    the chance of a shower stays exist
    There is still the possibility of a shower

    Other bare infinitives cannot be directly combined with this locational durative verb. In this respect, Standard Frisian differs from Standard Dutch. The following are ungrammatical in Standard Frisian (but grammatical in Interference Frisian, informal Frisian, and in Dutch):

    6
    a. *It bliuwt mar reinen
    it stays DcP rain
    It keeps on raining
    b. *Hy bleau God oanroppen, sels doe't er rekke waard fan in kûgel
    he stayed God out.call even when he hit was by a bullet
    He did not stop invoking God, even when he was hit by a bullet

    A different idiom must be used in case the meaning of the sentence above is to be expressed in a grammatical form. Such a different idiom may involve the durative particle troch through, often accompanied by the discourse particle mar but:

    7
    It reint mar troch
    it rains DcP through
    It just keeps on raining

    The meaning contribution of mar but is notoriously difficult to put into words, let alone to formalise it. It seems to express a high degree reading, as well as emotional involvement on the part of the speaker, usually negative such as disapproval, irony or sarcasm. If it is left out, the sentence has the feel of an unemotional factual statement.

    A durative interpretation can also be effected by negating a verb of cessation, as in the following:

    8
    Ik hold net op fan draven
    I kept not up of running
    I did not stop running

    Apart from the four verbs of body posture, the copula of staying also combines with infinitives consisting of a particle of approach such as oan to and a verb of manner of motion such as rinne walk. An example is given below:

    9
    De twa oaren bleauwen efter my oan rinnen
    the two others stayed behind me P walk
    The other two continued to follow me

    Such examples seem to be chiefly found in recent literature. The example in (9) is from 1977. Normally, it is komme come which selects bare infinitives consisting of a particle of approach and a verb of manner of motion see komme come. So it seems that bliuwe stay has come to accept bare infinitives which otherwise only combine with the verb of coming. This small widening of selection restrictions may be caused by pressure from Dutch, which allows the verb of staying to combine with all sorts of verbs. On the other hand, the extension itself is a natural class occurring elsewhere in the grammar of Frisian.

    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra
      Category: Frisian Syntax
      Keywords: bare infinitiveverbs of body posture
      Version: 1.0, December 2015
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Eric Hoekstra December 2015
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