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    Selecting a to-infinitive
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    The copula bliuwe stay shares with gean go and wêze be the property that the selected to-infinitive must be a verb of customary activity, and that it may not be syntactically expanded. Subcategorised material can only be present if it is morphologically incorporated. An example is given below:

    1
    Muoike die gjin lichten, hja moasten bliuwe te brochje-iten
    auntie did no raising they must stay to bread-eat
    Auntie did not weigh anchor, they had to stay to have lunch
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    The complement of bliuwe stay may be headed by a to-infinitive. Furthermore, the selected to-infinitive must denote a customary activity which has a certain duration and which is associated with a designation location, such as sleeping, excercising, eating, working and the like:

    2
    a. Rinskje mocht wol bliuwe te sliepen
    Rinskje might DcP stay to sleep
    Rinskje could stay overnight
    b. Jo moatte as prof net yn Fryslân bliuwe te wenjen
    you must as professor not in Fryslân stay to live
    You must not keep on living in Fryslân as professor

    The to-infinitive may not be expanded with subcategorised material, unless it is incorporated:

    3
    a. *Rinskje mocht wol út bliuwe te sliepen
    Rinskje might DcP stay out to sleep
    Rinskje could stay to sleep late
    b. Rinskje mocht wol bliuwe te útsliepen
    Rinskje might DcP stay to out.sleep
    Rinskje could stay to sleep late
    c. *Rinskje bleau tee te drinken
    Rinskje stayed tea to drink
    Rinskje stayed drinking tea
    d. Rinskje bleau te teedrinken
    Rinskje stayed to tea.drink
    Rinskje stayed to drink tea

    Note that the latter sentence does not mean that Rinskje kept on drinking tea. It means that Rinskje stayed somewhere, or stayed longer somewhere, in order to have tea. The Dutch translation equivalent, in contrast, can have the meaning that Rinskje kept on drinking tea, so expressing a purely durative aspect. In contrast, Frisian ties the durative aspect down to locational presence.

    The to-infinitive must denote a personal activity:

    4
    *It bliuwt mar te reinen
    it stays DcP to rain
    It does not stop raining

    The to-infinitive may not denote an verb that does not express a customary activity:

    5
    *Hy bleau te God oanroppen
    he stayed to God out.call
    He kept on invoking God

    However, the latter example could be grammatical in a context where calling on God is a customary activity. As a result, the sentence below could be uttered in a monastery, in which it is customary to invoke God, say, in the evening:

    6
    Bliuwsto te God oanroppen?
    stay.2SG to God out.call
    Will you stay to invoke God (with us)?

    In case the incorporated infinitive does not function as a complement but as an adjunct, the selectional restrictions mentioned above are partly obviated, more specifically, the activity need not be customary.

    7
    Hy bleau dêr mar stean te God oanroppen
    he stayed there DcP stand to God out.call
    He kept on standing there, invoking God

    By and large, noun-incorporations tend to denote customary activities, such as the following:

    8
    Hy bleau dêr efkes koart stean te noassnuten
    he stayed there DcP short stand to nose.blow
    He stood there for a brief moment, blowing his nose
    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra
      Category: Frisian Syntax
      Keywords: to-infinitiveverb of customary activity
      Version: 1.0, December 2015
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Eric Hoekstra December 2015
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