Occurrence

The semantic characteristics of the HAVE A, GIVE A and TAKE A constructions determine the verbs that occur in these syntactic frames. They are only compatible with verbs that describe volitional activities, and where the subject can just do it for a short period, without necessarily reaching any final result. GIVE A normally involves ‘transfer’ to some object which must be concrete (preferably human), never abstract.

It will be useful quickly to run through the semantic types, examining those verbs which have a semantic characterization compatible with one or more of the HAVE A, GIVE A and TAKE A constructions.

MOTION and REST. Verbs in the RUN subtype describe a mode of motion (but no end-point) and may take HAVE A and TAKE A if it is plausible that the subject should want to indulge in that sort of activity, e.g. run, walk, crawl, slide, roll, climb, dive, stroll, jump, swim. Note that these verbs only occur in periphrastic constructions when they describe the activity done for its own sake, not when it has some definite goal—we can say He had a jump down the path parallel to He jumped down the path, but not *He had a jump over the fence alongside He jumped over the fence.

Similar comments apply to the SIT subtype, which includes sit (down), stand (up), lie (down), crouch (down), lean, float; here HAVE A is possible but not TAKE A (possibly because there is no physical effort involved). If some SIT verbs seem uneasy with HAVE A, this is simply because people do not often indulge themselves in that activity, e.g.? Have a crouch. But such usages can be contextualized, as we demonstrated for have a stand-up.

Some RUN verbs can be used as causatives. These may occur with GIVE A, parallel to the corresponding intransitive with HAVE A, e.g. I walked for a while after lunch, I walked the dog for a while after lunch, I had a bit of a walk after lunch, I gave the dog a bit of a walk after lunch.

SIT verbs may also be used causatively, e.g. I sat down after lunch, I sat the child down after lunch. Yet we can say I had a bit of a sit-down after lunch but not *I gave the child a bit of a sit-down after lunch. There is a straightforward explanation. The intransitive verb sit (down) has two senses: (i) get into a sitting position, e.g. He sat down rather suddenly, and (ii) be in a sitting position, e.g. He sat (down) on the sofa all afternoon. HAVE A can only apply to sense (ii), a continuous activity with no end-point, whereas the causative is based on sense (i), ‘put into a sitting position’ (this cannot be ‘done a bit’ and so is incompatible with the GIVE A construction).

Verbs in the ARRIVE, TAKE, STAY and PUT subtypes describe motion or rest with respect to a definite Locus, e.g. arrive, return, go, cross, take, send, move, stay, put. One either arrives at a place or one doesn’t, crosses a bridge or doesn’t, puts a thing in a place or doesn’t—it is not possible to indulge in arriving or crossing or putting for a short while. Because of their meanings, these verbs cannot be used with HAVE A, TAKE A and GIVE A.

Sapir’s example move is particularly interesting. The way this verb is generally used—both intransitively and transitively—it implies shifting position from one definite Locus to another, e.g. They’ve moved (from London to Bristol) or She moved it (from the mantelpiece to the coffee table). There is an end-point implied, which is why move is not used with HAVE A, GIVE A or TAKE A. Note that HAVE A is quite acceptable with a verb such as wriggle—from the RUN subtype—which does just refer to a mode of motion, with no end-points.

The FOLLOW subtype refers to motion with respect to something that is moving, e.g. follow, lead, track, and the CONTAIN subtype refers to position with respect to something that is at rest, e.g. surround. The meanings of these types are incompatible with the HAVE A, TAKE A and GIVE A constructions.

The CARRY subtype refers to motion in juxtaposition with some moving object. Here HAVE A is possible when the subject just wants to indulge in the activity for a little while, e.g. Let me have a carry of that new suitcase you designed, and GIVE A when the thing carried is affected (it may be saved from exertion by the carrying), e.g. Give the sick dog a carry. Handle and catch, from the HOLD subtype, may also be used to refer to the subject indulging themself in something for a bit and may occur with HAVE A, e.g. Let me have a handle of that new racket/catch of that new ball.

Verbs from the THROW subtype describe causing something to be in motion. Such an activity can be done ‘a bit’, at the subject’s whim, and these verbs may occur with HAVE A and GIVE A, e.g. Can I have a throw of that new Frisbee? and Give the bed a push, will you, then I can sweep around this side. Once again, the activity must be potentially continuous—we can pull the rope or give the rope a pull but, parallel to pull/draw the sword from the scabbard it is not possible to say *give the sword a pull/draw from the scabbard, since this activity does have an end-point.

Open, close and shut, from the OPEN subtype, refer to an end-point and are not semantically compatible with HAVE A, TAKE A or GIVE A. Most verbs in the DROP subtype describe involuntary motion, e.g. fall, spill. There is drop, referring to something that may be done deliberately, but it is instantaneous—one either drops a vase or one doesn’t; it would not be plausible to indulge in ‘having a drop of the vase’ or ‘giving the vase a drop’.

AFFECT. Many verbs of straightforward affect, from the HIT, STAB, RUB and TOUCH subtypes, may occur with HAVE A or GIVE A. There is a tendency to use GIVE A with a basic sentence in straightforward transitive form, but HAVE A with a basic sentence that has a preposition inserted before the object, e.g. give the door a kick (here the kick affects the door) and have a kick at the door (here the subject indulges in kicking, with where the kick is aimed being quite secondary). Similarly with stroke, punch, rub, wipe, brush. Note that one can have a shoot at (e.g. the rabbits) but not *give the rabbits a shoot (this could only be interpreted as the Permissive give construction). Shooting something implies a definite result, and it cannot be ‘done a bit’.

Whether a periphrastic construction is possible may depend on the semantic nature not only of the verb but also of the object NP. For instance, one could say have a kick of the ball (with a meaning difference from have a kick at the ball), but scarcely *have a kick of the door.

A number of nouns describing weapons or implements may also be used as AFFECT verbs, e.g. stone, spear, knife, whip, belt, brush. They would generally not be used with GIVE A if the object is human because of the possibility of confusion with the lexical verb give, e.g. we can say They stoned the Christians but scarcely, with similar meaning, They gave the Christians a stone—this would imply handing them a stone, rather than throwing stones at them. (Note that the lexical verb is likely to be accorded precedence, if there is a conflict between lexical use of give and the periphrastic GIVE A construction.) However, GIVE A constructions with such verbs are acceptable if the object is inanimate, and could not be Recipient of the lexical verb give, e.g. give the overcoat a brush (note that GIVE A is allowed here since the overcoat is affected by the activity, being made clean).

HAVE A and GIVE A are most common in colloquial styles and often refer to something done quite casually, for fun. A professional painter, for instance, would scarcely be likely to say that he was having a paint—he just paints, because that’s his job. But if a group of friends had organized a painting party, doing up someone’s house, then someone could well extend an invitation: Come on, John, you have a paint now! or Why don’t you give the banisters a paint, Mary?

Verbs from the AFFECT type that refer to an end-product are unlikely to be found with HAVE A or GIVE A, e.g. clothe, cover, bake, melt, break, chip, crash. However, a verb like tear refers to an activity that may be done to varying degrees—one can tear it a little bit, or give it a little tear (whereas one cannot, because of the meaning of smash, *smash it a little bit or *give it a little smash).

TAKE A is found with only a handful of AFFECT verbs—take a kick at the ball, take a punch at Tom, and very few others.

GIVING. Some verbs from this type refer to temporary transfer of possession, which can be for a short while; these verbs may occur with HAVE A or GIVE A. The interesting point is that the focus appears always to be on the Recipient. Thus lend has Recipient as object and here GIVE A is used (e.g. I’ll give you a lend of my boat for the weekend if you like) whereas borrow has Recipient as subject and this verb occurs with HAVE A (e.g. Can I have a borrow of your boat for the weekend, please?). Rent can be used in either syntactic frame and so we get both I’ll give you a rent of my boat and Can I have a rent of your boat? (Can I have the/a loan of your boat for the weekend? involves the derived form loan, plus either definite or indefinite article. There appears to be little meaning difference between this and the HAVE A construction, Can I have a lend of your boat for the weekend? The latter may just be more colloquial.)

Other GIVING verbs refer to some definite action which could not be done ‘for a bit’; i.e. something is either given, sold, bought, bequeathed, presented, exchanged or not, with no half-measures possible. These verbs are thus not found in HAVE A, GIVE A or TAKE A constructions.

CORPOREAL. HAVE A is possible with many verbs of this type, whether describing something that is taken into or expelled from the body, or just referring to a bodily gesture or state, e.g. drink, chew, suck, smoke, bite, taste, sniff, fart, pee, yawn, sneeze, sleep, hug, kiss. HAVE A is plainly not possible with an end-point verb like die, nor with something that describes an inevitable process and could not normally be indulged in just a bit, such as breathe (although one might conceivably say to a sick person: Have a breathe of this oxygen). TAKE A is possible with verbs describing things being taken into the body, particularly if this is likely to be performed incrementally, e.g. bite, swallow, sniff.

It is interesting to consider why we can have a drink/bite/chew/nibble/taste but not *have an eat. There may in fact be a number of contributory reasons. One could be that there is an independent noun drink, cognate with the verb drink, but corresponding to eat there are only the non-cognate nouns feed and meal. It may be because we can say Have a (e.g. ice-cold ) drink, where drink is a noun, that the HAVE A construction is also used with drink, e.g. Have a sneaky drink, where drink is a verb. I must confess to being slightly mystified as to why *have an eat is unacceptable; we are not, however, unduly impoverished by this lack since the activity of consuming food ‘just a bit’ may be expressed by have a bite/nibble/taste (e.g. of this pie), parallel with have a drink/sip/taste for the consumption of a liquid.

Transitive verbs from the CORPOREAL type that refer to something which affects another person may take the GIVE A construction type (I), e.g. smile, wink, kiss, hug, wake. And a number of verbs describing bodily gestures take GIVE A sense (II), where there is no independent object, e.g. laugh, cry, sob, cough.

The other Primary-A types do not occur with HAVE A, GIVE A or TAKE A. WEATHER verbs lack a human subject. And verbs in COMPETITION, SOCIAL CONRACT, USING, and OBEYING are not amenable to a ‘do it a bit’ interpretation. The verb use, for instance, implies using something for a purpose, and not just indulging in using it for the sake of doing so.

Turning now to Primary-B verbs, the LOOK and WATCH subtypes of ATTENTION refer to the Perceiver directing their attention, and this may be done ‘just a bit’. Thus, HAVE A may be used with look (at), listen (to), search, hunt and watch, e.g. Have a look at this photo, Have a listen to my new record, if you like. Look may also occur with TAKE A, when the subject has to move to see, and with GIVE A, referring to a mode of communication. The other subtypes of ATTENTION—with verbs such as see, hear, notice, show, recognize, discover, witness—refer to some definite act of perception, which could not be done ‘a bit’; they are not found in HAVE A, TAKE A or GIVE A constructions.

HAVE A can be used with those verbs from the THINKING type that can refer to a general, undifferentiated chain of thought—think, ponder and perhaps also meditate. Verbs like remember, assume, suppose, know, believe (as well as all in the DECIDING type) refer to some definite act, while consider implies that all aspects of some topic are carefully thought over; for none of these is an ‘indulge’ or ‘do a bit’ meaning possible. Guess can also refer to a definite act but have a guess is said, often with strongly jocular overtones— ‘How old am I?’ ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ ‘Go on, have a guess!’

Many SPEAKING verbs have a derived nominal which may be used with make a, and sometimes with have a or give a, e.g. suggestion, declaration, explanation, proposal. Some occur in their base form, e.g. make a promise/ offer, give a promise. (peripheral constituents in the basic sentence may not all be retained when give or have is added). HAVE A VERB constructions of the kind dealt with here occur just with some verbs from the TALK subtype, referring to the activity of vocal communication (e.g. have a talk/chat/joke), and with some from the SHOUT subtype, referring to the manner of vocal production (e.g. have a shout/swear/pray/whistle). Shout itself also occurs with GIVE A. The occurrence of shout in peripheral constructions is very similar to that of laugh—compare give a shout (a single cry, which may be involuntary) and have a shout (the subject indulges in the activity, perhaps to let off steam).

Speak just refers to the fact that someone uses a language; talk, in contrast, describes the use they make of it. The activity referred to by talk can be done ‘for a bit’—alongside John and Mary talked in the lounge there is John and Mary had a talk in the lounge. With speak, on the other hand, one either does it or one doesn’t; this is why it is not felicitous to say *John and Mary had a speak in the corridor, corresponding to John and Mary spoke in the corridor. Note that give a talk is not an instance of GIVE A, since it fails the semantic criterion—John talked to the children can be quite casual but John gave the children a talk (or John gave a talk to the children) implies a formal address. Talk is here an independent noun, just like speech in John gave a speech.

Argue is an interesting verb. There is the derived noun argument—one can have an argument. But there is also the HAVE A construction have (a bit of) an argue. This would only be said in colloquial speech, and it could only refer to a mild, friendly altercation, in contrast to have an argument, which implies a more deeply felt disagreement. (If two people were having an argument about something then it might lead to blows, but if they were having (a bit of) an argue it never would.)

Some verbs in the ANNOYING type can occur with give and a, e.g. He gave me a shock/scare/surprise, but this is not the GIVE A construction. It fails criterion (a) since the subject of an ANNOYING verb can be an NP or a complement clause but the subject of give a plus ANNOYING verb can only be an NP—we can say That John has been released from prison scares me but not *That John has been released from prison gives me a scare (only John gave me a scare). Note that the verb frighten, with similar meaning to shock, scare and surprise, takes on a different form after give, i.e. give a fright. LIKING verbs also have derived nominals (e.g. take a liking to) but—save for dread in have a (bit of a) dread of—they do not occur with HAVE A, TAKE A or GIVE A. THE ACTING, HAPPENING, COMPARING and relating types are not amenable to a ‘do it a bit’ interpretation and so are not used with HAVE A, TAKE A or GIVE A.

No secondary verbs are found in HAVE A, TAKE A or GIVE A constructions. There are collocations have a try (at), have a ( further) attempt (at), give it a try, (don’t) have a hope (of) but these do not satisfy the criteria. HAVE A and GIVE A constructions may not productively be based on sentences with try, attempt or hope—that is, corresponding to Try to eat the spinach, Try eating the breadfruit, I don’t hope to win, we cannot say *Have a try to eat the spinach, *Have a try eating the breadfruit, *I don’t have a hope to win. There are of course many idioms involving have, give and take—e.g. have a go, give (someone) a hand (with), take hold (of)—which must be carefully distinguished from the constructions.

We have seen, that the occurrence of a verb in the HAVE A, GIVE A and TAKE A construction is determined by whether the meaning of the verb is compatible with the meaning components of the constructions, as they were described.

The fact that HAVE A, GIVE A and TAKE A are most used in colloquial speech may impose another restriction—only colloquial-sounding verbs are likely to be found in this construction. One may talk about having a pee but not *having a urinate, and having a think but not *having a contemplate.

It would surely be instructive to study the occurrence of HAVE A, TAKE A and GIVE A across a variety of speech styles. Indeed, these constructions might well prove to be an indexical feature for the sociolinguistic classification of different formal and informal speech styles.