Which parts of speech are 'go' and 'buy' in "I want to go buy a gift."?

Question

I want to go buy a gift.

Which parts of speech are "go" and "buy"?

I am confused about this sentence.

Perhaps, it is the same as get going (idiomatic expression). It looks like a typo. I expect to say: go to buy, or go and buy ... — Klikdesainweb, Mar 02 '16 at 17:10
Related question: “To go to buy” or “to go buy”? @HermanNz you may find the discussion there interesting too. — ColleenV, Mar 02 '16 at 17:33
@HermanNz Not a typo. But both are verbs. I think it's prevalent in AmE. And it's not by any means similar to get going. — Man_From_India, Mar 02 '16 at 17:33
Look up the Quasi-Serial Verb (QSV) construction, e.g. Constraints on Intransitive Quasi-Serial Verb Constructions in Modern Colloquial English (Pullum 1990). It's been given a number of other labels, such as the go get construction or the go-V construction or the double verb construction. — , Mar 02 '16 at 20:07

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 04 '16 at 01:27

3

I want to go buy a gift.

"to go" and "to buy" are verbs, of course. The sentence is a shortened form of "I want to go and buy a gift/present". You could also say: I want to go (in order) to buy a present.

answered Mar 04 '16 at 01:27

rogermue

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Which parts of speech are 'go' and 'buy' in "I want to go buy a gift."?

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