"I'm going to take and stir the cake mix"

Please explain why this sentence is grammatically incorrect.

I'm going to take and stir the cake mix.

Solution 1:

The take and + Vb construction in English is one of a number that fall under the general heading of Serial Verbs (known also as "small verbs", in the case of English). Take is a causative of go, a verb which occurs frequently in such constructions.

Serial verbs occur when two verbs whose meanings complement each other are used together in a single verb phrase. Some languages frequently form complex serial verb constructions, like go cut carry stack wood.

Other English serial verb constructions include

• go + V-ing, as in We’re going shopping. They went hiking. Let’s go digging for clams
  • plus ungrammatical *Let’s go eating. *We’re going teaching. *They went daydreaming.
• go and + V, as in Bill went and dug some clams.
• come + V, as in He asked us to come eat the clams.
• come and + V, as in He said "Come and get it!"
• go + V, as in We’re going to go eat them.

See question 4 on this Midterm Exam.

Solution 2:

There is nothing wrong with it grammatically. "Take" is just a verb applied to the cake mix, and you can apply lots of verbs in one sentence.

I'm going to take the cake mix.

I'm going to take and stir the cake mix.

I'm going to take, stir and pour the cake mix.

I'm going to take, stir, pour and bake the cake mix.

However it does sound odd, and that's because there is a more commonly used sentence structure that's used with take. Take is such a common word, that it has these kinds of ultra-common uses. When we're accustomed to hearing a word used in a particular way, it sounds odd to hear it phrased a different way. It makes us think "Huh? Why didn't they phrase it the normal way?"

The common structure is:

I'm going to take the noun and verb it.

So:

I'm going to take the cake mix and stir it.

I'm going to take the cake mix and stir and pour it.

I'm going to take the cake mix and stir, pour and bake it.

Note that we have and twice in these sentences, because it fits that "take it and [verb] it" structure, but you could drop one and if you like:

I'm going to take the cake mix, stir, pour and bake it.

Also note that most of the time the take is a redundant part of the phrase in any case. You can't stir the cake mix without taking hold of it, so that part is implied even if you don't say it. There is really no need to use the word take here, except insofar as it becomes a familiar and natural sounding sentence.

I'm going to stir the cake mix.

Solution 3:

Grammatically, there's nothing wrong, but there is something slightly odd about this usage of "take". In "recipe" contexts we often see "Take three apples, two pears, etc., [and cook like this]". We do a bit of a double-take in OP's sentence because we're expecting one or more nouns (ingredients) to follow "take".

The word "take" has very little meaning in such contexts, because the cake mix isn't actually being taken to anywhere, or taken from any particular place or person. We wouldn't just say "Take the cake mix" as a sentence on its own here. It's already present - we're just calling attention to it. Thanks to @ruakh for naming the role of "take" here as simply to "topicalise" "the cake mix".

In this construction, take (or get) is really just a "placeholder" verb introducing the subject noun (cake mix) - so long as the noun follows immediately we don't need to consider what if anything "take" means. If instead we meet "and" and another verb, we're encouraged to treat "take" as a meaningful independent verb - but it isn't, which is why OP's sentence sounds "awkward".

Taking similar examples common enough to be meaningfully contrasted, "take and compare this" gets only 2 hits in Google Books, where the more "natural" "take this and compare" gets 191. And "bring and show it" gets 9 hits, compared to 791 for "bring it and show it".

To take a more "unexceptional" conjoining of two meaningful but relatively disparate verbs that aren't so awkward, consider the 236,000 written instances of "buy and read" in Google Books. Even more relevant, 2470 instances of "take and read this", with "take" used as a meaningful verb (i.e. - physically take this text away with you, and read it later).

John Lawler refers to this as serial verb usage, but I'm not convinced English really has such a construction. And if it does, it seems more like e.g. "Look what you've gone [or "been"] and done!".

From the comments/votes here it's clear not everyone sees anything unusual in conjoining two disparate transitive verbs with "and" before naming the noun to which both refer. Personally I find it clumsy unless the context and/or inherent meaning of the verbs make it natural to conflate them into a single integrated action.

In OP's example, "take" does little more than indicate that the speaker is about to introduce the noun subject - but instead we get another verb, which grates on my ear.

Solution 4:

Here's a completely different angle on this thread: take and is a quirky little colloquialism in Wisconsin. As such, it misses the point to discuss whether take functions as a legitimate transitive verb in expressions with take and. Once you’ve heard a person who routinely inserts take and into sentences, it puts the take and stir example in that specific light. Here are a few examples I've heard:

• After this meeting ends, we’re gonna take and go to Pizza Hut. Wanna come?

• When we were kids, we used to take and make a fort out of the snow.

• On third and long, you gotta take and push the offensive lineman right outta the way!

Solution 5:

I'm going to take and make this as simple as possible. Many people on here have tried to take and make sense out of all of this. But I haven't yet heard something that I can take and wrap my head around. So I'm going to take and say this, I believe that this is a regional affectation in America. Now, I cannot prove this but I can take and see that where I come from it is like nails on a chalk board to hear the word TAKE added, nay FORCED, SQUEEZED into a statement. It seems to be an attempt to add credence to what the person talking about themselves are actually doing. Many times it is used when one is formulating a narrative about what they are indeed doing. So it adds "one more thing" to what was already a basic, run-of-the-mill thing that they are describing. "I took and put the keys in the ignition" or "watch me in this video, I take and take a double take when they take and hit my fake snake with a rake"