As an alternative to John ran (in the park before breakfast) we can say John had a run (in the park before breakfast), with a slight difference in meaning. Have replaces an intransitive verb and this verb, preceded by the indefinite article a, becomes head of the NP that follows have. However, parallel to John arrived (from town before breakfast) it is not permissible to say *John had an arrive (from town before breakfast). Some verbs can occur in HAVE A VERB constructions but others, with similar meanings, cannot. Why can we say have a cry but not *have a die; have a yawn but not *have a breathe; have a sit-down but not *have a settle-down; have a think but not *have a reflect?

Similar to HAVE-A-plus-intransitive-VERB is GIVE-A-plus-transitive-VERB. John kicked the door could be rephrased, with a slight meaning difference, as John gave the door a kick. But it is not possible to say, alongside John broke the door, the sentence *John gave the door a break. Similarly, John gave the silver ornament a polish is acceptable, but not *John gave the silver ornament a wrap; and Mary gave John a kiss is fine, but not *Mary gave John a kill.

HAVE a constructions occur primarily with intransitive and GIVE a constructions primarily with transitive verbs, but there are exceptions. Laugh is intransitive; one can have a laugh and also give a laugh, with a meaning difference. Stroke is transitive; one can give the cat a stroke or have a stroke of the fur coat. And, alongside Mary looked at John we can have both Mary had a look at John (with no implication that he knew he was being looked at) and Mary gave John a look (with the expectation that he did receive it, and that it was a meaningful gesture).

There are also TAKE a VERB constructions such as take a stroll, take a look, take a kick, which have a recurrent meaning difference from have a stroll, have a look, have a kick. It appears that in British English a subset of those verbs which occur with HAVE A also occur with TAKE A. (American English is significantly different, with take a walk etc. being used instead of have a walk etc. It is likely that the same general semantic principles hold, but are applied in a slightly different way.)

We will consider the meanings of HAVE A VERB, GIVE A VERB and TAKE A VERB constructions, and the semantic motivation for which verbs may occur in these construction types and which may not.

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