1. 次の日その **スカートを** 学校に **はいて** いったら、友達によく似合うと言われた。（〇）
  2. 次の日その **スカートをはいて** 学校にいったら、友達によく似合うと言われた。（〇）
  3. 何枚もの **お札を** 窓口に **つかんで** いく（✕）
  4. 何枚もの **お札をつかんで** 窓口にいく（〇）

I saw the first sentence in a book (留学生のためのここが大切文章表現のルール) and asked a Japanese
friend if the above four sentences are natural, told that only the third one
is unnatural. Could you help me figure out why the first one is natural while
the third one is unnatural?
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2020-07-05T06:08:39.667
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question
syntax word-order
The order of verbs and their complement/adjunct
The meanings or implications are slightly different between all four
sentences. I'll translate the sentences in a different order but I think
that's gonna make things more clear.

>   2. The next day, when she **put on that skirt and then** went to school, a
> friend told her it suited her.
>

In this sentence, the「①て②」simply indicates a chronology of actions. She first
put on that skirt and then proceeded to go to school. At school, a friend then
complimented her.

>   1. When she **wore that skirt to school** the next day, a friend told her
> it suited her.
>

In this sentence,「学校に はいていく」emphasizes the concurrence between both the action
of wearing a skirt, as well as the result of the speaker's relocation: going
to school.

>   4. He **grabbed some bills and then** went to the counter.
>

The fourth example, similarly to the first example, also indicates a
chronology. But why is it unnatural to try to express the concurrence between
grabbing the bills and going to the counter? Here, the action of grabbing is
_instantaneous_. You either have or haven't grabbed something, so once you
have grabbed something, the action is effectively done.

Compare this to wearing a skirt in the previous examples; sure, you can only
put on or take off a piece of clothing once, but the act of wearing something
is _sustained_. As long as you don't undress, you will be wearing it
indefinitely. The instantaneous actions would be putting on and taking off the
skirt.

To tie this back to the second example, think of grabbing and letting go of
the bank notes as instantaneous actions, and keeping hold of the bank notes as
a sustained action. The verb for _hold_ is「持{も}つ」so the following sentence
will sound more natural.

> 何枚ものお札を窓口に持っていく
>
> **Go to** the counter **while holding onto** some bank notes

This translation is of course a bit unnatural, and would better be translated
as _take money to the counter_ or something like that.

All in all, it's a pretty common pattern definitely worth looking into. Note
that you can also say「Vてくる」instead of「Vていく」if someone is coming towards the
speaker while doing a sustained action or being in a sustained state.

* * *

Sources:
[Vていきます／Vてきます(Japanese)](http://www.coelang.tufs.ac.jp/mt/ja/gmod/contents/explanation/087.html),
[「～てくる、～ていく」表現 (Japanese)](https://www.tomojuku.com/blog/tekuruteiku4/)
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2020-07-05T09:38:32.357
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answer