I came across すすんで行く and さいて行く in a vocabulary list, and it was immediately
obvious that there was probably some sort of grammatical construct involving
て行く that was in use here. I don't really know what this grammatical construct
means though, and it's apparently something different than just compounding
two arbitrary verbs together with base te.

A quick Google search brought [this
lesson](http://ww8.tiki.ne.jp/~tmath/language/jpverbs/lesson64.htm) up, and he
starts to explain what the construct means (as well as て来る), but he doesn't do
a very good job of it. He also starts to deviate from the special grammatical
construct towards just the base te verb compounding, and many of the other
search results are focusing almost exclusively on the compounding.

I vaguely get the notion of this construct meaning to get into the state of
doing something (て行く) or to have come into the state of doing something (て来る),
but I really don't understand it.

Could somebody please explain this? I'm mainly wondering about the general
grammar being used here, but I also kind of wonder about how it applies to
these two words, since they're apparently decent examples. Thank you.
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2014-07-28T17:51:54.980
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question
grammar て-form
How is て行く being used in すすんで行く and さいて行く?
The meaning of て行く is that something is happening now and continuing into the
future. So すすんで行く would be an advance that has begun and will continue into
the future, or a continual state of advancement. And with a quick check on
Google Translate, さいて行く is "beginning to bloom". So your definition of
"getting into the state of doing X" would be applicable in this case.
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2014-07-29T15:13:12.250
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すすんでいく can mean "to willingly go" or "to keep progressing".

As for さいて行く, for example, "氷を割いて行く" means "to break the ice and go" or "to go
breaking the ice".
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answer