What is the difference between "verb-stem + verb" and "verb-て form + verb"?


例: 吸い取る 対 吸って取る

例: 噛み殺す 対 噛んで殺す

たしかに、意味は同じではないけど似ています。区別は何でしょうか。

What is the difference in meaning between the above verb pairs, and which
construction would be used when?




Some verbs carry _special_ meanings only when they are used in the form of
`te-form + verb` (ie, as a [subsidiary
verb](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/18952/5010)):

  * 読んでみる ([*]読み見る means nothing)
  * 言ってもらう ([*]言いもらう means nothing)

Regardless of this, you can use almost any (non-subsidiary) verb after the te-
form, as you know, and it mainly means "V2 by V1" or "V1 and V2":

  * 走って逃げる
  * 検討して回答する
  * 食べて飲んで寝る

Some verbs carry _special_ meanings only when they follow the stem of another
verb. These are partly analogous to simple adverbs such as _out_ as in _sell
out_ , _around_ as in _go around_ and _on_ as in _live on_ :

  * 言い切る ([*] 言って切る usually means nothing)
  * 呼び込む ([*] 呼んで込む usually means nothing)
  * 動き出す ([*] 動いて出す usually means nothing)

Some verbs after the te-form have the meanings which are not really special,
but tends to follow the verb-stem anyway:

  * 噛み殺す (roughly the same as 噛んで殺す)
  * 吸い取る (roughly the same as 吸って取る)
  * 取り出す (roughly the same as 取って出す)
  * 溺れ死ぬ (roughly the same as 溺れて死ぬ)

So... it depends. In your examples, 噛み殺す and 吸い取る are more common than 嚙んで殺す
and 吸って取る. You will need the longer (te-form) version only when you want to
explicitly say "V1 **and then** V2", "V2 **by means of** V1", etc.

