Phrasal verb - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb

Verb

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...

and a preposition, a verb and an adverb

Adverb

An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....

, or a verb with both an adverb and a preposition, any of which are part of the syntax of the sentence, and so are a complete semantic unit. Sentences may contain direct and indirect objects in addition to the phrasal verb. Phrasal verbs are particularly frequent in the English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. A phrasal verb often has a meaning which is different from the original verb.

According to Tom McArthur:
Alternative terms for phrasal verb are ‘compound verb’, ‘verb-adverb combination’, ‘verb-particle construction (VPC)’, AmE ‘two-part word/verb’ and ‘three-part word/verb’ (depending on the number of particles), and multi-word verb (MWV).

Prepositions and adverb

Adverb

An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....

s used in a phrasal verb are also called particle

Grammatical particle

In grammar, a particle is a function word that does not belong to any of the inflected grammatical word classes . It is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of words and terms that lack a precise lexical definition...

s in that they do not alter their form through inflection

Inflection

In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...

s (are therefore uninflected

Uninflected word

In the context of linguistic morphology, an uninflected word is a word that has no morphological markers such as affixes, ablaut, consonant gradation, etc., indicating declension or conjugation...

: they do not accept affix

Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...

es, etc.). Because of the idiomatic nature of phrasal verbs, they are often subject to preposition stranding

Preposition stranding

Preposition stranding, sometimes called P-stranding, is the syntactic construction in which a preposition with an object occurs somewhere other than immediately adjacent to its object...

Phrasal verbs in informal speech

Phrasal verbs are usually used informally in everyday speech as opposed to the more formal Latinate verbs, such as “to get together” rather than “to congregate”, “to put off” rather than “to postpone”, or “to get out” rather than “to exit”.

Literal usage

Many verbs in English can be combined with an adverb or a preposition, and readers or listeners will easily understand a phrasal verb used in a literal sense with a preposition:

"He walked across the square."

Verb and adverb constructions can also easily be understood when used literally:

"She opened the shutters and looked outside."
"When he heard the crash, he looked up."

An adverb in a literal phrasal verb modifies the verb it is attached to, and a preposition links the verb to transform the verb in the idiomatic and literal phrasal verb

Idiomatic usage

It is, however, the figurative or idiomatic application in everyday speech which makes phrasal verbs so important:

"I hope you will get over your operation quickly."
"Work hard, and get your examination over with."

The literal meaning of “to get over”, in the sense of “to climb over something to get to the other side”, no longer applies to explain the subject's enduring an operation or the stress of an examination which they have to overcome.
It is when the combined meaning of verb plus adverb, or verb plus preposition is totally different from each of its component parts, that the semantic content of the phrasal verb cannot be predicted by its constituent parts and so becomes much more difficult for a student learning English to recognise. Attempts have been made, however, to identify some system in the way that a given particle

Particle

A particle is, generally, a small localized object to which can be ascribed physical properties. It may also refer to:In chemistry:* Colloidal particle, part of a one-phase system of two or more components where the particles aren't individually visible.In physics:* Subatomic particle, which may be...

contributes to the meaning of a phrasal verb, and it seems likely that an understanding of conceptual metaphor

Conceptual metaphor

In cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to the understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another, for example, understanding quantity in terms of directionality . A conceptual domain can be any coherent organization of human experience...

may be helpful here. As Lakoff and Johnson

George Lakoff

George P. Lakoff is an American cognitive linguist and professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1972...

show, most particles have, initially, a literal meaning which is spatial or "orientational", and then metaphorical meanings attach to them in ways that are (fairly) systematic (see also Knowles & Moon 2006: 17). One phrasal verbs dictionary for learners of English, Macmillan Phrasal Verbs Plus, provides annotated charts for 12 of the most common particles used in phrasal verbs, tracing the way they develop non-literal uses on the basis of conceptual metaphor

Conceptual metaphor

, and showing how the "meaning" of each particle in a phrasal verb is, to some degree at least, predictablehttp://www.macmillandictionaries.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/verbs-Common-Particles-Away-Diagram.pdf http://www.macmillandictionaries.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/verbs-Common-Particles-Away-Chart.pdf.

In her introduction to "Longman Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs, What this dictionary contains", Rosemary Courtney includes as a third category
Courtney then cites among many other examples in the dictionary such phrases as "to add insult to injury", "to add fuel to the flames", "to leave someone in the lurch", "to scare someone out of their wits", etc.

Phrasal verb patterns

A phrasal verb contains either a preposition or an adverb (or both), and may also combine with one or more nouns or pronouns.

Particle verbs

Phrasal verbs that contain a particle such as up (in some traditions called an adverb, in others a preposition) are called "particle

Grammatical particle

verbs", and are related to separable verb

Separable verb

A separable verb is a verb that is composed of a lexical verb root and a separable second root . In some verb forms, the verb and the particle appear in one word, whilst in others the verb stem and the particle are separated. Note that the particle cannot be accurately referred to as a prefix...

s in other Germanic languages. There are two main patterns: intransitive and transitive. An intransitive particle verb does not have an object:

“When I entered the room he looked up.”

A transitive particle verb has a nominal object

Object (grammar)

An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...

in addition to the particle. If the object is an ordinary noun phrase

Noun phrase

In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....

, it can usually appear on either side of the particle, although very long noun phrase

Noun phrase

In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....

s tend to come after the particle:

Switch off the light.
Switch the light off.
Switch off the lights in the hallway next to the bedroom in which the president is sleeping.

With some transitive particle verbs, however, the noun phrase object must come after the preposition. Such examples are said to involve "inseparable" phrasal verbs:

The gas gave off fumes. (not *The gas gave fumes off.)

Other transitive particle verbs still require the object to precede the particle, even when the object is a long noun phrase:

I cannot tell the Beatles apart. (not *I cannot tell apart the Beatles.)
I cannot tell the various members of the band called the Beatles apart.

However, some authors would dispute this, arguing that the particle must be adjacent to the verb whenever the noun phrase is lengthy and complicated.

With all transitive particle verbs, if the object is a pronoun, it must, with just one type of exception, precede the particle:

Switch it off. (not *Switch off it.)
The smell put them off. (not *put off them)
They let him through. (not *they let through him)

The exception occurs if the direct object is contrastively stressed, as in

Figure out THESE, not THOSE.

Gorlach asserts that the position of the noun phrase object before or after the particle has a subtle effect on the degree to which the phrase has resultative implication. For example, the simple verb eat makes no claim on whether or not the result of the eating is that the apple is completely consumed; whereas the phrasal verb eat up seems to make different claims on this result, depending on the position of the particle with respect to the object:

to eat the apple (neutral for ‘complete’ result)
to eat up the apple (greater possibility for ‘complete’ result)
to eat the apple up (compulsory claim for ‘complete’ result)

Prepositional verbs

Prepositional verbs are phrasal verbs that contain a preposition, which is always followed by its nominal object. They are different from inseparable transitive particle verbs, because the object still follows the preposition if it is a pronoun:

On Fridays, we look after our grandchildren.
We look after them. (not *look them after)

The verb can have its own object, which usually precedes the preposition:

She helped the boy to an extra portion of potatoes.
with pronouns: She helped him to some.

Prepositional verbs with two prepositions are possible:

We talked to the minister about the crisis.

Phrasal-prepositional verbs

A phrasal verb can contain an adverb and a preposition at the same time. Again, the verb itself can have a direct object:

no direct object: The driver got off to a flying start.
direct object: Onlookers put the accident down to the driver’s loss of concentration.

Phrasal verbs and modifying adverbs

When modifying adverbs are used alongside particle adverbs intransitively (as particle adverbs usually are), the adverbs can appear in any verb/particle/adverb positions:

“He unhappily looked round.”
“He looked unhappily round.”
“He looked round unhappily.”

The particle adverb here is "round" and the modifying adverb is "unhappily".
("Round" is a particle because it is not inflected

Uninflected word

In the context of linguistic morphology, an uninflected word is a word that has no morphological markers such as affixes, ablaut, consonant gradation, etc., indicating declension or conjugation...

— does not take affixes and alter its form. "Unhappily" is a modifying adverb because it modifies the verb "look").

With a transitive particle verb, the adverb goes either before the verb or after the object or particle, whichever is last:

“He cheerfully picked the book up.”
“He picked up the book cheerfully.” (not *picked cheerfully up the book)
“He picked the book up cheerfully.”

Prepositional verbs are different from transitive particle verbs, because they allow adverbs to appear between the verb and the preposition:

“He desperately looked for his keys.
“He looked for his keys desperately.
“He looked desperately for his keys.

Phrasal verbs combined with special verb forms and clauses

Courtney also includes special verb forms and clauses in phrasal verb constructions.

Phrasal verbs combined with wh-clauses and that-clauses: Sentences which include verb + particle + object(s) + wh-clauses

“The teacher tries to dictate to his class what the right thing to do is”

= transitive verb + preposition (dictate to) + indirect object (his class) + wh-clause (what the right thing to do is).

“My friends called for me when the time came”

= transitive verb + preposition (called for) + pronoun (me) + wh-clause (when the time came).

“Watch out that you don’t hit your head on the low beam”

= intransitive verb + adverb (watch out) + that-clause (that you don’t hit your head on the low beam).

Phrasal verbs combined with verb-ing forms:

“You can’t prevent me from seeing her”

= transitive verb + pronoun (prevent me) + preposition (from) + verb-ing form (seeing) + pronoun (her).

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.