Phrasal Verbs Linguistics 140 Winter, 2014 Dr. Jan FrodesenPhrasal verbs Introduction • How would you describe the grammatical role of up in the following sentences? She walked up the street to get a bite to eat. I live up in Springfield. When are you going to clean up your room? I am sorry I messed that up.Phrasal verbs Prepositions vs. phrasal verbs She walked up the street to get a bite to eat. I live up in Springfield.  prepositions When are you going to clean up your room? I am sorry I messed that up.  particles (verb + particle [adverb] = phrasal verb)Phrasal verbs Learner problems with phrasal verbs • English stands out in its reliance on phrasal verbs; learners often use one-word verbs where a phrasal verb would be more idiomatic: I arose early this morning. I got up early this morning. • The meanings of phrasal verbs are not always compositional: Jackie gave up smoking. Don’t hold up traffic! • The position of the particle is not always the same: Turn out the lights. Turn the lights out. Turn them out. *Turn out them.Phrasal verbs Syntactic features of phrasal verbs • Intransitive phrasal verbs (no object) My car broke down. He really took off quickly. • Transitive phrasal verbs (direct object): Whitney turned on the radio. Jan passed out new assignments. Phrasal verbs requiring prepositions (ESL texts sometimes call these 3-word verbs) • put up with, look in on, look down on, get away with, get down to, get back to, get along with, check up on, check out of, go in for, come up with, give in to, cut down on, catch up with, stand up for, keep up with, end up with, pick up on, close in on, make away with, drop in on, run up against, …Phrasal verbs The separability of phrasal verbs • Separation is obligatory when the direct object is a pronoun: Mark threw away the ball. Mark threw the ball away. Mark threw it away. *Mark threw away it. • Some phrasal verbs are always inseparable: *I came an interesting article across. *Kristen ran an old friend into. *He needed to get the loss over. • Some phrasal verbs seem to prefer being separated: *How can I get through the message to him? ?We’ll see through this ordeal together.Phrasal verbs Phrasal verbs vs. verb + preposition sequences • How can we tell whether a word functions as a particle (i.e., here as part of a phrasal verb) or as a preposition? • Tests: Only prepositions allow • adverb insertion: *We turned quickly off the light. We ran quickly up the stairs. • phrase fronting: *Up the bill John ran. Up the hill John ran. • wh-fronting: *Up what did he write? About what did he write?Phrasal verbs Phrasal verbs vs. verb + preposition sequences • Tests: Only separable phrasal verbs allow: • Passivization: *The road was turned off. (inseparable) The light was turned off. (separable) • Verb substitution: *The light was extinguished. (=turned off) • NP insertion: We turned the light off. *We turned the road off.  Prepositions form a unit with the NP object that follows; particles form a unit with the preceding verb!Phrasal verbs Phrasal verbs vs. verb + preposition sequences Used more as prepositions Used more as particles with to through up of in around out for about over down from by off away across back alongPhrasal verbs Semantic categories of phrasal verbs (Just FYI – you don’t need to know these for this class) • Literal phrasal verbs: sit down, carry out, take down, hand out, climb up • Aspectual phrasal verbs: • inceptive (beginning): take off • continuative: run on, hurry along • through + verb”beginning to end”: skim through • completive: drink up • Idiomatic phrasal verbs: run up, chew out, tune out, catch up, put