81 company, the goal is to obtain benefits. The next semantic property is tool, which
refers to product or business in the context of company. The last semantic property is manner, which refers to continuity. The company does not become smaller or stop
working instantly. It goes through several stages or processes so that it becomes smaller and finally it cannot survive anymore.
The fifth meaning of the phrasal verb run down is „to find someone or
something after searching for a long time ‟. From this meaning, it can be concluded
that the context is about a rare occasion, i.e. an occasion that happens rarely and least expected. In a sentence I finally ran him down at his new office downtown, there are
three semantic properties related. The first is the agent, which refers to I as the first person or the speaker. The second is objective, which refers to unintended purpose.
One does have a plan to meet unexpectedly with someone else and it just happens instantly anywhere and anytime. Thus, in the third semantic property related, the
writer assigned the manner property which belongs to one instant occasion.
4.2.2.7 Phrasal Verb RUN IN
When the verb run is applied in the phrasal verb run in, it creates two different meanings. The first meaning is
„to catch or arrest criminals‟. From this meaning, we can highlight that the context is about crimes. Given the example in a sentence The
police ran him in last night, there are three semantic properties related. The first is agent, which refers to the police who arrested the criminal. The second property
related is objective, which refers to intended or planned objective. It is possible that the police department had already searched or conducted investigation for quite some
time. Thus, in the last property related, it belongs to continuous event.
82 The second meaning of the phrasal verb run in is
„to drive slowly especially a new car and carefully at first
‟. This meaning draws conclusion that the context is about vehicle or means of transportation. In a sentence She ran the car in for a
thousand miles, there are five semantic properties related. First, it is related to the agent which refers to she as the driver. Second, it is related to the objective which
refers to intended purpose with non-profit and non-competition. It is her intention to drive the car very slowly and carefully for a thousand miles. Third, it is related to the
manner which refers to speed or the way she drives the car as well as the continuity. She drives the car in low speed and it continues for long period of time. We can draw
conclusion that it happens for long period of time as she has been driving it for a thousand miles. Thus, the next semantic property related is distance, which refers to
long distance. The last semantic property related is tool, which refers to car as means of transportation.
4.2.2.8 Phrasal Verb RUN INTO
When run is used in the phrasal verb run into, there are six different meanings. The first meaning is
„to hit someone or something with a car or other vehicle
‟. It has the same meaning as phrasal verb run down, and gives the context of accident. In a sentence His car skidded and ran into a lamp-post, there are four
semantic properties related, the same as in the previous sentence Their daughter was run down by a car just before their house. The first semantic property is agent which
is the car itself, the second is objective which refers to the unintended purpose, the third is the manner which refers to one instant action and finally the tool which refers
to the car as means of transportation.
83 The second meaning of phrasal verb run into is
„to meet someone by chance‟. Again, the writer found that this phrasal verb is the same as run across in the previous
discussion. Both run across and run into give context of incidental meeting. There are three semantic properties related, i.e. experiencer, manner and objective.
The third meaning of phrasal verb run into is „to start to experience
difficulties ‟. It gives the context of problems or debt or difficulties in general. Given
the example of sentence After promising start, the company ran into lots of trouble, we do not know exactly what kinds of problem that the company had. It could be
financial problem, employment problem, time management problem or other kinds of problem. There are four semantic properties related. The first property is experiencer
which refers to the company that encountered problems. The second is objective which belongs to unintended purpose. Surely the company did not have any plan to
encounter lots of problem and soon it would try to overcome them. The third is manner which refers to continuous event. The company encountered the problems not
just in short period of time, but in continuous series of event. The last semantic property related is tool which refers to the business or product that the company sold.
The fourth meaning of run into is „to reach an amount of several hundred,
several thousand, etc ‟. It gives context of number, usually it is in large quantities. In a
sentence The company had debts running into thousands of pounds, it is clear that the company as the experiencer had too many debts. It does not happen in short period
of time but as time went by the financial problem of the company gradually became worse. This is related with semantic property manner which refers to continuous
series of event. In the semantic property of objective, there are two items involved.
84 The first is unintended purpose, i.e. the company did not have any intention or plan to
experience this condition. The second is objective which refers to seek profit. As a business organization that makes or sells goods or services, the company has
objective to obtain benefits. The fifth meaning of phrasal verb run into is
„to join or mix so that it is difficult to separate them
‟. It gives context of word. In a sentence Due to fatigue, her words ran into each other in the last minutes of her presentation, it implies that the
person was so tired that the presentation did not run well anymore. Because she had been talking too much, it was possible that what she said was not clear and
understandable anymore. From this sentence, there are three semantic properties related. The first is agent which refers to the presenter. The second is objective which
belongs to unintended purpose. She did not plan to make her words ran into each other. The last semantic property related is manner which refers to non-linear shape.
When we talk in general, we have linear and regular tone, speed and intonation of word. On the contrary, when we are not in good condition, e.g. being nervous or
fatigue, the shape or pattern of our word might not be regular anymore, for instance the speed can be unstable, or the intonation or pronunciation can be inaccurate, etc.
The sixth meaning of phrasal verb run into is „to use something so much that
you destroy it ‟. It gives the context of tools or equipment. In a sentence We ran that
Chevrolet right into the ground, we can identify that the driver had been using the vehicle for quite a long time, so that finally it was damaged and did not work
anymore. From this sentence, we can see that there are four semantic properties related. The first is the agent which refers to the user or driver. The second is
85 objective, which belongs to unintended purpose. The user did not have any intention
so that the vehicle became damaged or destroyed. The third is the manner, which refers to its continuity in using the tools or equipment. It belongs to continuous series
of time in which the driver had operated the vehicle. The last semantic property related is tool which refers to the vehicle itself.
4.2.2.9 Phrasal Verb RUN OFF
