Geoffrey Leech 1975:263 in his book “A Communicatice Grammar of English”
stated: “Some phrasal verbs retain the individual meaning of the verb and the adverb, whereas for other phrasal verbs the meaning of combinations can not be
built up from the meanings of the individual verb and adverb”. This book helps me to know about the differences between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs
and how to use phrasal verbs effectively in a sentence.
2.2.2 Meaning of Phrasal Verb
Some phrasal verbs retain the individual meaning of the verb and the adverb for example: sit down whereas for other phrasal verbs the meaning of the combination can’t
be built up from the meanings of the individual verb and adverb. The meaning of a verb may be no clue to its meaning in an idiomatic verb-adverb combination. We will notice
that phrasal verbs are mostly made up of popular words. They are used in both formal and informal speech.
First,we have to know the meanings and structures of phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs, and free combinations differ in many ways. However, just two criteria are usually
sufficient of distinguishing among the types of multi-word conbinations, they are: Whether or not there is an idiomatic meaning
Whether or not particle movement is possible
1. An idiomatic meaning is especially useful when there is no following noun phrase to
distinguish between an intransitive phrasal verb and a free combination. Intransitive phrasal verbs usually have an idiomatic meaning while the words in free combinations
retain their own meanings. For examples, the intransitive phrasal verbs, come on, shut up, get up, get out, break down, and grow up. All have idiomatic meanings beyond the
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separate meanings of the two parts for examples: grow up means to act become more mature, not literally to grow in an upward direction. In contrast, both the verb and the
adverb have separate meanings in free combinations like come back, come down, go back, go in, look back.
In sentences: Intransitive phrasal verbs:
Shut up you fool
Come on Tell us then
Intransitive free combinations:
If this was new, I wouldn’t let people go in. Come back,
or I’ll fire.
He was afraid to look back.
When following noun phrase, tests using structure are more important than those involving idiomatic meaning. The first important test is particle movement: that is,
whether the adverbial particle can be placed both before and after the object noun phrase. Transitive phrasal verbs allow particle movement. In the following examples the object
noun phrase is shown in brackets.
I went to Eddie’s girl’s house to get back [my wool plaid shirt].
I’ve got to get [this one] back for her mom.
K came back and picked up [the note].
He picked [the phone] up. When the object of a transitive phrasal verb is a pronoun, the adverbial particle is almost
always after the object:
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I’ll pick them up.
So I got it back.
2. Particle movement is not possible with prepositional verbs. Instead, the particle
actually, a preposition always comes before the noun phrase that is the object: For examples:
Well those kids are waiting for their bus.
compare: Well those kids are waiting their bus for.
It was hard to look at him. compare: It was hard to look him at.
Availability depends on their being close to the root.
compare: Availability depends their being close on to the root. Studying phrasal verbs is like studying vocabularies. They form and take an
essential part of the general vocabulary of English. It is the individual items of vocabularies. A description of how the vocabulary of the language is growing and
changing will help to place phrasal verbs in perspective. According to Biber, Conrad, and Leech 2002:123 the meanings of phrasal verb are
usually idiomatic meanings. The meaning of idiomatic is not clear. The words in them do not mean what they ought to
mean. According to Angela Downing and Philip Locke 1982:234 phrasal verb examined so far display a high degree of semantic cohesiveness and idiomaticy. They can
be divided into three degrees, they are: non-idiomatic, semi-idiomatic, and fully idiomatic.
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In non-idiomatic combination, the lexical verb and the adverbial particle each keeps its own meaning.
For examples Go down : Temperature went down last night. Put up : Put up your umbrella, it’s starting to rain.
The meaning of these verb-adverb combinations can be predicted easily. The particle indicates the direction of movement, while the lexical verb indicates the manner.
In semi-idiomatic combination, the lexical verb generally speaking, keep its meaning while the particle is used as an intensifier or as an aspectual marker of
perfectively in the sense of completion. For examples: 1. I’ll cut up the meat for the child.
Cut up means cut into pieces. 2. The sound of thunder died away.
Died away means gradually disappear. 3.
We never
found out who sent the anonymous letter. Found out means discover.
In fully idiomatic combination, the meaning of the whole cannot be deduced from the parts,
For examples 1. He can run up the cake in an hour. Run up means make.
2. The
students catch on quickly.
Catch on means understand. 3. The police came and broke up the mass.
Broke up means disperse.
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2.2.3. Properties of Phrasal Verbs
