A Semantic Analysis Of Phrasal Verbs Found In Fall Out Boy’s Selected Songs
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 Grammar
The word grammar comes from the Greek grapho, meaning ‘write’ (Leech,
Deuchar and Hoogenradd, 1985: 4). It is the system of the language that consists of
certain rules that allow us to put words together in certain ways which are
represented in the form of grammatical construction. Grammatical construction
means the way in which words are used together and arranged to form a sentence,
phrase etc. (Oxford dictionary, 2000:279). A grammar of a language describes the
principles or rules governing the form and meaning of words, phrases, clauses, and
sentences. Wren and Martin (1990:3) say that words are divided into different kinds
of classes, also known as part of speech, according to their usage to the work they do
in sentence. There are eight kind parts of speech: noun, adjective, pronoun, verb,
adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection.
A Verb is a word that tells or asserts something about a person or thing. Verb
comes from the Latin verbum, a word. It is so called because it is the most important
word in a sentence (Wren and Martin, 1990:63). Verb is one of parts of speech.
Grammar has been taken an important part of how to write or speak something. One
of grammar’s studies is Verb. However, there are many different kinds of verbs,
including lexical auxuliary verbs, different semantic classes, single-word verb, and
multi-word verb. (Biber, Conrad, and Leech 2002:103). Multi-word verb, fall into:
Phrasal verbs, Prepositional verbs, Phrasal-prepositional verbs.
Phrasal verbs consist of a verb followed by an adverbial particle (for
examples: carry out, find out, or pick up). When these adverbial particles are
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independently, they have literal meanings signifying location or direction (for
examples: out, up, down, over, around, off). However, in phrasal verbs they are
commonly used with less literal meanings. For example, the meaning of find out does
not include the “place” meaning of out.
Prepositional verbs consist of a verb followed by a prepositional, such as look
at, talk about, listen to.
Phrasal-Prepositional verbs contain both an adverbial particle and a
preposition, as in get away with.
2.2. Semantics
Semantic is the study of the meaning of words, phrases, or sentences in the
language or semantics is the study of meaning in language, or simply semantic is the
study of linguistic meaning. Palmer (1976: 1) states, “Semantics is the technical term
used to refer to the study of meaning”. Meaning is regarded as one of the most
ambiguous and controversial terms in the theory of language. The meaning of word
is determined by the words arrangements in sentences or in other words. It is a wide
subject within the general study of language. An understanding of semantics is
essential to the study language acquisition (how language user acquire a sense of
meaning, as a speakers and writers, listeners and readers) and of language change
(how meaning alter over time). It is important for understanding language is social
context, as these are likely to affect meaning, and for understanding varieties of
English and effect of style. It is thus of the most fundamental concepts in linguistics.
The study of semantics includes the study of how meaning is constructed,
interpreted, clarified, obscured, illustrated, simplified negotiated, contradicted and
paraphrased.
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The term of meaning can be considered as a term for this form has a certain
concept in the field of science that is in the field of linguistics. According to
Kempson (1977:11) there are three things to explain the meaning of terms such as:
explaining the meaning of the scientific, scientifically describe and explain sentences
meaning in communication. In this connection explains the meaning of the term can
be viewed in term of: word, sentence and what is needed by the speaker to
communicate.
Semantics is the study of the relationship between words and their meanings.
That is semantics seek to understand the connections, interactions between the
symbol for things (words are symbol) and the things themselves (the actual objects or
ideas the words refers to). Words are the thought, but they are not the thoughts
themselves. We know, for examples, that single things can be named by many
different words and that groups of many different things can be named word, yet the
single thing remains the same in itself regardless of the word applied to it and the
different things remain different from each other regardless of their description by a
single word.
Ogden & Richard’s display list to indicate a misunderstanding because there
is no corresponding / do not understand about the meaning. The views of the polite
conversation submitted by these experts, for the most part in their own way which in
the review that the resolution of the problem of meaning, ideas and communication
as the view of science to explain the concept of semantics.
Furthermore, (Ogden & Richard: 1923:11) describing the elements of
meaning to the “semiotic triangle”, explained that the meaning (the mind or
reference) is the relationship between the symbol (symbol) with a reference or
referent. The relationship between the symbol and reference is not directly whereas
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the relationship between the emblem with the references and referents by reference is
direct. Organization namely as follows:
Meaning
(Thought or references)
Symbol -------------------------------------- referent
In connection with the elements of meaning, involve the signs and symbols,
concepts and reference. The concept is a meaning or reference as the relationship
between symbol and reference. Meaning itself contains certain aspects of the theme,
flavor, tone, and mandate. The symbol and emblem is a linguistics element in the
form of a word or sentence, the reference is to objects, events, facts or processes
relating to the world of human experience, while the concept / meaning (thought or
reference) is what is in the mind of the object indicated by the symbol.
Now, let see the definition of meaning given by linguistics bellow:
1. The definition of the meaning that is about systematic thinking about the nature of
meaning. With the definition of meaning before learning about the basic problem
faced, is only going to bring in concepts from other disciplines, such as stimulus
and response in a certain sense is a very fundamental and important (Leech,
1974:11).
2. The word semantics is used for the field of linguistics which studies the
relationship between signs or symbols with things called meaning (Sudaryat,
2009:3).
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3. In the Great Dictionary of Indonesia Language (Department of Education,
1963:619) the word meaning can be interpreted: (i) meaning: pay attention to the
meaning of every word contained in the ancient writings, (ii) the purpose speaker
and author, (iii) the sense given to a linguistic form.
4. The definition of meaning is to interpret the meaning of a symbol. It means
thinking about the symbol that is a desire to produce answers to certain conditions
(Shipley, 1962:261).
The term meaning is of course, much more familiar to all of us. But every
linguist suggests a number of different of meaning. Ogden & Richard published their
problem on its topic and it has been customary for semanticist to emphasize the fact
the noun meaning and the verb to mean them has many distinguishable meanings.
The best-known book with the title “the meaning of Meaning” contained a list of as
many twenty-two definitions of the word, taking different non theoretical starting
point. The selection of meaning given in Leech (1974:7):
An intrinsic property
The other words annexed to word in the dictionary
The connotation of a word
The place of anything in a system
The particle consequences of a thing in our future experience
That to which the user of a symbol actually refers
That to which the user of a symbol ought to be referring
That to which the user of a symbol believes himself to be referring
That to which interpreter of a symbol
(a) Refers
(b) Believes himself to be referring
(c) Believes the user to be referring
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Further, the term meaning is simply derived from the word mean. In everyday
English we used this word in number of different ways:
(1) a. That was no mean (insignificant) accomplishment.
b. They are so mean (cruel) to me.
c. This will mean (result in) the end of second-class citizenship.
d. Without ice cream, life would not mean anything (have any purpose).
e. I mean (intend) to help if I can.
f. Keep of the grass, this mean (refers to) you.
g. He is losing is job means (implies) that he will have to look again.
h. Lucky strike means (indicated) the tobacco.
i. Those clouds means (are sign of) rain.
j. She doesn’t mean (believe) what she said.
k. Procrastinate means (?)” to put things off”.
l. In saying that, she mean (?) that we would leave.
Except for the last two sentences, we can see that each of the uses of the
words mean a paraphrase using words other than the word mean. In other words,
the word mean in (a) to (j) has ‘meaning’, while the same words in (k) and (l) do
not. The last two sentences, in fact exemplify two importantly different sorts, i.e.
linguistics meaning and speakers meaning. We often ask question like “what you
mean?” if we do not understand one’s utterance (speaker meaning).
In general, linguistics meaning of an expression is simple meaning or
meanings of those expressions in some form of language. For example, in one form
of language, known as Standard English, the word run means something different in
each of the sentences:
a. I like to run
b. The engines run well
c. They run a mail-order house
d. He scored a run in the third inning.
In the first sentences, the word “run” means walk fast. The second means
work, then the third means manage or organize and the fourth means point.
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An expression can mean something in one dialect of English that it does not
mean in another. The matter is further complicated in that expression can mean
different things to different people within the same dialect.
So, we can say that semantics studies about meaning, the meaning itself as
“academic” or “scientist” discipline, while the speaker and the hearer must have
same understanding on meaning on what they really mean.
2.3 Types of Meaning
Meaning has great role in linguistics problem. There is no language without
meaning because every language is used to convey the meaning. It is impossible that
a language can function well without conveying the meaning. If a language the writer
not intended to communicate meaning, there will be no interaction of thought as we
do in our daily life. Semantics as a branch of linguistics in concern with how
meaning are expressed in language.
The analysis of meaning, then, demands our understanding about sense
relation, by means of characterizing the meaning of word in term of its relationship
to other words. Sense relations include the analysis of synonym, hyponym,
homophony, polysemy, antonym, and hyponymy.
Furthermore, we may analyze meaning in terms of interpreting what speakers
mean. In this case, we normally try to understand not only what the words mean, but
also what the speaker of those words mean or intended to convey.
Still there are other types of meaning that may be well considered in the
meaning, namely lexical meaning and grammatical meaning.
In this thesis, the writer analyzes the data by using seven types of meaning
proposed by Geoffrey Leech, which is known as Leech Types of Meaning. G. Leech
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classified meaning into: conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, social meaning,
affective meaning, reflected meaning, collocative meaning, and thematic meaning.
2.3.1 Conceptual meaning
It is the essential and inextricable part of what language is, and is widely
regarded as the central factor in verbal communication. It is also called logical,
cognitive, or denotative meaning.
This type of meaning is regarded as the basic meaning as it is supposed to be
the central factor in linguistics communication. It is sometimes called denotative or
cognitive meaning. As the basic meaning conceptual meaning seems be more
accurate and permanent rather than other types meaning. This is because of it can be
studied though scientific analysis that is by given a set of feature of the word.
Conceptual, the following examples mean the same but in a different sense of
associative value.
(1) female
(2) woman
(3) collection
=
=
=
girl
virgin girl
troupe
=
gangs
Hence, the writer get the additional book from Leech which there two
structural principles that seem to be important to recognize which refer to this type of
meaning, namely the principle of Contrastive ness and the principle of Structure.
Leech ( 1974:19-20 ) Contrastive feature underline the classification of
sounds in phonology, for example, in that any label we apply to a sounds defines it
positively, by what feature it possess.
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The conceptual meaning of a language can be studied in terms of contrastive
features, for examples, the meaning of the words ’woman’, ‘man’, ‘girl’, and ‘ boy ‘
could be specified like this:
‘Male’
‘Adult’
‘Young’
‘Female’
Man
Woman
Boy
Girl
‘Human’
Woman
+HUMAN
-MALE
+ADULT
Man
+HUMAN
+MALE
+ADULT
Girl
+HUMAN
-MALE
-ADULT
Boy
+HUMAN
+MALE
-ADULT
(Leech, 1974: 123-124)
The diagram shows two dimension of meaning: that of ‘sex’ and that of
adulthood; a third are presupposed by human.
Another, in many ways satisfactory, ways to represent these senses is to write
formulae in which the dimension of meaning
+ HUMAN ‘human’
+ ADULT ‘adult’
+ MALE
- HUMAN ‘animal’; ‘brute’
- ADULT ‘young’
-MALE
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The aim conceptual semantics is to provide any given interpretation of a
sentences, a configuration of an abstract symbols which is its ‘semantics
representation’ and show exactly what we need to know if we are to distinguish that
the meaning from all other possible meanings in the language and the match that
meaning with right syntactic and phonologically expression.
2.3.2 Connotative meaning
Connotative meanings are the meanings that do not directly indicate it,
objects, or objects to which it refers. Connotative meanings usually contain feelings,
memories, and to other objects.
The meaning concerned is different from one individual to another because
are apt to vary from age to age, from society to society. Connotative meaning is more
aimed at the real world experience one associates with an expression when one uses
or hears it. It is more likely due to connotative meaning is relatively inconstant
because its meaning depends upon the time, culture, experience and the knowledge
of the individual or the society.
Therefore, the boundary between the conceptual and the connotative meaning
is coincident with that nebulous but crucial distinction between the language and the
real world.
Examples:
Woman has connotation weak
Pig has connotation dirty
Donkey has connotation stupid
Though, in fact, the notion of reference overlaps with its conceptual meaning.
Connotative meanings include not only physical characteristics, psychological and
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social properties, but also the culture, historical period and the experience of
individual.
Conceptual meaning identifies the central aspects of a word meaning, which
everybody generally agrees about. Connotation refers to the personal aspects of a
meaning, the emotional association that a word arouses. Connotation vary according
to the experiences, some words have shared connotations.
Thus connotative meaning is relatively unstable for it varies from the time to
time according to the culture, historical period and the experience of the individual.
Connotative meaning is not specific to language, but it is shared by other
communicative systems. It cannot be determined in similar way with conceptual
meaning for conceptual meaning is codified in term of limited set symbols such as
features of meaning. Whereas connotative meaning is not, i.e. characteristic of
referent, which is identified subjectively or objectively, may contribute to
connotative meaning. It is also important to emphasize that connotative meaning
differ from one speaker to another as well as from one language to another.
2.3.3 Social meaning
The meaning conveyed by the piece of language about the social context of
its use is called the social meaning. The decoding of a text is dependent on our
knowledge of stylistics and other variations of language. We recognize some words
or pronunciation as being dialectical i.e. as telling us something about the regional or
social origin of the speaker. Social meaning is related to the situation in which an
utterance is used.
It is concerned with the social circumstances of the use of a linguistic
expression. For example, some dialectic words inform us about the regional and
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social background of the speaker. In the same way, some stylistic usages let us know
something of the social relationship between the speaker and the hearer
E.g. “I ain’t done nothing”
Stylistic variation represents the social variation. This is because styles show
the geographical region social class of the speaker. Style helps us to know about the
period, field and status of the discourse. Some words are similar to others as far as
their conceptual meaning is concerned. But they have different stylistic meaning. For
example, ‘steed ’, ‘horse and ‘nag’ are synonymous. They all mean a kind of animal
i.e. Horse. But they differ in style and so have various social meaning. ‘Steed’ is used
in poetry; ‘horse’ is used in general, while ‘nag’ is slang. The word ‘Home’ can have
many use also like domicile (official), residence (formal) abode (poetic) , home
(ordinary use).
Stylistic variation is also found in sentence. For example, two criminals will
express the following sentence
“They chucked the stones at the cops and then did a bunk with the look”
(Criminals after the event)
But the same ideas will be revealed by the chief inspector to his officials by
the following sentence.
“After casting the stones at the police, they abandoned with money.”
(Chief Inspector in an official report)
Thus through utterances we come to know about the social facts, social
situation, class, region, and speaker-listener relations by its style and dialect used in
sentences.
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The illocutionary force of an utterance also can have social meaning.
According to the social situation, a sentence may be uttered as request, an apology, a
warning or a threat, for example, the sentence,
“I haven’t got a knife” has the common meaning in isolation. But the
sentence uttered to waiter mean a request for a knife’
Thus we can understand that the connotative meaning plays a very vital role
in the field of semantics and in understanding the utterances and sentences in
different context.
2.3.4 Affective meaning
For some linguists it refers to emotive association or effects of words evoked
in the reader, listener. It is what is conveyed about the personal feelings or attitude
towards the listener.
E.g. ‘home’ for a sailor/soldier or expatriate and ‘mother’ for a motherless
child, a married woman (esp. in Indian context) will have special effective, emotive
quality.
In affective meaning, language is used to express personal feelings or attitude
to the listener or to the subject matter of his discourse.
For Leech affective meaning refers to what is convey about the feeling and
attitude of speak through use of language (attitude to listener as well as attitude to
what he is saying). Affective meaning is often conveyed through conceptual,
connotative content of the words used
E.g. “you are a vicious tyrant and a villainous reprobation and I hate you”
Or “I hate you, you idiot”.
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We are left with a little doubt about the speaker’s feelings towards the
listener. Here speaker seems to have a very negative attitude towards his listener.
This is called affective meaning.
But very often we are more discreet (cautious) and convey our attitude
indirectly.
E.g. “I am terribly sorry but if you would be so kind as to lower your voice a
little”.
Convey our irritation in a scaled down manner for the sake of politeness.
Intonation and voice quality are also important here. Thus the sentence above can be
uttered in biting sarcasm and the impression of politeness maybe reversed while –
E.g. “Will you belt up?”- can be turned into a playful remark between
intimates if said with the intonation of a request.
Words like darling, sweetheart or hooligan, vandal have inherent emotive
quality and they can be used neutrally.
I.A. Richards argued that emotive meaning distinguishes literature or poetic
language from factual meaning of science. Finally it must be noted that affective
meaning is largely a parasitic category. It overlaps heavily with style, connotation
and conceptual content.
2.3.5 Reflected meaning
Reflected meaning and collocative meaning involve interconnection. At the
lexical level of language, Reflected meaning arises when a word has more than one
conceptual meaning or multiple conceptual meaning. In such cases while responding
to one sense of the word we partly respond to another sense of the word too. Leech
says that in church service ‘the comforter and the Holy Ghost ’refer to the third in
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Trinity. They are religious words. But unconsciously there is a response to their nonreligious meanings too. Thus the ‘comforter’ sounds warm and comforting while the
‘Ghost’ sounds ‘awesome’ or even ‘dreadful’. One sense of the word seems to rub
off on another especially through relative frequency and familiarity (e.g. a ghost is
more frequent and familiar in no religious sense.).
In poetry too we have reflected meaning as in the following lines from
‘Futility’
‘Are limbs so dear achieved, are sides,
Full nerved still warm-too hard to stir’
Owen here uses ‘dear’ in the sense of expensiveness. But the sense of beloved
is also eluded.
E.g. Daffodils
“They could not but be gay
In such jocund company”
The word ‘gay’ was frequently used in the time of William Wordsworth but
the word now is used for ‘homosexuality’.
In such type cases of multiple meaning, one meaning of the word pushes the
other meaning to the background. Then the dominant suggestive power of that word
prevails. This may happen because of the relative frequency or familiarity of the
dominant meaning. This dominant meaning which pushes the other meaning at the
background is called the reflected meaning.
Reflected meaning is also found in taboo words. For examples are terms like
erection, intercourse, ejaculation. The word ‘intercourse’ immediately reminds us of
its association with sex (sexual intercourse). The sexual association of the word
drives away its innocent sense, i.e. ‘communication’. The taboo sense of the word is
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so dominant that its non-taboo sense almost dies out. In some cases, the speaker
avoids the taboo words and uses their alternative word in order to avoid the
unwanted reflected meaning. For example, as Bloomfield has pointed out, the
word ‘Cock’ is replaced by speakers, they use the word‘rooster’ to indicate the
general meaning of the word and avoid its taboo sense. These words have non-sexual
meanings too. (E.g. erection of a building, ejaculate-throw out somebody) but
because of their frequency in the lit of the physiology of sex it is becoming difficult
to use them in their innocent/nonsexual sense. Thus we can see that reflected
meaning has great importance in the study of semantics.
2.3.6 Collocative Meaning
Collocative meaning is the meaning which a word acquires in the company of
certain words. Words collocate or co-occur with certain words only e.g. Big business
not large or great. Collocative meaning refers to associations of a word because of its
usual or habitual co-occurrence with certain types of words. ‘Pretty’ and ‘handsome’
indicate ‘good looking’.
However, they slightly differ from each other because of collocation or
occurrence. The word ‘pretty’ collocates with – girls, woman, village, gardens,
flowers, etc.
On the other hand, the word ‘handsome’ collocates with ‘boys’ men, etc.
so ‘pretty woman’ and ‘handsome man’. While different kinds of attractiveness,
hence ‘handsome woman’ may mean attractive but in a mannish way. The
verbs ‘wander’ and ‘stroll’ are quasi-synonymous- they may have almost the same
meaning but while ‘cows may wonder into another farm’, they don’t stroll into that
farm because ‘stroll’ collocates with human subject only. Similarly one ‘trembles
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with fear’ but ‘quivers with excitement’. Collocative meanings need to be invoked
only when other categories of meaning don’t apply. Generalizations can be made in
case of other meanings while collocative meaning is simply on idiosyncratic property
of individual words. Collocative meaning has its importance and it is a marginal kind
of category.
2.3.7 Thematic meaning
It refers to what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or a writer
organizes the message in terms of ordering focus and emphasis .Thus active is
different from passive though its conceptual meaning is the same. Various parts of
the sentence also can be used as subject, object or complement to show prominence.
It is done through focus, theme (topic) or emotive emphasis. Thematic meaning helps
us to understand the message and its implications properly. For example, the
following statements in active and passive voice have same conceptual meaning but
different communicative values.
E.g.
1) Mrs. Smith donated the first prize
2) The first prize was donated by Mrs. Smith.
In the first sentence “who gave away the prize “is more important, but in the
second sentence “what did Mrs. Smith gave is important”. Thus the change of focus
change the meaning also.
The first suggests that we already know Mrs. Smith (perhaps through earlier
mention) its known/given information while it’s new information.
Alternative grammatical construction also gives thematic meaning. For
example,
1) He likes Indian good most.
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2) Indian goods he likes most
3) It is the Indian goods he likes most.
Like the grammatical structures, stress and intonation also make the message
prominent. For example, the contrastive stress on the word‘cotton’ in the following
sentence give prominence to the information
John wears a cotton shirt
The kind of shirt that john wears is cotton one.
Thus sentences or pairs of sentences with similar conceptual meaning differ
their communicative value. This is due to different grammatical constructions or
lexical items or stress and intonations. Therefore they are used in different contents.
“Ten thousand saw I at a glance”
Wordsworth here inverts the structure to focus on ‘ten thousand”.
Sometimes thematic contrast i.e. contrasts between given and new
information can be conveyed by lexical means.
E.g.
1) John owns the biggest shop in London
The ways we order our message also convey what is important and what not.
This is basically thematic meaning.
2.4 Phrasal Verb
Phrasal verb is a multi-word verb consisting of a lexical verb plus adverbial
particle. Phrasal verb is combination of a verb and a preposition, a verb and an
adverb, or a verb with both an adverb and a preposition, any of which are part of the
syntax of the sentence, and so are complete semantic unit. This semantic unit cannot
be understood based on the meanings of the individual parts in isolation, but rather it
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must be taken as a whole. To get more information about phrasal verbs, here are
definitions from some linguists:
2.4.1 The Definition of Phrasal Verbs
The definition of phrasal verbs given by linguistics bellow:
•
Wishon and Burks (1980:319) state phrasal verbs are combinations of verb
plus particles that regularly occur together. They usually have a meaning of
their own different from that of either of the component parts. They are
essentially new verbs.
•
Vlad (1998:93) describes phrasal verbs as combinations of a lexical verb and
adverbial particle. Verbs as give up, fall out, take in are considered by him to
be multi- words verbs that are equivalent to one lexical item.
•
Gray (2004:129) says phrasal verbs are combinations of verbs and particles.
Common particles include in, on, off, up, down, and out. Verb + particle
combinations carry their own meanings.
•
Crowell (1964: 401) says: “Phrasal verb is combination of a verb and a
particle which together have a meaning different from the customary meaning
of the two words.”
•
Allosop (1982: 210) says: “A phrasal verb consists of a simple verb + 1 or
two particles where the meaning of the compound is often different from the
meaning of the individual parts”
•
Geoffrey Leech (1975:263) in his book “A Communicative 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 cannot be built up from the meanings of the individual verb and
adverb”. This book helps me to know about the differences between phrasal
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verbs and prepositional verbs and how to use phrasal verbs effectively in a
sentence.
2.4.2 Characteristics of Phrasal Verbs
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 combinations,
they are:
•
•
•
Whether or not there is an idiomatic meaning.
Whether or not particle movement is possible.
How the wh-question is formed.
According to Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002:124-126) explains that the
meanings and structures of phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs, and free combinations
differ in many ways. One way to distinguish them by defining characteristics of
phrasal verb, namely whether or not there is an idiomatic meaning and whether or
not particle movement is possible.
Multi-word expression is determined by whether or not there is a following
noun phrase. When there is no following noun phrase (e.g. shut up or go away), there
are only two possible interpretations. It must be either an intransitive phrasal verb, or
free combination of verb + adverb. If there is a following noun phrase (e.g. find out
the meaning), there are three possible interpretations. Either it is a transitive phrasal
verb, a transitive preposition verb, or a free combination of verb + adverbial
preposition phrase.
1. An idiomatic meaning
It is especially useful when there is no following noun phrase to distinguish
between an intransitive phrasal verb and a free combination. Intransitive phrasal
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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
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.
1.1 Intransitive phrasal verbs
In intransitive phrasal verbs, there is no noun or noun phrase which places as
object; they have idiomatic meanings, for example:
Shut up you fool!
Come on! Tell us then!
1.2 Intransitive free combinations
In intransitive free combinations, there is no noun or noun phrase which
follows the free combinations and they still retain their own meaning, for example:
If this was new, I wouldn’t let people go in.
Come back, or I’ll fire.
He was afraid to look back.
2. Particle movement
When multi-word combinations have 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.
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•
•
•
•
I went to Umar’s girlfriend’s house to get back [my wool plaid shirt].
I’ve got to get [this one] back for her brother.
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:
•
•
Yeah I’ll pick you up.
So I got it back.
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:
1. Well those kids are waiting for their bus.
(Compare: Well those kids are waiting their bus for.)
2. It was hard to look at her.
(Compare: It was hard to look her at.)
3. Availability depends on their being close to the root.
(Compare: Availability depends their being close on to the root.)
3. Wh-question formation
Wh-question formation is a second important structural test deciding the type
of multi-word verb. This test is especially useful for distinguishing between a
transitive prepositional verb+object and a free combination of verb+adverbial
prepositional phrase. In sentences with a prepositional verb, wh-questions are
typically formed with what or who. These questions indicate that the noun phrase
that follows the prepositional functions as the object of the prepositional verb:
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What are you talking about?
What are you laughing at?
(Compare the statement: I am talking about / laughing at something.)
Who are you working with?
Who has talking to?
(Compare the statement: I am working with / talking to somebody.)
2.4.3. Type of Phrasal Verbs
According to Douglas Biber, Susan Conrad, Geoffray Leech (2002), phrasal
verbs are divided into transitive and intransitive phrasal verb.
1. Intransitive phrasal verb
An Intransitive phrasal verb is verbs not followed by an object, intransitive
phrasal verb has only one pattern (V+ADV). They often occur as imperatives. Since
imperative clauses are most common n conversation and fiction, it is not surprising
that these intransitive phrasal verbs are also most common in those registers:
Shut up! Just forget it.
Go off to bed now.
Stand up straight! People are looking!
In declarative clauses, the common intransitive phrasal verbs usually have human
subjects (italic below):
No, he came over to the study.
I sat down behind my desk.
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2. Transitive phrasal verb
Transitive verb is a verb followed by an object. The transitive phrasal verb
has 4 patterns, such as (V+N+ADV), (V+ ADV+N), (V+PROD+ADV),
(V+REFL+ADV). The pattern will include N, PRON, or REFL. There are 4 Patterns
of transitive phrasal verbs that are possible used:
1. Pattern V+N+ADV
The verb has an object (N), and the object comes before the adverb (ADV)
E.g. Danil went his house out.
2. Pattern V+ ADV+N
The verb also has an object (N), and the object comes after the adverb (ADV)
E.g. Zuky built up his body.
3. Pattern V+PRON+ADV
The verb must have an object which can be a personal pronoun (PRON), and
the object comes before the adverb (ADV)
E.g. Adri asked me out for refreshing.
4. Pattern V+REFL+ADV
The verb must have an object which must be a reflexive pronoun (REFL),
and the object must comes before the adverb (ADV)
E.g. you watch yourself step in this place.
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REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 Grammar
The word grammar comes from the Greek grapho, meaning ‘write’ (Leech,
Deuchar and Hoogenradd, 1985: 4). It is the system of the language that consists of
certain rules that allow us to put words together in certain ways which are
represented in the form of grammatical construction. Grammatical construction
means the way in which words are used together and arranged to form a sentence,
phrase etc. (Oxford dictionary, 2000:279). A grammar of a language describes the
principles or rules governing the form and meaning of words, phrases, clauses, and
sentences. Wren and Martin (1990:3) say that words are divided into different kinds
of classes, also known as part of speech, according to their usage to the work they do
in sentence. There are eight kind parts of speech: noun, adjective, pronoun, verb,
adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection.
A Verb is a word that tells or asserts something about a person or thing. Verb
comes from the Latin verbum, a word. It is so called because it is the most important
word in a sentence (Wren and Martin, 1990:63). Verb is one of parts of speech.
Grammar has been taken an important part of how to write or speak something. One
of grammar’s studies is Verb. However, there are many different kinds of verbs,
including lexical auxuliary verbs, different semantic classes, single-word verb, and
multi-word verb. (Biber, Conrad, and Leech 2002:103). Multi-word verb, fall into:
Phrasal verbs, Prepositional verbs, Phrasal-prepositional verbs.
Phrasal verbs consist of a verb followed by an adverbial particle (for
examples: carry out, find out, or pick up). When these adverbial particles are
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independently, they have literal meanings signifying location or direction (for
examples: out, up, down, over, around, off). However, in phrasal verbs they are
commonly used with less literal meanings. For example, the meaning of find out does
not include the “place” meaning of out.
Prepositional verbs consist of a verb followed by a prepositional, such as look
at, talk about, listen to.
Phrasal-Prepositional verbs contain both an adverbial particle and a
preposition, as in get away with.
2.2. Semantics
Semantic is the study of the meaning of words, phrases, or sentences in the
language or semantics is the study of meaning in language, or simply semantic is the
study of linguistic meaning. Palmer (1976: 1) states, “Semantics is the technical term
used to refer to the study of meaning”. Meaning is regarded as one of the most
ambiguous and controversial terms in the theory of language. The meaning of word
is determined by the words arrangements in sentences or in other words. It is a wide
subject within the general study of language. An understanding of semantics is
essential to the study language acquisition (how language user acquire a sense of
meaning, as a speakers and writers, listeners and readers) and of language change
(how meaning alter over time). It is important for understanding language is social
context, as these are likely to affect meaning, and for understanding varieties of
English and effect of style. It is thus of the most fundamental concepts in linguistics.
The study of semantics includes the study of how meaning is constructed,
interpreted, clarified, obscured, illustrated, simplified negotiated, contradicted and
paraphrased.
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The term of meaning can be considered as a term for this form has a certain
concept in the field of science that is in the field of linguistics. According to
Kempson (1977:11) there are three things to explain the meaning of terms such as:
explaining the meaning of the scientific, scientifically describe and explain sentences
meaning in communication. In this connection explains the meaning of the term can
be viewed in term of: word, sentence and what is needed by the speaker to
communicate.
Semantics is the study of the relationship between words and their meanings.
That is semantics seek to understand the connections, interactions between the
symbol for things (words are symbol) and the things themselves (the actual objects or
ideas the words refers to). Words are the thought, but they are not the thoughts
themselves. We know, for examples, that single things can be named by many
different words and that groups of many different things can be named word, yet the
single thing remains the same in itself regardless of the word applied to it and the
different things remain different from each other regardless of their description by a
single word.
Ogden & Richard’s display list to indicate a misunderstanding because there
is no corresponding / do not understand about the meaning. The views of the polite
conversation submitted by these experts, for the most part in their own way which in
the review that the resolution of the problem of meaning, ideas and communication
as the view of science to explain the concept of semantics.
Furthermore, (Ogden & Richard: 1923:11) describing the elements of
meaning to the “semiotic triangle”, explained that the meaning (the mind or
reference) is the relationship between the symbol (symbol) with a reference or
referent. The relationship between the symbol and reference is not directly whereas
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the relationship between the emblem with the references and referents by reference is
direct. Organization namely as follows:
Meaning
(Thought or references)
Symbol -------------------------------------- referent
In connection with the elements of meaning, involve the signs and symbols,
concepts and reference. The concept is a meaning or reference as the relationship
between symbol and reference. Meaning itself contains certain aspects of the theme,
flavor, tone, and mandate. The symbol and emblem is a linguistics element in the
form of a word or sentence, the reference is to objects, events, facts or processes
relating to the world of human experience, while the concept / meaning (thought or
reference) is what is in the mind of the object indicated by the symbol.
Now, let see the definition of meaning given by linguistics bellow:
1. The definition of the meaning that is about systematic thinking about the nature of
meaning. With the definition of meaning before learning about the basic problem
faced, is only going to bring in concepts from other disciplines, such as stimulus
and response in a certain sense is a very fundamental and important (Leech,
1974:11).
2. The word semantics is used for the field of linguistics which studies the
relationship between signs or symbols with things called meaning (Sudaryat,
2009:3).
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3. In the Great Dictionary of Indonesia Language (Department of Education,
1963:619) the word meaning can be interpreted: (i) meaning: pay attention to the
meaning of every word contained in the ancient writings, (ii) the purpose speaker
and author, (iii) the sense given to a linguistic form.
4. The definition of meaning is to interpret the meaning of a symbol. It means
thinking about the symbol that is a desire to produce answers to certain conditions
(Shipley, 1962:261).
The term meaning is of course, much more familiar to all of us. But every
linguist suggests a number of different of meaning. Ogden & Richard published their
problem on its topic and it has been customary for semanticist to emphasize the fact
the noun meaning and the verb to mean them has many distinguishable meanings.
The best-known book with the title “the meaning of Meaning” contained a list of as
many twenty-two definitions of the word, taking different non theoretical starting
point. The selection of meaning given in Leech (1974:7):
An intrinsic property
The other words annexed to word in the dictionary
The connotation of a word
The place of anything in a system
The particle consequences of a thing in our future experience
That to which the user of a symbol actually refers
That to which the user of a symbol ought to be referring
That to which the user of a symbol believes himself to be referring
That to which interpreter of a symbol
(a) Refers
(b) Believes himself to be referring
(c) Believes the user to be referring
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Further, the term meaning is simply derived from the word mean. In everyday
English we used this word in number of different ways:
(1) a. That was no mean (insignificant) accomplishment.
b. They are so mean (cruel) to me.
c. This will mean (result in) the end of second-class citizenship.
d. Without ice cream, life would not mean anything (have any purpose).
e. I mean (intend) to help if I can.
f. Keep of the grass, this mean (refers to) you.
g. He is losing is job means (implies) that he will have to look again.
h. Lucky strike means (indicated) the tobacco.
i. Those clouds means (are sign of) rain.
j. She doesn’t mean (believe) what she said.
k. Procrastinate means (?)” to put things off”.
l. In saying that, she mean (?) that we would leave.
Except for the last two sentences, we can see that each of the uses of the
words mean a paraphrase using words other than the word mean. In other words,
the word mean in (a) to (j) has ‘meaning’, while the same words in (k) and (l) do
not. The last two sentences, in fact exemplify two importantly different sorts, i.e.
linguistics meaning and speakers meaning. We often ask question like “what you
mean?” if we do not understand one’s utterance (speaker meaning).
In general, linguistics meaning of an expression is simple meaning or
meanings of those expressions in some form of language. For example, in one form
of language, known as Standard English, the word run means something different in
each of the sentences:
a. I like to run
b. The engines run well
c. They run a mail-order house
d. He scored a run in the third inning.
In the first sentences, the word “run” means walk fast. The second means
work, then the third means manage or organize and the fourth means point.
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An expression can mean something in one dialect of English that it does not
mean in another. The matter is further complicated in that expression can mean
different things to different people within the same dialect.
So, we can say that semantics studies about meaning, the meaning itself as
“academic” or “scientist” discipline, while the speaker and the hearer must have
same understanding on meaning on what they really mean.
2.3 Types of Meaning
Meaning has great role in linguistics problem. There is no language without
meaning because every language is used to convey the meaning. It is impossible that
a language can function well without conveying the meaning. If a language the writer
not intended to communicate meaning, there will be no interaction of thought as we
do in our daily life. Semantics as a branch of linguistics in concern with how
meaning are expressed in language.
The analysis of meaning, then, demands our understanding about sense
relation, by means of characterizing the meaning of word in term of its relationship
to other words. Sense relations include the analysis of synonym, hyponym,
homophony, polysemy, antonym, and hyponymy.
Furthermore, we may analyze meaning in terms of interpreting what speakers
mean. In this case, we normally try to understand not only what the words mean, but
also what the speaker of those words mean or intended to convey.
Still there are other types of meaning that may be well considered in the
meaning, namely lexical meaning and grammatical meaning.
In this thesis, the writer analyzes the data by using seven types of meaning
proposed by Geoffrey Leech, which is known as Leech Types of Meaning. G. Leech
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classified meaning into: conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, social meaning,
affective meaning, reflected meaning, collocative meaning, and thematic meaning.
2.3.1 Conceptual meaning
It is the essential and inextricable part of what language is, and is widely
regarded as the central factor in verbal communication. It is also called logical,
cognitive, or denotative meaning.
This type of meaning is regarded as the basic meaning as it is supposed to be
the central factor in linguistics communication. It is sometimes called denotative or
cognitive meaning. As the basic meaning conceptual meaning seems be more
accurate and permanent rather than other types meaning. This is because of it can be
studied though scientific analysis that is by given a set of feature of the word.
Conceptual, the following examples mean the same but in a different sense of
associative value.
(1) female
(2) woman
(3) collection
=
=
=
girl
virgin girl
troupe
=
gangs
Hence, the writer get the additional book from Leech which there two
structural principles that seem to be important to recognize which refer to this type of
meaning, namely the principle of Contrastive ness and the principle of Structure.
Leech ( 1974:19-20 ) Contrastive feature underline the classification of
sounds in phonology, for example, in that any label we apply to a sounds defines it
positively, by what feature it possess.
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The conceptual meaning of a language can be studied in terms of contrastive
features, for examples, the meaning of the words ’woman’, ‘man’, ‘girl’, and ‘ boy ‘
could be specified like this:
‘Male’
‘Adult’
‘Young’
‘Female’
Man
Woman
Boy
Girl
‘Human’
Woman
+HUMAN
-MALE
+ADULT
Man
+HUMAN
+MALE
+ADULT
Girl
+HUMAN
-MALE
-ADULT
Boy
+HUMAN
+MALE
-ADULT
(Leech, 1974: 123-124)
The diagram shows two dimension of meaning: that of ‘sex’ and that of
adulthood; a third are presupposed by human.
Another, in many ways satisfactory, ways to represent these senses is to write
formulae in which the dimension of meaning
+ HUMAN ‘human’
+ ADULT ‘adult’
+ MALE
- HUMAN ‘animal’; ‘brute’
- ADULT ‘young’
-MALE
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The aim conceptual semantics is to provide any given interpretation of a
sentences, a configuration of an abstract symbols which is its ‘semantics
representation’ and show exactly what we need to know if we are to distinguish that
the meaning from all other possible meanings in the language and the match that
meaning with right syntactic and phonologically expression.
2.3.2 Connotative meaning
Connotative meanings are the meanings that do not directly indicate it,
objects, or objects to which it refers. Connotative meanings usually contain feelings,
memories, and to other objects.
The meaning concerned is different from one individual to another because
are apt to vary from age to age, from society to society. Connotative meaning is more
aimed at the real world experience one associates with an expression when one uses
or hears it. It is more likely due to connotative meaning is relatively inconstant
because its meaning depends upon the time, culture, experience and the knowledge
of the individual or the society.
Therefore, the boundary between the conceptual and the connotative meaning
is coincident with that nebulous but crucial distinction between the language and the
real world.
Examples:
Woman has connotation weak
Pig has connotation dirty
Donkey has connotation stupid
Though, in fact, the notion of reference overlaps with its conceptual meaning.
Connotative meanings include not only physical characteristics, psychological and
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social properties, but also the culture, historical period and the experience of
individual.
Conceptual meaning identifies the central aspects of a word meaning, which
everybody generally agrees about. Connotation refers to the personal aspects of a
meaning, the emotional association that a word arouses. Connotation vary according
to the experiences, some words have shared connotations.
Thus connotative meaning is relatively unstable for it varies from the time to
time according to the culture, historical period and the experience of the individual.
Connotative meaning is not specific to language, but it is shared by other
communicative systems. It cannot be determined in similar way with conceptual
meaning for conceptual meaning is codified in term of limited set symbols such as
features of meaning. Whereas connotative meaning is not, i.e. characteristic of
referent, which is identified subjectively or objectively, may contribute to
connotative meaning. It is also important to emphasize that connotative meaning
differ from one speaker to another as well as from one language to another.
2.3.3 Social meaning
The meaning conveyed by the piece of language about the social context of
its use is called the social meaning. The decoding of a text is dependent on our
knowledge of stylistics and other variations of language. We recognize some words
or pronunciation as being dialectical i.e. as telling us something about the regional or
social origin of the speaker. Social meaning is related to the situation in which an
utterance is used.
It is concerned with the social circumstances of the use of a linguistic
expression. For example, some dialectic words inform us about the regional and
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social background of the speaker. In the same way, some stylistic usages let us know
something of the social relationship between the speaker and the hearer
E.g. “I ain’t done nothing”
Stylistic variation represents the social variation. This is because styles show
the geographical region social class of the speaker. Style helps us to know about the
period, field and status of the discourse. Some words are similar to others as far as
their conceptual meaning is concerned. But they have different stylistic meaning. For
example, ‘steed ’, ‘horse and ‘nag’ are synonymous. They all mean a kind of animal
i.e. Horse. But they differ in style and so have various social meaning. ‘Steed’ is used
in poetry; ‘horse’ is used in general, while ‘nag’ is slang. The word ‘Home’ can have
many use also like domicile (official), residence (formal) abode (poetic) , home
(ordinary use).
Stylistic variation is also found in sentence. For example, two criminals will
express the following sentence
“They chucked the stones at the cops and then did a bunk with the look”
(Criminals after the event)
But the same ideas will be revealed by the chief inspector to his officials by
the following sentence.
“After casting the stones at the police, they abandoned with money.”
(Chief Inspector in an official report)
Thus through utterances we come to know about the social facts, social
situation, class, region, and speaker-listener relations by its style and dialect used in
sentences.
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The illocutionary force of an utterance also can have social meaning.
According to the social situation, a sentence may be uttered as request, an apology, a
warning or a threat, for example, the sentence,
“I haven’t got a knife” has the common meaning in isolation. But the
sentence uttered to waiter mean a request for a knife’
Thus we can understand that the connotative meaning plays a very vital role
in the field of semantics and in understanding the utterances and sentences in
different context.
2.3.4 Affective meaning
For some linguists it refers to emotive association or effects of words evoked
in the reader, listener. It is what is conveyed about the personal feelings or attitude
towards the listener.
E.g. ‘home’ for a sailor/soldier or expatriate and ‘mother’ for a motherless
child, a married woman (esp. in Indian context) will have special effective, emotive
quality.
In affective meaning, language is used to express personal feelings or attitude
to the listener or to the subject matter of his discourse.
For Leech affective meaning refers to what is convey about the feeling and
attitude of speak through use of language (attitude to listener as well as attitude to
what he is saying). Affective meaning is often conveyed through conceptual,
connotative content of the words used
E.g. “you are a vicious tyrant and a villainous reprobation and I hate you”
Or “I hate you, you idiot”.
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We are left with a little doubt about the speaker’s feelings towards the
listener. Here speaker seems to have a very negative attitude towards his listener.
This is called affective meaning.
But very often we are more discreet (cautious) and convey our attitude
indirectly.
E.g. “I am terribly sorry but if you would be so kind as to lower your voice a
little”.
Convey our irritation in a scaled down manner for the sake of politeness.
Intonation and voice quality are also important here. Thus the sentence above can be
uttered in biting sarcasm and the impression of politeness maybe reversed while –
E.g. “Will you belt up?”- can be turned into a playful remark between
intimates if said with the intonation of a request.
Words like darling, sweetheart or hooligan, vandal have inherent emotive
quality and they can be used neutrally.
I.A. Richards argued that emotive meaning distinguishes literature or poetic
language from factual meaning of science. Finally it must be noted that affective
meaning is largely a parasitic category. It overlaps heavily with style, connotation
and conceptual content.
2.3.5 Reflected meaning
Reflected meaning and collocative meaning involve interconnection. At the
lexical level of language, Reflected meaning arises when a word has more than one
conceptual meaning or multiple conceptual meaning. In such cases while responding
to one sense of the word we partly respond to another sense of the word too. Leech
says that in church service ‘the comforter and the Holy Ghost ’refer to the third in
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Trinity. They are religious words. But unconsciously there is a response to their nonreligious meanings too. Thus the ‘comforter’ sounds warm and comforting while the
‘Ghost’ sounds ‘awesome’ or even ‘dreadful’. One sense of the word seems to rub
off on another especially through relative frequency and familiarity (e.g. a ghost is
more frequent and familiar in no religious sense.).
In poetry too we have reflected meaning as in the following lines from
‘Futility’
‘Are limbs so dear achieved, are sides,
Full nerved still warm-too hard to stir’
Owen here uses ‘dear’ in the sense of expensiveness. But the sense of beloved
is also eluded.
E.g. Daffodils
“They could not but be gay
In such jocund company”
The word ‘gay’ was frequently used in the time of William Wordsworth but
the word now is used for ‘homosexuality’.
In such type cases of multiple meaning, one meaning of the word pushes the
other meaning to the background. Then the dominant suggestive power of that word
prevails. This may happen because of the relative frequency or familiarity of the
dominant meaning. This dominant meaning which pushes the other meaning at the
background is called the reflected meaning.
Reflected meaning is also found in taboo words. For examples are terms like
erection, intercourse, ejaculation. The word ‘intercourse’ immediately reminds us of
its association with sex (sexual intercourse). The sexual association of the word
drives away its innocent sense, i.e. ‘communication’. The taboo sense of the word is
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so dominant that its non-taboo sense almost dies out. In some cases, the speaker
avoids the taboo words and uses their alternative word in order to avoid the
unwanted reflected meaning. For example, as Bloomfield has pointed out, the
word ‘Cock’ is replaced by speakers, they use the word‘rooster’ to indicate the
general meaning of the word and avoid its taboo sense. These words have non-sexual
meanings too. (E.g. erection of a building, ejaculate-throw out somebody) but
because of their frequency in the lit of the physiology of sex it is becoming difficult
to use them in their innocent/nonsexual sense. Thus we can see that reflected
meaning has great importance in the study of semantics.
2.3.6 Collocative Meaning
Collocative meaning is the meaning which a word acquires in the company of
certain words. Words collocate or co-occur with certain words only e.g. Big business
not large or great. Collocative meaning refers to associations of a word because of its
usual or habitual co-occurrence with certain types of words. ‘Pretty’ and ‘handsome’
indicate ‘good looking’.
However, they slightly differ from each other because of collocation or
occurrence. The word ‘pretty’ collocates with – girls, woman, village, gardens,
flowers, etc.
On the other hand, the word ‘handsome’ collocates with ‘boys’ men, etc.
so ‘pretty woman’ and ‘handsome man’. While different kinds of attractiveness,
hence ‘handsome woman’ may mean attractive but in a mannish way. The
verbs ‘wander’ and ‘stroll’ are quasi-synonymous- they may have almost the same
meaning but while ‘cows may wonder into another farm’, they don’t stroll into that
farm because ‘stroll’ collocates with human subject only. Similarly one ‘trembles
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with fear’ but ‘quivers with excitement’. Collocative meanings need to be invoked
only when other categories of meaning don’t apply. Generalizations can be made in
case of other meanings while collocative meaning is simply on idiosyncratic property
of individual words. Collocative meaning has its importance and it is a marginal kind
of category.
2.3.7 Thematic meaning
It refers to what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or a writer
organizes the message in terms of ordering focus and emphasis .Thus active is
different from passive though its conceptual meaning is the same. Various parts of
the sentence also can be used as subject, object or complement to show prominence.
It is done through focus, theme (topic) or emotive emphasis. Thematic meaning helps
us to understand the message and its implications properly. For example, the
following statements in active and passive voice have same conceptual meaning but
different communicative values.
E.g.
1) Mrs. Smith donated the first prize
2) The first prize was donated by Mrs. Smith.
In the first sentence “who gave away the prize “is more important, but in the
second sentence “what did Mrs. Smith gave is important”. Thus the change of focus
change the meaning also.
The first suggests that we already know Mrs. Smith (perhaps through earlier
mention) its known/given information while it’s new information.
Alternative grammatical construction also gives thematic meaning. For
example,
1) He likes Indian good most.
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2) Indian goods he likes most
3) It is the Indian goods he likes most.
Like the grammatical structures, stress and intonation also make the message
prominent. For example, the contrastive stress on the word‘cotton’ in the following
sentence give prominence to the information
John wears a cotton shirt
The kind of shirt that john wears is cotton one.
Thus sentences or pairs of sentences with similar conceptual meaning differ
their communicative value. This is due to different grammatical constructions or
lexical items or stress and intonations. Therefore they are used in different contents.
“Ten thousand saw I at a glance”
Wordsworth here inverts the structure to focus on ‘ten thousand”.
Sometimes thematic contrast i.e. contrasts between given and new
information can be conveyed by lexical means.
E.g.
1) John owns the biggest shop in London
The ways we order our message also convey what is important and what not.
This is basically thematic meaning.
2.4 Phrasal Verb
Phrasal verb is a multi-word verb consisting of a lexical verb plus adverbial
particle. Phrasal verb is combination of a verb and a preposition, a verb and an
adverb, or a verb with both an adverb and a preposition, any of which are part of the
syntax of the sentence, and so are complete semantic unit. This semantic unit cannot
be understood based on the meanings of the individual parts in isolation, but rather it
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must be taken as a whole. To get more information about phrasal verbs, here are
definitions from some linguists:
2.4.1 The Definition of Phrasal Verbs
The definition of phrasal verbs given by linguistics bellow:
•
Wishon and Burks (1980:319) state phrasal verbs are combinations of verb
plus particles that regularly occur together. They usually have a meaning of
their own different from that of either of the component parts. They are
essentially new verbs.
•
Vlad (1998:93) describes phrasal verbs as combinations of a lexical verb and
adverbial particle. Verbs as give up, fall out, take in are considered by him to
be multi- words verbs that are equivalent to one lexical item.
•
Gray (2004:129) says phrasal verbs are combinations of verbs and particles.
Common particles include in, on, off, up, down, and out. Verb + particle
combinations carry their own meanings.
•
Crowell (1964: 401) says: “Phrasal verb is combination of a verb and a
particle which together have a meaning different from the customary meaning
of the two words.”
•
Allosop (1982: 210) says: “A phrasal verb consists of a simple verb + 1 or
two particles where the meaning of the compound is often different from the
meaning of the individual parts”
•
Geoffrey Leech (1975:263) in his book “A Communicative 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 cannot be built up from the meanings of the individual verb and
adverb”. This book helps me to know about the differences between phrasal
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verbs and prepositional verbs and how to use phrasal verbs effectively in a
sentence.
2.4.2 Characteristics of Phrasal Verbs
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 combinations,
they are:
•
•
•
Whether or not there is an idiomatic meaning.
Whether or not particle movement is possible.
How the wh-question is formed.
According to Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002:124-126) explains that the
meanings and structures of phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs, and free combinations
differ in many ways. One way to distinguish them by defining characteristics of
phrasal verb, namely whether or not there is an idiomatic meaning and whether or
not particle movement is possible.
Multi-word expression is determined by whether or not there is a following
noun phrase. When there is no following noun phrase (e.g. shut up or go away), there
are only two possible interpretations. It must be either an intransitive phrasal verb, or
free combination of verb + adverb. If there is a following noun phrase (e.g. find out
the meaning), there are three possible interpretations. Either it is a transitive phrasal
verb, a transitive preposition verb, or a free combination of verb + adverbial
preposition phrase.
1. An idiomatic meaning
It is especially useful when there is no following noun phrase to distinguish
between an intransitive phrasal verb and a free combination. Intransitive phrasal
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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
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.
1.1 Intransitive phrasal verbs
In intransitive phrasal verbs, there is no noun or noun phrase which places as
object; they have idiomatic meanings, for example:
Shut up you fool!
Come on! Tell us then!
1.2 Intransitive free combinations
In intransitive free combinations, there is no noun or noun phrase which
follows the free combinations and they still retain their own meaning, for example:
If this was new, I wouldn’t let people go in.
Come back, or I’ll fire.
He was afraid to look back.
2. Particle movement
When multi-word combinations have 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.
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•
•
•
•
I went to Umar’s girlfriend’s house to get back [my wool plaid shirt].
I’ve got to get [this one] back for her brother.
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:
•
•
Yeah I’ll pick you up.
So I got it back.
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:
1. Well those kids are waiting for their bus.
(Compare: Well those kids are waiting their bus for.)
2. It was hard to look at her.
(Compare: It was hard to look her at.)
3. Availability depends on their being close to the root.
(Compare: Availability depends their being close on to the root.)
3. Wh-question formation
Wh-question formation is a second important structural test deciding the type
of multi-word verb. This test is especially useful for distinguishing between a
transitive prepositional verb+object and a free combination of verb+adverbial
prepositional phrase. In sentences with a prepositional verb, wh-questions are
typically formed with what or who. These questions indicate that the noun phrase
that follows the prepositional functions as the object of the prepositional verb:
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What are you talking about?
What are you laughing at?
(Compare the statement: I am talking about / laughing at something.)
Who are you working with?
Who has talking to?
(Compare the statement: I am working with / talking to somebody.)
2.4.3. Type of Phrasal Verbs
According to Douglas Biber, Susan Conrad, Geoffray Leech (2002), phrasal
verbs are divided into transitive and intransitive phrasal verb.
1. Intransitive phrasal verb
An Intransitive phrasal verb is verbs not followed by an object, intransitive
phrasal verb has only one pattern (V+ADV). They often occur as imperatives. Since
imperative clauses are most common n conversation and fiction, it is not surprising
that these intransitive phrasal verbs are also most common in those registers:
Shut up! Just forget it.
Go off to bed now.
Stand up straight! People are looking!
In declarative clauses, the common intransitive phrasal verbs usually have human
subjects (italic below):
No, he came over to the study.
I sat down behind my desk.
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2. Transitive phrasal verb
Transitive verb is a verb followed by an object. The transitive phrasal verb
has 4 patterns, such as (V+N+ADV), (V+ ADV+N), (V+PROD+ADV),
(V+REFL+ADV). The pattern will include N, PRON, or REFL. There are 4 Patterns
of transitive phrasal verbs that are possible used:
1. Pattern V+N+ADV
The verb has an object (N), and the object comes before the adverb (ADV)
E.g. Danil went his house out.
2. Pattern V+ ADV+N
The verb also has an object (N), and the object comes after the adverb (ADV)
E.g. Zuky built up his body.
3. Pattern V+PRON+ADV
The verb must have an object which can be a personal pronoun (PRON), and
the object comes before the adverb (ADV)
E.g. Adri asked me out for refreshing.
4. Pattern V+REFL+ADV
The verb must have an object which must be a reflexive pronoun (REFL),
and the object must comes before the adverb (ADV)
E.g. you watch yourself step in this place.
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