Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Department of English
and American Studies

Teaching English Language and Literature for

Secondary Schools

Jan Štěrba

Phrasal Verbs in the British National

Corpus and ELT Textbooks
Master’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Mgr. František Tůma, Ph. D.

2018
 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,
using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

……………………………………………..
Jan Štěrba
 I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. František Tůma, Ph.D., for his time, kindness,
willingness to help and the excellent feedback he provided me with.
I would also like to thank my original supervisor, doc, PhDr. Naděžda Kudrnáčová, Csc., who
approached Mr. Tůma after my topic had to be changed and thus helped me to finish the thesis
successfully.
I cannot forget to thank James for proofreading the whole thesis as well as my grandfather who
proofread the Czech parts.
I am also very grateful for the support I have received from my family throughout my studies
and finally, I have to thank my girlfriend Janča for simply being out there for me.
 Table of Contents

Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 9
1. Multi-word Verbs ....................................................................................................... 13
1.1. Phrasal Verbs ....................................................................................................... 14
1.1.1. Definition ....................................................................................................... 14
1.1.2. Other approaches to defining phrasal verbs .................................................. 16
1.2. Phrasal Verbs vs Prepositional Verbs .................................................................. 17
1.3. Phrasal Verbs vs Free Combinations ................................................................... 19
1.4. Phrasal Verbs Tests .............................................................................................. 20
2. Corpora ....................................................................................................................... 23
2.1. Definition and Main Features............................................................................... 23
2.2. Available Corpora ................................................................................................ 26
2.2.1. British National Corpus ................................................................................. 26
2.2.2. Other corpora ................................................................................................. 28
2.3. Sketch Engine....................................................................................................... 30
3. Research Overview ..................................................................................................... 33
4. Methodology ............................................................................................................... 41
4.1. The Reference Corpus .......................................................................................... 41
4.2. The Analysed Textbooks...................................................................................... 42
4.2.1. Maturita Solutions ......................................................................................... 43
4.2.2. New Headway 4th edition .............................................................................. 44
4.2.3. Insight ............................................................................................................ 45
4.3. Selection of Phrasal Verbs for the Analysis ......................................................... 45
4.4. The Analysis Process ........................................................................................... 49
4.4.1. First stage....................................................................................................... 50
4.4.2. Second stage .................................................................................................. 51
4.4.3. Third Stage .................................................................................................... 54
5. The Analysis ............................................................................................................... 57
5.1. Frequency counts ................................................................................................. 60
5.1.1. Headway ........................................................................................................ 61
5.1.2. Insight ............................................................................................................ 63
5.1.3. Solutions ........................................................................................................ 65
5.2. Text Types ............................................................................................................ 67
5.2.1. Headway ........................................................................................................ 69
 5.2.2. Insight ............................................................................................................ 72
5.2.3. Solutions ........................................................................................................ 75
5.3. Functions of PVs in the Textbooks....................................................................... 78
5.3.1. Headway ........................................................................................................ 80
5.3.1.1. No focus. ................................................................................................. 80
5.3.1.2. Indirect focus. .......................................................................................... 81
5.3.1.3. Direct focus. ............................................................................................ 82
5.3.2. Insight ............................................................................................................ 85
5.3.2.1. No focus. ................................................................................................. 86
5.3.2.2. Indirect focus. .......................................................................................... 86
5.3.2.3. Direct focus. ............................................................................................ 88
5.3.3. Solutions ........................................................................................................ 91
5.3.3.1. No focus. ................................................................................................. 92
5.3.3.2. Indirect focus. .......................................................................................... 92
5.3.3.3. Direct focus. ............................................................................................ 94
6. Discussion ................................................................................................................... 99
6.1. Discussion of Results............................................................................................ 99
6.2. Limitations of the Analysis................................................................................. 104
6.3. Areas of Further Research .................................................................................. 105
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 107
Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 109
The Analysed Textbooks ........................................................................................... 109
Other Sources ............................................................................................................ 109
Resumé in English ......................................................................................................... 115
Resumé in Czech ........................................................................................................... 117
Appendix 1 .................................................................................................................... 119
Appendix 2 .................................................................................................................... 127
 Introduction
This thesis will deal with English phrasal verbs, which are considered to be “one of the

most notoriously challenging aspects of English language instruction” (Gardner

& Davies, 2007, p. 339). Because of their difficulty and also unfamiliarity with the

concept of phrasal verbs in many languages, English language learners tend to avoid

them, sometimes even completely (Gardner & Davies, 2007). Mullany and Stockwell

(2010) even refer to them as “the scourge of the learner” (p. 201). Phrasal verbs can be

distinguished at first glance because they consist of two elements – a lexical verb and

an adverbial particle, which is the simplest form of their definition that will be further

elaborated on the following pages. The importance of phrasal verbs is suggested by the

fact that some rather frequent English verbs, such as carry or pick, tend to occur more

often in phrasal verbs constructions than on their own (Gardner & Davies, 2007).

What makes phrasal verbs even more challenging for language users is their rather

unpredictable nature (as far as meaning is concerned) and also the fact that the set

of possible particles is quite limited and therefore one particle might comprise several

meanings when joined to different lexical verbs (Darwin and Gray, 1999).

Despite, or maybe thanks to, their demanding characteristics, phrasal verbs present a very

useful middle ground between syntax and lexis that might be successfully exploited

in second language acquisition (Gass & Selinker, 2001). The main aim of this thesis is

to study the patterns of use of phrasal verbs in intermediate volumes of three

contemporary English textbooks widely used in the Czech Republic – New Headway,

Insight and Maturita Solutions – and compare the findings to the data gained from the

British National Corpus (BNC). Therefore, this thesis has primarily practical focus,

but the needed theoretical background will be provided as well. The structure of this thesis

will be presented in the following paragraphs.

9
The whole thesis is dived into six chapters. The first two chapters will have a primarily

theoretical basis. The first one will predominantly deal with phrasal verbs.

After presenting the notion of multi-word verbs, it will provide an overview of possible

definitions of phrasal verbs and the means of distinguishing them from other multi-word

verbs including free combinations. The second chapter will be concerned with corpora,

which is an essential term for this thesis as the analysis will mostly rely on corpus data.

The main focus will be devoted to the BNC, but information about other available corpora

will be given as well. This chapter will also introduce the Sketch Engine, which will be

then used in one of the analysis stages. Both the theoretical chapters focus solely on the

terms or concepts that are essential for the latter chapters of the thesis and it should be

kept in mind that they are thus not exhaustive.

The purpose of the third chapter is to present an overview of available research, where

phrasal verbs or similar constructions are studied with respect to textbooks and (or)

corpora. The fourth chapter will provide all the necessary information about the research

methodology. First, it will start with the three main research questions of the analysis:

What are the most frequent phrasal verbs in the textbooks compared to the BNC?

In what types of texts and spoken interactions are phrasal verbs used in the textbooks

compared to the BNC?

In which ways are phrasal verbs used in the textbooks?

This will then be followed by a presentation of the selected textbooks and the reference

corpus, including reasons for their selection. Afterwards, the three stages of the analysis,

where each corresponds to one research question, will be described. The first stage will

be based on the list of the most frequent phrasal verbs in the BNC compiled by Liu (2011),

which will be compared to the findings from the textbooks. The second stage will examine

text and spoken interaction types in the BNC using the Sketch Engine according to the

10
classification proposed by David Lee (2001) and compare it to the textbook use of phrasal

verbs. Finally, the last part of the analysis will study in what types of exercises phrasal

verbs are used in the textbooks.

The two final chapters of this thesis will be the most practical, as they will be concerned

with the analysis itself. The fifth chapter will present the results in three subchapters,

where each will be devoted to the corresponding analysis stage. For the sake of clarity,

each subchapter will include three sections; one for each textbook. This chapter will

primarily make use of tables presented at the beginning of each section and the tables will

then be commented on and interpreted. The last chapter of this thesis will be the

discussion, which will be split into three subchapters. The first one will summarize the

key findings and relate them to the previously introduced research where applicable,

while the second and third will in turn admit some limitations of the thesis and suggest

areas for further research.

11
12
 1. Multi-word Verbs
This chapter will introduce the term multi-word verbs which is crucial for the rest of this

thesis as it also comprises phrasal verbs, which will be of primary concern in the analysis.

Therefore, substantial space will be devoted to them. The other two frequently

distinguished categories of multi-word verbs, prepositional and phrasal-prepositional

verbs, will be also discussed briefly mainly in order to complete the terminological

picture. There are even more types of multi-word verbs in English than the three provided

above, such as verb-adjective or verb-verb combinations but they are rather rare

in English and therefore not discussed here1.

Multi-word verbs are combinations of a lexical verb and one or two other elements,

which are called particles (Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik, 1985), for example turn

up, look after or put up with. The particle can belong to two “distinct but overlapping

categories” (Quirk et al., 1985, 1150) of either adverbs or spatial prepositions. The most

important feature of multi-word verbs is the fact that they form a unit that behaves like a

single word (Downing and Locke, 2006), (Quirk et al., 1985). This means that they are

often not fully transparent in their meaning, or even idiomatic. Thus, their meaning cannot

be predicted from the meanings of their individual parts (Greenbaum, 1996). Consider

the previously mentioned multi-word verb turn up. The Oxford Phrasal Verb Dictionary

for Learners of English lists this verb with the meaning “to arrive; to happen, especially

unexpectedly” (p. 358) which is not comparable to the conclusion that would be reached

if purely the meanings of turn and up were grouped together. Another common feature

of multi-word verbs is the possibility of replacing them with a single verb (Ballard, 2001).

For example, the aforementioned verb turn up can (in some of its senses) be replaced by

the single verb appear.

1
Brief account of those types is provided by Quirk et al. (1985, p. 1167-1168)

13
There are several possible ways of classifying multi-word verbs. They can be

differentiated by their grammatical, syntactical or semantical patterns. The following

classification will be based on the grammatical category of their particle (or particles).

Further classification based on transitivity and separability will follow in the next

sections. Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad & Finegan (1999) list three main types

of multi-word verbs. Both phrasal and prepositional verbs are combinations of a lexical

verb and one particle. Phrasal verbs contain an adverbial particle (e. g. break down,

look up, take off), while prepositional verbs include particles that serves as prepositions

(come across, get off, look after). Phrasal-prepositional verbs (get away with, look

down on, put up with) have two particles attached to their lexical verb and can be seen as

a combination of both phrasal and prepositional verbs.

Prepositional and phrasal-prepositional verbs will not be included in the textbook analysis

and therefore the next section will focus primarily on phrasal verbs, their features and the

differences between phrasal verbs and other similar constructions.

1.1. Phrasal Verbs

Already identified as one of the main subtypes of multi-word verbs, phrasal verbs are

“one of the most distinctive features of present-day informal English” (Downing

& Locke, 2006, p. 336). One of the primary reasons for this is their enormous abundance

and productivity (Darwin & Gray, 1999). They are also quite common in English,

as corpus data suggests that they appear once in per 150 words (Gardner & Davies, 2007).

The following chapters will provide discussion surrounding their definition, prevalent

features and the methods of distinguishing them from other similar constructions.

1.1.1. Definition

As stated before, phrasal verbs can be, in short, defined as a lexical verb + adverbial

particle combination, which is the definition that will be central to this thesis.

14
Of course, more elaborate and restrictive formulations exist as well. For example, the

definition provided by Quirk et al. (1985, p. 1150-1152) is formulated in two stages.

According to them, a phrasal verb is a lexical verb followed by an adverbial

morphologically invariable particle, which functions as a single grammatical unit with the

verb. Furthermore, they add that meaning of the combination cannot be predicted

from the meaning of its parts in isolation. That is true for many phrasal verbs, but Darwin

and Gray (1999) mention that phrasal verbs can also have a relatively literal meaning

(for example take down in take down the painting) and Downing and Locke (2006) even

established a category of “non-idiomatic phrasal verbs” (p. 337).

As already pointed out above, phrasal verbs tend to be idiomatic and can be replaced by

a single verb in a large number of cases. They often tend to be less formal than their single

verb counterpart and are rarer in academic writing, although some of them, such as

carry out or point out, are accepted in academia as well (Darwin & Gray, 1999).

Phrasal verbs can be further split into two main domains – intransitive and transitive

(Biber et al., 1999, p. 407). Similarly to the “usual” single verbs, intransitive phrasal verbs

((1a) and (1b) below) do not need an object, whereas transitive phrasal verbs ((2a) and

(2b)) require a direct object.

(1a) After three hours, he finally gave in.

(1b) Please finally shut up!

(2a) I need to sort out my problems quickly.

(2b) He turned on the TV.

In some cases, transitive phrasal verbs can also take indirect object in addition to the

direct one, as illustrated in the following example (taken from Useful Dictionary of

Phrasal verbs by Martin Manser):

(3) I will now hand you back to Peter Barker in the studio.

15
Where you is the direct and Peter Barker the indirect object of the multi-word verb hand

back. However, such constructions can be seen as having two particles (back and to in the

previous example) and will thus not be treated as phrasal verbs in this thesis.

As Darwin and Gray (1999) pointed out, phrasal verbs behave exactly in the same way

as single verbs, albeit “with one exception” (p. 69). This is the ability of particle

movement and separation which will, together with the other distinctive features

of phrasal verbs, be further discussed in 1.2.

1.1.2. Other approaches to defining phrasal verbs

The definitions provided above are, of course, not the only possible ones. Gardner

and Davies (2007) maintain that “it is rare to read an article about phrasal verbs without

some discussion of definitions” (p. 341). Although the definition is relatively simple, its

application creates discrepancies among linguists (Gardner & Davies, 2007) as well as

among people responsible for making dictionaries and teaching materials. Ballard (2001)

already remarked that the term “phrasal verbs” sometimes encompasses the whole

category of multi-word verbs without mentioning the other two main types discussed

here. Huddlestone and Pullum (2002) do not use the term “phrasal verbs” at all, claiming

that phrasal verbs, “despite their idiomatic interpretations, do not form syntactic

constituents ” (p. 274) any more than expressions such as flew to or send money to.

Another confusion regarding the term ‘phrasal verbs’ may be found in English textbooks.

As Oliveira and Avezedo (2012) observed, “English textbook authors tend

to oversimplify the explanation of these types of verbs using inappropriate terminology”

(p. 4). The main problem is introducing solely the term of phrasal verbs without

mentioning their hypernym, multi-word verbs. No distinction is also quite often made

between adverbial and prepositional particles (Oliveira & Avezedo, 2012), which is

something that was observed also in the three textbooks that will be analysed in this thesis.

16
The textbook authors also seem to prefer the most idiomatic phrasal verbs while not

recognizing the more transparent ones.

It is also common that various dictionaries of phrasal verbs list also prepositional and

phrasal-prepositional verbs, all under the heading of phrasal verbs. Biber et al. (1999),

Greenbaum (1996) and Manser (2017) can serve as examples of the aforementioned

approach. Although they provide the grammatical category of every particle, no

distinction at all is made between phrasal, prepositional and phrasal-prepositional verbs.

From the point of view adopted in this thesis, they would therefore be better referred to

as dictionaries of multi-word verbs.

The delimitation of phrasal verbs proposed in 1.1.1. might seem rather straightforward

at first sight. But as seen in the preceding paragraphs, the overlap between phrasal verbs

and the other categories of multi-word verbs tends to be rather substantial in some cases.

Bolinger (1971) states that being a phrasal verb is not purely a binary (yes/no) issue but

rather a “matter of degree” (p. 6). This already suggests that whatever criteria for phrasal

verb differentiation are used, there will always remain a trace of arbitrariness. The two

main problems when assessing whether a verb belongs to the phrasal verb category are

the prepositional verbs and the so-called free combinations. Those issues will be dealt

with in the following paragraphs.

1.2. Phrasal Verbs vs Prepositional Verbs

While it takes no substantial effort to differentiate phrasal-prepositional verbs,

prepositional verbs might seem quite similar to the previously introduced phrasal verbs

at first sight, as this group includes exemplars such as come across, get over or look for.

The main difference is that in the case of prepositional verbs, the particle following the

lexical verb functions as a preposition. Therefore, unlike phrasal verbs, prepositional

17
verbs require a nominal element following them which could be noun, pronoun or ing-

clause (Downing & Locke, 2006). Therefore, while both

(4a) I would like to go out.

(4b) Me and my girlfriend have fallen out.

are totally acceptable,

(5a) *I just came across.

(5b)2 *My phone fell out.

would need a prepositional object to make them grammatical. Therefore, when the object

is omitted, prepositional verbs could be easily spotted because it makes the sentence

grammatically incorrect. Another important distinction is the ability of phrasal verbs to

move its object between the lexical verb and its particle. Prepositional verbs generally

keep their particle right before the object (Quirk et al., 1985). Compare:

(6a) She knocked down the argument.

(6b) She knocked the argument down.

(7a) He looks after three children.

*(7b) He looks three children after.

where (6a) and (6b) are instances of phrasal verbs and (7a) and (7b) examples

of prepositional verbs. The final distinction discussed here is the position of personal

pronoun as an object. In the case of phrasal verbs, the pronoun is located between the

lexical verb and its particle, while it has to follow the particle of prepositional verbs

(Downing & Locke, 2006). It is illustrated by the following pair of sentences, where (8a)

and (8b) belong to the phrasal verbs category and (9a) as well as (9b) fall under the

heading of prepositional verbs.

(8a) I need to look it up in a dictionary.

2
Asterisk denotes a non-grammatical form

18
 *(8b) I need to look up it in a dictionary.

(9a) He relies on him

*(9b) He relies him on.

Of course, the object omission is basically limited to intransitive, while the object and

pronoun movement to transitive phrasal verbs. What is generally regarded as almost the

exclusive phrasal verb feature (Quirk et al., 1985) is the stress pattern. Phrasal verbs tend

to have stress on their particle. In contract, stress in prepositional verbs falls on their

lexical verb. Similarly, phrasal verbs generally do not permit adverbial insertion which

can be applied to prepositional verbs (Bolinger, 1971). Darwin and Gray (1999) later

specified that this is mainly true when adverbs ending with –ly (e.g. nicely, quickly,

suddenly) are used. However, Darwin and Gray (1999) also pointed out that none of those

tests is one hundred percent reliable. Therefore, there have been several attempts

to distinguish phrasal verbs from prepositional verbs objectively by means of various

rigorous sets of tests, which will be outlined in 1.4.

1.3. Phrasal Verbs vs Free Combinations

Most of the tests mentioned in the previous section can be used to not only distinguish

phrasal verbs from their prepositional counterparts, but also from the so-called

free combinations. Free combination, as the term already suggests, is a combination

of verb and adverb where they both have “separate grammatical and semantic status”

(Biber et al., 1999, p. 403). However, Downing and Locke (2006, p. 337) equate the term

with non-idiomatical phrasal verbs and thus do not treat them as distinct groups.

Free combinations can consist of a verb followed by either preposition or adverb (Biber

et al., 1999) but those constituents do not form a single unit. Distinguishing free

combinations from proper phrasal verbs is not always easy. Particularly because, as Biber

et al., 1999 admit, it is “hard to make an absolute distinction between free combinations

19
and fixed multi-word verbs” (p. 403) because not all phrasal verbs exhibit the same degree

of “fixedness”. Free combinations can be largely distinguished from the phrasal verbs

on the same grounds as previously described prepositional verbs. However, as in the case

or prepositional verbs, context is often essential in order to spot the free combination.

Consider the following examples taken from Biber et al. (1999, p. 40) which include both

intransitive (10a) and transitive (11a) phrasal verb:

(10a) I would like to stay on and honour my contract.

(10b) Many dealers were content to stay on the sidelines.

(11a) He had put on his spectacles.

(11b) She put it carefully on the table.

Here, the sentences labelled with ‘a’ are examples of phrasal verbs, while the ‘b’ excerpts

are instances of free combinations. Such constructions will not be accepted into the

subsequent analysis. Quirk et al. (1985) adopted a bit stricter standpoint that also excludes

expressions such as come in, drink up or go on. Those in some respects borderline cases

will be accepted in the analysis. More information about the actual differentiation

between phrasal verbs and free combinations3 done in this thesis will be provided in 4.3.

1.4. Phrasal Verbs Tests

It is obvious that phrasal and prepositional verbs (and free combinations, for that matter)

cannot be differentiated by sight. Some prepositional and phrasal verbs can even have

seemingly the same form (Quirk et al., 1985, p. 1151), such as in:

(12a) John fell down – adverbial construction

(12b) John fell down the hill – prepositional construction

Therefore, criteria for telling them apart based on various linguistic disciplines had to be

established. However, Claridge (2002) observed that “the most usual indicators or tests

3
For their more thorough overview of free combinations, see the table on p. 1161

20
for phrasal verbs unfortunately work with the transitive combinations alone” (p. 47) and

therefore, total reliability cannot be expected. This opinion is also shared by Darwin and

Gray (1999). Bolinger (1971) proposed nine possible tests4. Apart from the already

discussed things that only phrasal verbs are generally capable of, such as pronoun

placement or object movement, they included also replacing by a single verb, stress

(which should fall on the particle in the case of phrasal and on the lexical verb in the case

of prepositional verbs) or listing. Darwin and Gray (1999) heavily criticized this approach

by maintaining that some tests (listing) are not tests at all and that some (replacing by a

single verb, adverbial insertion) would most likely be passed by some of prepositional

verbs and “almost any free combination” (p. 75).

Darwin and Gray (1999) went on to propose their own set of seven criteria (p. 77-81)

which are, generally speaking, specifications of the ones formulated by Bolinger (1971).

But also their new set of phrasal verbs test was criticised. Sawyer (2000) deemed it too

restrictive and objected that it removes some of the useful exemplars for language

teaching. This situation indicates that developing an extensive and rigorous set of criteria

may lead to a vicious circle of contradictions and that at least some degree of intuition

and deliberate choice is still required. Quirk et al. (1985, p. 1167) present their own set

of seven tests which almost precisely covers the features described in 1.3. and 1.4.

However, they admit that although several criteria for determining whether a verb is

a phrasal verb might be in place, “it is best to think of the boundaries of multi-word verbs

categories as a scale (p. 1165)”. Therefore, there is a need for an overview what will the

term “phrasal verb” represent in the analysis and what verbs will (or will not) be included.

This overview will be provided in 4.3. What follows now is a chapter on corpora, which

4
For the complete overview of them, see Bolinger (1971)

21
are essential for this thesis as the previously described phrasal verbs are going to be

examined with respect to the corpora data.

22
 2. Corpora
After establishing the term “phrasal verbs”, it should be stressed that, in this thesis, they

will not be studied in isolation, or abstracted from their natural use. The analysis will

make use of both authentic data illustrating language use as well as of English textbooks.

For the purposes of this chapter, the former component will be discussed in the following

paragraphs in more detail. The arguably best means of providing authentic data are

corpora. Influence of corpora has grown over the years, as they are now used not only

in linguistic research, but also in studies concerning teaching and learning of languages

(Lüdeling & Kytö, 2008). Interestingly, although corpora have become one of the most

important tools in many fields of study, it is not uncommon for even English as a foreign

language (EFL) teachers to be unaware of the term. For example, Belkhir (2013)

randomly selected ten EFL teachers in Algeria5 and found out that nine of them were not

familiar with corpora and possibilities of their use in a language classroom. The following

chapter will not only state the definition of corpora, but also provide an overview of the

various types of corpora available and mention their basic characteristics and use.

Most attention will be devoted to the most relevant corpus for the subsequent analysis –

the British National Corpus. In addition, the features of Sketch Engine, which is a piece

of software used for interpreting the corpus data, will be outlined.

2.1. Definition and Main Features

Unlike the one of phrasal verbs, the definition of corpora is relatively unambiguous

in both its formulation and application. The term corpus usually refers to “a collection

of authentic language, either written or spoken, which has been compiled for a particular

5
This sample might not seem too convincing. Out of curiosity, the author of this thesis asked teachers
from two secondary schools (Gymnázium) in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic whether they know what
the term “language corpus” stands for and obtained eight responses. Four of the teachers were unfamiliar
with the term, while other two were made aware of it only very recently thanks to a dedicated workshop.
Although a large-scale analysis might provide different results, it is suggested that the term might not be
totally universally understood.

23
purpose” (Flowerdew, 2012, p. 3). The word “authentic” needs to be pointed out, as it

means that the texts included in corpus were produced in real situations rather than

constructed for a given purpose. It follows from the previously formulated definition that

it is relatively easy for anyone to construct his or her very own corpus. For example,

if someone wants to study classroom discourse, s/he might record a certain amount

of school lessons and thus compile a written corpus of classroom discourse. Similarly, if

the aim is to examine language patterns used in detective stories for example, one might

compile all the stories containing the characters Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes and

end up with a written “detectives’” corpus.

While it is theoretically possible to build a corpus in such a straightforward way and there

exists thousands of private corpora (Lüdeling & Kytö, 2008), the research results can be

“only as good as the corpus” (Sinclair, 1991, p. 9). O’Keeffe, McCarthy and Carter (2007)

also underline the need for representativeness, which should be the key thing to consider

when building a corpus. They remarked that the “design stage” is essential for achieving

it (p. 2). What might help to accomplish this representativeness could be building the

given corpus “according to explicit design criteria” (Flowerdew, 2012, p. 3).

However, explicit criteria do not guarantee representativeness on their own. For example,

if the only criterion of a corpus is recording ten totally randomly selected people and then

shortening their performances to one minute for consistency, such corpus is built

according to explicit criteria, but is hardly representative with respect to the whole

population. Therefore, it should be assured that the criteria are composed with attention

to as many details as possible. Thankfully, a great amount of corpora that have been

constructed with thorough and carefully built criteria in mind and some of them will be

dealt with in the next chapter. Before this will be done, the most common operations that

are usually done using corpora will be introduced.

24
It has now become a standard that corpora are available in digital and machine-readable

form (Flowerdew, 2012). This allows for a very quick processing of the enormous

amounts of data that are incorporated in the corpora. It is often the case that parts

of speech and the source texts or recordings are tagged which allows for even deeper

study of data. One of the vitally important corpus tools is concordancing, which is “using

corpus software to find every occurrence of a particular word or phrase” (O’Keeffe et al.,

2007, p. 8). The word that is the concordance subject is called node (O’Keeffe et al.,

2007). Results of a concordance, which are called concordance lines, are often displayed

in the so-called Key Word in Context (KWIC) format (O’Keeffe et al., 2007) with the

node in the middle, surrounded by a couple of words on both sides. When the lines are

read horizontally, the studied patterns can be observed rather quickly.

Concordance results, when combined with other corpus tools, allow for further

exploration of the data. They prove to be particularly useful for providing frequency data,

and specifically frequency lists (Sinclair, 1991). Those lists can provide6 a very clear

overview of (among others) various collocational and phraseological patterns, including

idioms and a number of lexical chunks (such as I don´t know, have a look and so on)

(O’Keeffe et al., 2007, Flowerdew, 2012). It should be noted that the previously

introduced phrasal verbs also belong to this category. Studies that deal with the

constructions described above and use corpora will be presented in the third chapter and

it will be shown that frequency lists are by far the most exploited way of corpora use.

As indicated above, corpora can have many forms. They can be either spoken or written

(or both), general or more specialized, small or large. One of the largest corpora are the

so-called national corpora, which are supposed to encompass as many aspects

of a country’s national language as they can (Lüdeling & Kytö, 2008).

6
More details about those processes can be found in FCTC (2007, p. 11-16).

25
Lüdeling & Kytö (2008) also pointed out that although “an ideal national corpus should

cover proportionally both written and spoken language” (p. 383), such corpora tend

to include only or primarily written data as spoken data are substantially more

complicated and expensive to gather. As far as corpus size is concerned, linguists

generally agree that the bigger corpus, the better (Flowerdew, 2012). Sinclair (1991)

claimed that corpus should contain at least a million words (but preferably many

millions), which makes him more likely to provide a sufficing representation of a

language.

However, size of a corpus is highly dependent on the phenomenon one wants to study.

Smaller corpora might suffice if rather frequent forms (such as grammatical items) are

studied (McEnery and Wilson (2001), as cited in Flowerdew, 2012, p. 4). Flowerdew

(2012) also stated that the biggest corpora with more general purposes tend to contain

between 100 and 500 million words, whereas smaller and specialized corpora usually

have from 50 to 250 thousand words. The following chapter will predominantly focus

on the bigger, general-purpose ones and provide a selection of the currently available

corpora.

2.2. Available Corpora

This section will examine the more prominent corpora that have been created over the

years. It will by no means provide an exhaustive list of them, but rather concentrate on the

ones relevant for the research overview presented in the following chapter and for the

analysis itself. This section will begin with supplying more detail about the British

National Corpus, as it will be used (both directly and indirectly) in the analysis.

2.2.1. British National Corpus

The British National Corpus (BNC) belongs, as its name suggests, to the domain of the

national corpora, which are supposed to encompass as many aspects of a country’s

26
national language as they can (Lüdeling & Kytö, 2008). The BNC was completed between

years 1991 and 1994 and its main goal is to provide as comprehensive coverage of modern

British English as possible (Lee, 2010). For a long time, it has also been regarded as

“the gold standard for British English” (Thomas, 2016, p. 11). It includes approximately

100 million words, which makes it one of the so-called “mega-corpora” (Lee, 2010).

These words belong to both spoken and written registers; the written part makes up

for approximately 90% of the corpus, while the spoken domain covers the remaining

10%. The corpus includes text and transcribed recordings cover the time period from the

early 1960s to 1993 (Lüdeling & Kytö, 2008). As indicated by Lee (2010), the spoken

part consists mainly of transcribed conversations recorded by a substantial number

of people.

What makes the BNC tempting to use is the feature called part of speech tagging7, which

is used for the whole corpus (Liu, 2011). Apart from this, also text types8 are

distinguished. Written text were selected based on domain, time and medium while the

spoken part was assembled on the grounds of demographic and context-governed criteria

(Lüdeling & Kytö, 2008). However, this system was later expanded by David Lee (2001),

who created the so-called David Lee’s Classification of text types, which is “generally

found to be more useful than the original system” (Thomas, 2016, p. 41). In total, 70 text

types are distinguished, where 46 of them are written registers (such as academic prose,

essays, letters, newspapers or novels) and 24 belong to the spoken domains (e. g. TV

or radio broadcasts, conversations, lectures, or speech). According to Lee (2010),

this classification is one of the aspects that makes the BNC very interesting for research

projects and was one of the primary reasons for choosing it in this thesis as well.

7
It means that every word is tagged according to its part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, …)
8
For a detailed breakdown of these categories, see (Lüdeling & Kytö, 2008, p. 384-385).

27
After providing the basic information about the BNC, the next part of this chapter will

introduce another three corpora that will be later also mentioned in the third chapter when

dealing with the overview of available research.

2.2.2. Other corpora

The BNC introduced in the preceding paragraphs can be seen as a pioneer of national

corpora, which was followed by other similar projects. Presently, there is a plethora

of national corpora and this group does not only include English varieties, but also Czech,

Polish and Hebrew to name a few (Lee, 2010). A similar project is the freely available9

Corpus of Contemporary American English. (COCA), which focuses on providing

a balanced overview of the current patterns of American English. Therefore, it includes

samples from various genres such as “speech, fiction, popular magazines, newspapers

and academic texts” (Lee, 2010, p.110). However, the spoken component is primarily

made up of broadcast interviews and various shows, which means that “informal

conversation is one area that is lacking” (Lee, 2010, p.110). According to Davies (2008),

it is “the largest freely available corpus of American English”. It can be said that the data

collection for COCA basically started where the BNC ended (Liu, 2011) and it thus covers

the years from 1994 onwards. Unlike the BNC, it is regularly updated and at the time

of writing (March 2018), in includes over 560 million words (Davies, 2008).

Another big corpora project was Collins Birmingham University International Language

Database (COBUILD), which was created mainly with dictionary makers and

grammarians in mind (O’Keeffe et al., 2007). It was assembled already in 1990 (O’Keeffe

et al., 2007) and, as its website10 states, it contains an enormous sum of 4.5 billion words.

COBUILD also has both spoken (everyday conversations, radio and TV material) and

written (books, newspapers, magazines and websites) data, which are updated once in a

9
The free COCA interface is available on the following website: https://corpus.byu.edu/coca/
10
https://collins.co.uk/pages/elt-cobuild-reference-the-collins-corpus

28
month (“The Collins Corpus”, n. d.). The corpus has already served as a starting point

for production of more than 15 dictionaries and grammars and thanks to the success

of this project, it has by now become common that dictionaries and grammar guides are

corpus-based (O’Keeffe et al., 2007). The Bank of English, which can be seen

as continuation of the COBUILD corpus (Lee, 2010), has become an everyday tool

for lexicographers in their research (“The Collins Corpus”, n. d.).

The more generally built corpora described above are of course not the only corpora types

available. As mentioned before, corpora can now play an important role in second

language teaching and learning research. In this field, corpora assembled from English

language teaching textbooks can be of a special importance. One of such corpora is the

Textbook Material (TeMa) corpus. According to its website11, it was built from 32 English

for General Purposes textbooks at the advanced or intermediate level and includes

approximately 724 thousand words. It was built for a specific research project

on phraseology and language learning (“The TeMa corpus: brief description”, n. d.). Each

of the textbook series was then further split into eight subcorpora on the basis of textbook

series, volume (student’s book or workbook) and exercise type (texts, tapescripts,

vocabulary exercises and exercise guidelines) (“The TeMa corpus: brief description”,

n. d.). Corpora like TeMa can then provide a valuable insight into the language patterns

presented in textbooks and allow for a quick comparison with the “mega-corpora” such

as the BNC or COBUILD.

Apart from the corpora mentioned above, there is of course a great number of other

categories of corpora (e.g. learner, parallel or multimodal corpora) and also more

exemplars belonging to the aforementioned categories that might prove fruitful to deal

with. However, as they are not directly relevant for the analysis to come, they will not be

11
https://uclouvain.be/en/research-institutes/ilc/cecl/tema.html

29
discussed in this thesis. What follows instead is a description of the piece of software that

will be used in one of the analysis stages.

2.3. Sketch Engine

While it is good to have a clear idea about the available corpora, it is even more essential

to know how to browse and gather the data extracted from them. Some (e.g. COCA) have

a built-in search interface that allows for basic concordancing and related tasks, while

some of them (such as CANCODE12) are not freely available at all. Although there exist

“at least three public web interfaces to the BNC” (Lee, 2010, p. 110), second part of this

thesis’s analysis will make use of Sketch Engine. It is a corpus query tool that is also

freely available13 for all students and staff members of Masaryk University, as it has been

in development in Brno since 2001 (Thomas, 2016). Originally downloadable software,

it is now a website which includes many corpora of various kinds for approximately 60

languages (Thomas, 2016). Sketch Engine allows for an elaborate exploration of corpora

thanks to many tools that are incorporated in it.

Apart from concordancing and creating various lists as mentioned above, one of the

powerful Sketch Engine tools is the Word Sketch14. Word Sketch is “a one-page profile

of a word’s collocational behaviour” (Thomas, 2016, p. 13). It is presented in a table

which is sorted according to grammatical relations of a given word (such as modifiers,

objects and subjects, prepositional phrases, particles and many more). These tables can

provide “a stunning overview of a word’s paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations”

(Thomas, 2016, p. 13). The most relevant part of Word Sketch for this thesis is the

12
Stands for Cambridge and Nottingham Corpus of Discourse in English – five million word spoken only
corpus containing various recordings; publications related to this corpus can be found here:
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/cral/projects/cancode.aspx
13
The login page of Sketch Engine for Masaryk University can be found under the following link:
https://ske.fi.muni.cz/
14
Word Sketch, as Thomas (2016) stated, is also the main reason why the software has been named
Sketch Engine

30
category of particles, which effectively lists all phrasal verbs formed from a given verb

and the particles listed in Word Sketch. The Word Sketch tool is available for most corpora

included in Sketch Engine and will be used in the previously outlined way in one of the

analysis stages.

After providing the necessary theoretical background for the analysis, it is now time

to turn to research projects where the aforementioned terms and notions were exploited.

The following chapter will thus provide an overview of studies that used a corpus to study

phrasal verbs or similar constructions with respect to textbooks.

31
32
 3. Research Overview
As McCarten (2010, p. 415) states, corpora can influence textbooks intended for second

language acquisition in a number of ways. These include “vocabulary and grammar

syllabus, lexico-grammatical patterns or discourse management” (McCarten, 2010,

p. 416-418). Several studies dealing with the correspondence between corpus data and

typical English textbook content have already been published. This chapter will present

studies that are relevant for this thesis because they either dealt with phrasal verbs to some

extent or made use of the same reference corpus (BNC) as this thesis. From now on, the

abbreviation ELT will be used and will stand for English language teaching.

Koprowski (2005) examined lexical phrases such as kick the bucket or take a picture

in three contemporary textbooks (Innovations, Inside Out and New Headway Upper

Intermediate) using the COBUILD corpus. As this study was concerned with all multi-

word expressions, phrasal verbs were included as well. She found that there very few

expressions shared across all the three textbooks and that very prominent phrases were

missing. Furthermore, he constructed usefulness scores based on corpus saliency of the

expressions and discovered that the more frequent expressions in the textbooks were

rather scarce in the corpus. Another important finding was that the inclusion of the

expressions in the textbooks was largely topic-based and that the so-called utility15 of the

expressions was most likely not taken into account.

Gouverneur (2008) took a similar set of three textbooks (Cutting Edge, Inside Out and

New Headway) and analysed the phraseological patterns of make and take with respect

to the TeMa corpus. Therefore, various collocations as well as phrasal verbs were also

considered. She took intermediate and advanced levels of all the three textbooks

into account and realized that the general patterns mostly resembled the ones found in the

15
This utility corresponds to the usefulness score which is an average on the expression frequencies per
million words in five sub corpora

33
corpus and that their presentation was more or less consistent across the textbooks of the

same levels. However, comparison between levels has yielded “puzzling results”

(Gouverneur, 2008, p. 241). It was indicated that the more proficient learners were

neglected, as much fewer such expressions were included in the advanced level textbook.

Therefore, Gouverneur (2008) remarked that it is not wise to take for granted that those

expressions are problematic only for less experienced learners of English. Furthermore,

the number of shared collocations was determined to be surprisingly low. The author also

examined functions of the studied expressions in textbook exercises by determining

whether they were the exercise focus. They were split into three main categories – direct

focus, indirect focus and no focus. Although the number of vocabulary exercises that

explicitly practised patterns of make and take was high at the intermediate level, it was

substantially lower in the advanced textbooks, as mentioned above. A similarly structured

overview of the use of phrasal verbs will be presented in the final part of this thesis’s

analysis.

The following two research studies used the BNC corpus. Gabrielatos (2006) carried out

a study that was concerned with the comparison of if-conditionals in a random sample

of 1000 if-sentences from the BNC and eleven advanced16 ELT textbooks. Results of the

analysis proved to be mixed. Although basic types of the conditionals were presented in

every book, their distinction was found to be debatable. For example, according to the

author, the difference between zero and first conditionals has nothing to do with modality.

Gabrielatos (2006) thus suggests connecting them into one category. Furthermore,

she found out that the so-called mixed conditionals were extremely rare in the corpus

sample, which suggests that this category, which is frequently introduced in textbooks,

might be obsolete. Perhaps the most interesting finding is that if all the textbook types

16
Level B2 or higher

34
of conditionals were joined into one category, this category would cover only 44%

occurrences of if-clauses in the BNC sample. This led the author to claim that the ELT

typology is “potentially misleading and restricting” (Gabrielatos, 2006, p. 16).

Römer (2004) examined ten central modal verbs in two textbooks used in German

elementary schools. Only grammar points of explicit inclusion of at least one modal were

studied. Once again, several discrepancies were discovered. Some of the modals were

rather overused, while would was found to be significantly underused. Distribution

of meanings in the textbooks was also determined to be inconsistent with the corpus data

with especially can or could expressing ability being highly prioritised in the textbooks,

while may as a possibility was neglected. Furthermore, modal negation was much higher

in textbooks than in the corpus, but some modals were not negated at all. Also the range

of modals used in if-clauses was comparably very low in the textbooks.

As this thesis is centred on phrasal verbs, studies dealing directly with them will be of the

highest importance. Phrasal verbs have been frequently studied in non-corpus or general

corpus based research, but studies including materials intended for teaching English, such

as textbooks, are quite rare (Zafiri & Mukundan, 2013).

Oliveira and Avezedo (2012) analysed all the multi-word verb categories (phrasal verbs,

prepositional verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs) as found in seven textbooks

recommended for high school teaching of English in Brazil. They were mainly concerned

with the terminology of multi-word verbs and the way how they are presented in the

course books. The main conclusion was that the approach towards terminology is

unsatisfactory as the books tend to equate phrasal verbs to multi-word verbs and the

students are left “with superficial and somehow inaccurate information concerning the

language topic” (Oliveira & Avezedo, 2012, p. 14). However, these results were in line

with a questionnaire survey they administrated as also 98% of respondents (34 both public

35
and private secondary school teachers) do not consider the multi-word verbs distinctions

to be important.

The previous study made no use of corpora, unlike the one done by Zafiri and Mukundan

(2013). They examined the phrasal verbs patterns in five Malaysian secondary school

textbooks with BNC being the reference corpus. They gathered a corpus based on data

extracted from the textbooks and all instances of phrasal verbs were included in the

analysis. Surprisingly, they found out that the number of phrasal verbs noted was more

or less indirectly proportional to the textbook level. The authors also observed that many

of the phrasal verbs (such as fill in, sound out, write down) were used mainly to give

instructions and thus without any learning purpose. What they found concerning is the

very low amount of repetition, as most of the phrasal verbs they found tended to have a

rather low number of hits. Like Koprowski (2005), also Zafiri and Mukundan (2013)

remarked that the selection of phrasal verbs tends to be primarily topic-based

without taking other objective criteria (such as frequency counts) into account. However,

they added that this is not necessarily a negative thing as the thematic focus can also have

pedagogical benefits. On the positive side, many phrasal verbs were found to be shared

across many (often all) of the five studied textbooks.

But the two most important studies for the rest of this thesis are the following ones.

Gardner and Davies (2007) have created a list of the most frequent phrasal verbs in the

BNC. They relied on the system of tagging incorporated in the BNC and decided

to include all two-part verbs which consist of a lexical verb and an adverbial particle (both

with their corresponding tags). Particles both adjacent to their lexical verbs and separated

by one or two words from them were permitted. Gardner and Davies (2007) claim that

by focusing solely on frequency, they can eliminate intuition and bring objectivity

into design of teaching materials (p. 342). The main output of their work was producing

36
a list of the 100 most frequent phrasal verbs in the BNC. However, only combinations

including the most common twenty lexical verbs were included, thus possibly eliminating

some very frequent phrasal verbs.

Liu (2011) expanded the work done by Gardner and Davies (2007). He used their data

and assumptions as a starting point and used two corpora – BNC and COCA – to establish

a list of the most frequent phrasal verbs. Liu used a four-stage procedure17

for identification of the phrasal verbs and wanted “to ensure a meaningful comparison”

(Liu, 2011, p. 665) with the work done by Gardner and Davies (2007). Eventually, he

created two separate lists (one for each corpus) of 150 most frequent phrasal verbs.

This number already accounts for 62.95% of all occurrences of phrasal verbs in the BNC

(Liu, 2011), while the top one hundred used by Gardner and Davies (2011) contains

51.4% of phrasal verbs found in the BNC. Various registers (e.g. spoken or written) were

also taken into account, albeit only in COCA. Both the analyses by Gardner and Davies

(2007) and Liu (2011) adopted the same approach towards the inclusion of phrasal verbs

(by permitting all verb + adverbial particle combinations) as this thesis will do. Therefore,

their results are directly comparable and will be further used in the analysis. More

information will be provided in the following chapter, which will also provide more

details about the process.

All of the previously described analyses were primarily concerned with frequency counts,

as they are a very useful guide in building a syllabus (McCarten, 2010). Both the studies

done by Liu (2011) and Gardner and Davies (2007) admit that focusing purely

17
The four stages were the following:
1. searching for all phrasal verb tokens of a lexical lemma
2. searching for the tokens of transitive phrasal verbs used with their particle separated by one intervening
word
3. searching for the tokens of separable phrasal verbs with two intervening words
4. tabulation of the gained results by means of an Excel table
Detailed description of this process is found in Liu (2011, p. 665-666).

37
on frequency might prove too narrow, especially in the case of such a productive

phenomenon of phrasal verbs. Most notably, the studies do not take the various meaning

senses into account. Garnier and Schmitt (2015) wanted to rectify this limitation

by creating the Phrasal Verb Pedagogical List18 (PHaVE list) of the 150 most frequent

phrasal verbs in COCA including the overview of their prevalent meaning senses.

The author claims that this list covers over 75% of occurrences of phrasal verbs in the

COCA corpus. All the three aforementioned lists can be enormously helpful

for practitioners, as their focus on the most common phrasal verbs offer a clear guidance

for their selection into teaching materials (Garnier & Schmitt, 2015).

Although there is not a great number of studies dealing with comparisons of textbook

patterns of phrasal verbs and the corresponding corpus data, the aforementioned ones

have all shown rather substantial discrepancies between results of their research and the

actual occurrences of phrasal verbs in ELT materials. Koprowski (2005) found out that

there was no phrasal verb that would be shared across all of her three studied textbooks.

Furthermore, Zafiri and Mukundan (2013) concluded that “both the selection and

presentation of phrasal verbs are inconsistent with their actual use in the BNC” (p. 1821).

Oliveira and Azevedo (2012) remarked that “the textbooks fail in basic definitions”

(p. 15) of multi-word verbs. All in all, virtually every single one of the previously

mentioned studies discovered rather substantial inconsistencies. Although each of the

studies was majorly based on different textbooks and also corpora to some extent, it might

still be useful to keep this trend in mind throughout the remainder of this thesis.

The aforementioned research studies have shown that it is possible to examine the patterns

of various constructions, such as phrasal verbs, in a number of different ways. Some, such

as Zafiri and Mukundan (2013) decided to focus solely of frequency. Others tried to also

18
The complete list is freely available under the following link:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/0B7FW2BYaBgeiMkphZXFOM2V2bTA

38
take other criteria into account, either by measuring utility of each expression

(Koprowski, 2005) or by examining their role in textbook exercises (Gouverneur, 2008).

Also a variety of corpora have been used – BNC, COBUILD, or TeMa being some of the

examples listed here. However, most of the studies included one or two layers of analysis.

This thesis will add a third layer by considering also the types of texts where the most

frequent phrasal verbs occur both in the corpus and the textbooks. The other two layers

will be inspired by the frequency lists proposed by Liu (2011) and Gardner and Davies

(2007) and the division according to exercise focus offered by Governeur (2008).

The following chapter will provide more details about this process.

39
40
 4. Methodology
The following paragraphs will set the stage for the last part of this thesis that will provide

an analysis of phrasal verbs content in three contemporary English textbooks. The main

aim of the analysis will be to study the patterns of use of phrasal verbs in the textbooks

and compare them to the data gained from the BNC. The analysis will be partly based

on corpus data as well as on the studies carried out by Liu (2011) and Gardner and Davies

(2007). In the following sections, the methods and processes that were used

for the subsequent analysis will be introduced and described. Altogether, this part of the

thesis will specify how this thesis is going to answer its three main research questions,

which are essentially specifications of the main aim that was stated above. The three

research questions are listed below.

(Q1) What are the most frequent phrasal verbs in the textbooks compared to the BNC?

(Q2) In what types of texts and spoken interactions are phrasal verbs used in the

textbooks compared to the BNC?

(Q3) In which ways are phrasal verbs used in the textbooks?

After formulating the aim and research questions of this thesis’s analysis, it is now time

to turn to the reference corpus, textbooks and the process of the phrasal verbs selection

that are going to be used will be introduced. The aforementioned aspects will now in turn

be presented in the following paragraphs.

4.1. The Reference Corpus

The reference corpus for the analysis will be the BNC that was introduced in 2.2.1.

It could have also proven fruitful to select other corpus such as COCA, but the BNC was

chosen based on two primary considerations. First, it offers a comprehensive view of the

British variety of English and is thus better comparable to the textbooks that are all British

as well. And secondly, thanks to the classification of texts and audio materials provided

41
by David Lee (2001), it has a great tool that allows a detailed breakdown of various both

spoken and written registers. For example, although Liu (2011) was also concerned

with comparison of registers in his COCA analysis, there are only five genres

distinguished by the COCA interface. In contrast, the David Lee´s Classification available

in the BNC enables selection from seventy different categories of registers. The analysis

carried out in this thesis will make use of the so-called BNC World Edition,

which includes corrections of text type and parts of speech tags as well as the introduction

of the David Lee’s Classification (O’Keeffe et al., 2007). The version that is going to be

used is labelled bnc2 (main) in Sketch Engine and contains 96,048,950 words.

4.2. The Analysed Textbooks

As in some of the previously mentioned studies, three widely used textbooks were chosen

for the analysis. They include Insight, Maturita Solutions and New Headway 4th Edition.

The analysis will only be concerned with student’s books and take the intermediate level

volumes19 into account as that is the most relevant level for the secondary school

environment. Maturita Solutions contains several pages that offer sample B2 exam

exercises, which indicates that the B2 level according to the Common Reference

Framework of Reference for Languages20 (CEFR) is the target of the textbooks. Maturita

Solutions and New Headway ranked as the first and third most frequently used English

course book in the school year 2016/2017 in a questionnaire survey administered

by Sládková (2017). Insight was not included in this survey but was chosen because of

its availability and the author’s personal experience. This survey was sent to 518

secondary schools in all regions of the Czech Republic (Sládková, 2017). Furthermore,

it has been assured that distribution of secondary school types (e.g. gymnázium, střední

19
The precise names of these volumes are Insight Intermediate, New Headway Intermediate and Maturita
Solutions Intermediate
20
More information about the CEFR levels can be found for example under the following link:
https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/level-descriptions

42
odborná škola) remained equal (Sládková, 2017). However, responses came from only

70 institutions, thus making barely 13.5% of the originally approached amount of high

schools (Sládková, 2017). Therefore, the survey results should be taken with a certain

level of discretion, but the trends might still be interesting to observe.

All the three previously mentioned textbooks were published by Oxford University Press

but the differences between them are substantial enough that they allow for inclusion

of all the three books in the analysis. Each of them also possesses the accreditation of

Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports which enables them to be used in Czech

secondary schools. The following sections will provide a brief account of each of those

textbooks. All the factual information was taken from the textbooks themselves and it

was inspired by the comments on syllabus classification by Nunan (2001). As this thesis

focuses on phrasal verbs, the role of grammar and lexis (and thus structural features or

structural syllabus) in the textbooks will be of main importance.

4.2.1. Maturita Solutions

Maturita Solutions is, according to Sládková´s (2017) survey, by far the most used

textbook in Czech secondary schools. Its Intermediate volume was used 38 times out of

76 responses in the penultimate year of studies and in 36 cases out of 78 in the final year.

So around half of the Czech secondary schools included in the survey is making use of

this book. This analysis will study the first edition of this textbook which was published

in 2008, making it one of the newer textbook series on the market. What makes it

particularly interesting for Czech teachers and students is the inclusion of English-Czech

wordlist on Student’s MultiROM and sections dedicated specifically to Czech maturita

exam preparation in the Workbook. Maturita Solutions uses the skill-based syllabus and

is split into ten topic-based units which are further divided into eight parts based on their

focus – Vocabulary and Listening, Grammar, Culture, Grammar, Reading,

43
Everyday English and Writing. Each such part should correspond to one classroom lesson.

As the units evolve around a given topic, the need for context is stressed. It is established

by a set of vocabulary together with listening and other activities.

Each lesson has two main grammar points, but the textbook is not primarily sequenced

according to them. All in all, the textbook aims to develop all four skills by means of

various interactive tasks that are clearly set into a context and have a clear outcome.

Therefore, it would be difficult to pinpoint one particular syllabus type, as components

of many of them are present in the textbook. For the purposes of this thesis, the most

essential finding will be that the structural aspects are not dominant21. The book also

contains fourteen pages devoted to B2 exam practice as well as reviews and skills round-

ups after every two units. In addition, grammar and vocabulary builders for each lesson

are attached at the end of the textbook.

4.2.2. New Headway 4th edition

The Headway textbooks have been traditionally popular among Czech teachers, which is

confirmed by the fact that they were vastly represented in Sládková´s (2017) survey.

In the questionnaire responses, it was recorded as being the third most frequently

employed textbook in both of the final secondary school years. The thesis will deal with

the fourth edition of this textbook which was published in 2009. The Student’s book

of New Headway contains its traditional number of twelve units as well as many

supplementary materials. These include writing exercises for each unit, tape scripts of all

the listening exercises, grammar references and word list corresponding to the units they

were taught in, grammatical verb patterns together with a list of irregular verbs and

several more extra materials to be used in class. Every unit is clearly structured according

to the grammar points, which fluently connect to the ones presented in the next units.

21
However, the grammar and vocabulary builders located at the end of the textbook are rather structurally
focused

44
Also vocabulary is systematically presented, which means that New Headway might serve

as a good example of the structural syllabus. Functions are integrated into both grammar

and vocabulary and all these aspects should together develop the four language skills.

4.2.3. Insight

Insight was published in 2013 which makes it the newest out of the three selected

textbooks. To date (April 2018), no more editions were published. Its young age is

probably the primary reason why Insight does not appear in the survey conducted

by Sládková (2017) at all. However, in the author’s own experience, it is a book which is

successfully used by a significant amount of secondary schools. Insight is also built

around skill based syllabus and contains ten units. They are divided into five parts 22 –

Reading and vocabulary, Grammar and listening, Listening, speaking and vocabulary,

Culture, vocabulary and grammar and Writing.

Each unit is followed by a two-page vocabulary review and after every even lesson,

a cumulative review of all things covered previously is provided. After the final

cumulative review, ten more pages containing vocabulary banks are included. Every

lesson is centred on the language skill, which are all explicitly anchored in the syllabus.

It also includes strategies of how to approach various tasks (especially in the case

of listening, reading and writing). Furthermore, the sequence of grammatical points is

also rather clear, which indicates that Insight integrates the skill-based syllabus with the

features of the structural one.

4.3. Selection of Phrasal Verbs for the Analysis

The aforementioned textbooks were then used for the selection of phrasal verbs, whose

occurrences will serve as the material for the analysis. The verbs were manually extracted

from the textbooks according to the procedure described below. The term “phrasal verb”

22
Beginning of each part is indicated by a capital letter

45
will be used in line with the definition introduced in 1.1.1., which is compatible with the

definitions formulated by Gardner and Davies (2007) or Liu (2011), thus admitting all

combinations of a lexical verb and an adverbial particle. All of the three student’s books

were studied as a whole, unit by unit. All exercises were taken into account, including

each listening exercise and, in the case of Insight, also materials found on the

accompanying DVD. All reviews, skill round-ups, vocabulary and grammar builders,

exam preparation exercises as well as extra writing or speaking materials were taken

into account. On the other hand, the following textbook items were excluded from the

analysis: dictionary entries (with the exception of cases where the lemma itself was

a phrasal verb, then the lemma was included), lists of irregular verbs, word lists, grammar

references, syllabus and all notes related to the syllabus or textbook content. However,

it is highly debatable whether those parts of the textbook would contain any phrasal verbs

at all. When a recording was subsequently transcribed in a textbook, the phrasal verb

(or verbs) found in the recording were counted only once, unless the transcription served

for the purposes of a different exercise.

After mentioning where the phrasal verbs were looked for, it will now be discussed how

they were identified and what were the subsequent criteria for their inclusion in the

analysis. Although some definitions include the idiomacity of phrasal verbs, this thesis

will take both fully opaque (such as turn up = appear) and fully literal (give away) types

of phrasal verbs into account. In the author’s opinion, determining the degree

of idiomacity of phrasal verbs would bring a subjective criterion into the selection process

as the categories of phrasal verb senses tend to be rather fuzzy. This standpoint was also

adopted by researchers mentioned in the third chapter of this thesis. Claridge (2002)

claims that “idiomacity, after all, does not emerge out of nowhere, but is based in some

way or other on the regular patterns of the language (p. 47)”, thus supporting this

46
approach. It is also more in line with the aims of this thesis to give an overall picture

of impact of phrasal verbs on textbook materials rather than focus solely on the more

idiomatic examples.

In order to distinguish phrasal verbs from the other types of multi-word verbs or free

combinations, a selection of tests was used. First and foremost, it was checked whether

there are one or two particles following the phrasal verb candidate. If two were found, the

verb was automatically discarded from the analysis, thus eliminating all possible phrasal-

prepositional verbs. The second step was to rule out prepositional verbs and free

combinations. To do this, a selection of tests was performed according to the given

phrasal verb’s transitivity. As far as intransitive verbs are concerned, the object omission

and adverbial insertion tests were done in order to label the verbs accordingly and rule

out prepositional verbs. In the case of transitive verbs, tests of object movement

and pronoun placement were carried out. The aforementioned tests, which were all

outlined in the preceding sections, proved sufficient to rule out basically all unsatisfactory

combinations. However, it should be remarked that some of the tests, and especially the

last one, might prove a bit ambiguous as “some people are more willing to accept

adverbial insertion in certain instances than others” (Darwin and Gray, 1999, p. 80).

Therefore, two dictionaries that will be introduced at the end of this section were used as

the final measure.

What remains is to comment on some possible leftover free combinations. The author

adopted the more lenient and inclusive approach by including also constructions such as

come back or go down in their literal senses, although some of them would not satisfy

one of the criteria presented by (Quirk et al., 1985). However, this less strict approach is

by no means a non-standard one in both general linguistic and more pedagogically aimed

research. Most of the studies mentioned in the third chapter adopted a similar attitude

47
towards phrasal verb delimitation, most notably the work done by Gardner and Davies

(2007) that will be further used in the analysis

Of course, there were both many clear-cut cases and also some less apparent ones among

the phrasal verbs found in the textbooks. Those that were more uncertain were then further

confirmed by consulting two dictionaries dedicated to phrasal verbs. These were Oxford

Phrasal Verb Dictionary for Language Learners (2006) and Useful Dictionary of Phrasal

Verbs that was created by Martin Manser (2017). The aforementioned two publications

were also used when in doubt during final decision making and their classification of the

particles was preferred in such cases. If a phrasal verb candidate was not included in either

of them under the corresponding sense and simultaneously showed signs of being a free

combination, it was subsequently removed from the analysis.

It has also been decided not to include nominalized forms of phrasal verbs (such as in

“The try outs for the team were successful”) and expressions that tend to form a single

syntactic unit as a whole (such as make up one’s mind). On the other hand, all gerunds

were included as it is often difficult to maintain whether their nominal or verbal

characteristics are prevalent. All phrasal verbs were then lemmatized to provide a clearer

picture of the data. This means that go on, going on and went on were all classified as

go on. Liu (2011) sees this as a possible limitation, but without the lemmatization, it could

prove difficult to find a considerable amount of the same phrasal verbs’ forms in the

textbooks.

To conclude the description of the selection process, it should be noted that, based on the

definition of phrasal verbs introduced in 1.1.1., there is not a complete overlap between

the phrasal verb terminology adopted here and in the textbooks. Some textbooks exercises

contain expressions that are referred to as phrasal verbs, but not all of them are completely

in line with the definition used in this thesis and such exemplars are not included in the

48
following analysis. A good is example of this is the exercise six on page 29 in Maturita

Solutions. Students are asked to match five phrasal verbs – find out, carry out, look after,

get on with, work out – with their definitions. Although all five of them are labelled as

phrasal verbs by the textbook, only three – find out, carry out and work out – meet the

previously mentioned criteria for being phrasal verbs and thus being included in the

analysis. The rest is understood as belonging to the category of either prepositional (look

after) or phrasal-prepositional (get on with) verbs in this thesis. However, prepositional,

phrasal-prepositional and other possible multi-word verb combinations apart from phrasal

verbs will not be considered in the analysis.

4.4. The Analysis Process

After providing the basic information about the gained sample of phrasal verbs from the

textbooks, the subsequent analysis will be done in three stages, where each one

corresponds to one of the research questions outlined above. The first two parts of the

analysis will use corpus data, which will be compared to the phrasal verbs patterns found

in the three aforementioned textbooks. The textbooks will be compared both individually

and collectively to the BNC data. The third part will be solely concerned with the

individual textbook comparison. The analysis will make use of tables presenting the data

and accompanying comments. For the sake of consistency, all values in the tables

containing non-integer numbers will be rounded to two decimal places23. All three stages

will be divided into three sections, one for each textbook. Although the cross-textbook

comparison is not the main focus of the analysis, such layout will inevitably lead to some

comparisons of the textbooks as well. More detailed description of the three analysis

stages is provided below.

23
With one exception that will be explicitly stated

49
 4.4.1. First stage

The first analysis stage will be concentrated on comparing the frequency counts of phrasal

verbs in the BNC and the textbooks, which is represented by the research question (Q1).

The first part of the analysis will be based on the main outputs of the studies carried out

by Gardner and Davies (2007 and Liu (2011). The main focus will be frequencies of the

phrasal verbs identified in the textbooks. The verbs were grouped together according

to the procedure outlined in 4.3. and count for each phrasal verb was determined.

Afterwards, a list sorted according to the counts was developed for every textbook. In the

first part of the analysis, these lists will be confronted with the list24 compiled by Liu

(2011) and differences in positions on those two lists will be specified as well.

In determining the extent of the 150-verb list that will be compared to the textbooks,

a number of the most frequent phrasal verbs in the textbooks that will be admitted further

had to be established. A compromise between having a large enough sample and not

ending up with too long a list had to be considered. In the end, it was that the textbook-

based list included in the text should contain more than 15 entries, but less than 30.

As many phrasal verbs found in the textbooks share the same number of occurrences, it

would not be possible to come up with a precise number that would be the same for all

the three textbooks. Therefore, the limit for a minimal number of occurrences was set

at four, which yielded a satisfactory number of entries. Three tables (one for each

textbook) containing phrasal verbs that appeared at least four times will therefore be

compared with the Liu’s (2011) list in three sections, where each will correspond to one

of the textbooks.

24
This list was described in the third chapter

50
 4.4.2. Second stage

The second analysis section will focus on text types, which are represented by David

Lee’s Classification25 in the BNC, therefore concentrating on the research question (Q2).

Because corpora consist of authentic texts or recordings, the phrasal verbs that appear

in fabricated textbook exercises or instructions will not be admitted into this part of the

analysis. Therefore, only such instances of phrasal verbs that appear in articles

and various texts, recordings and extracts from them will be included. It should be noted

that an occurrence in a listening exercise or a written text does not necessarily mean that

the phrasal verb will be assigned to a spoken or written domain, respectively.

It is also worth pointing out that this thesis will not investigate whether a text or recording

is truly authentic, but will instead refer to anything that has an authentic-looking form26

as authentic. Although, for example, a conversation containing a phrasal verb (or phrasal

verbs) might be printed out in a textbook, this thesis takes into account the register (in this

case one of the spoken ones) which best corresponds to the one used for actual production

of the verb (verbs) and the language in general. Therefore, to give another example,

a transcribed dialogue will be assigned to the spoken register, while a short story that is

only read aloud to the written register. Furthermore, an inclusive approach has been

adopted, which means that as many exercises as possible have been included.

For example, short stories or articles that simultaneously function as a gap fill exercise

and other similar types of exercises have been included as well.

In order to provide an as meaningful comparison as possible, a lower-end threshold for the

number of phrasal verbs occurrences in the textbooks had to be established. It was

essential to find a compromise between having enough occurrences of a given phrasal

25
Link containing the complete overview is repeated here: http://rdues.bcu.ac.uk/bncweb/genres.html for
reader’s convenience
26
Various articles, TV or radio news, discussions, face-to-face conversations and so on

51
verb and having enough distinct phrasal verbs. It has been decided that this threshold will

be five27. Because each of the textbooks will be dealt with in the analysis, this limit has

to be applied to each textbook separately while keeping the threshold equal for every

textbook. The phrasal verbs28 that passed the aforementioned threshold were then

searched for in the BNC and the text types they appear in were noted. The Word Sketch

tool incorporated in the Sketch Engine was used for generating the phrasal verbs. In order

to verify the results, a random sample of 250 concordance lines (which is the default

Sketch Engine pre-set) was manually analysed in order to rule out possible unsatisfactory

constructions. The number of so deleted items was then proportionally applied to the

whole result provided by Word Sketch. In addition to this safety measure, all instances

of verbs followed by two particles (labelled phrasal-prepositional verbs in this thesis e.g.

put up with) were automatically excluded from the analysis.

What proved to be problematic was assigning the appropriate labels provided by David

Lee’s Classification to the textbook exercises. Although his selection of various registers

is rather broad, it is obviously not absolutely tailored to the typical textbook texts

or recordings. Therefore, some compromises had to be made. As this classification lists

a total of 16 newspaper categories, which would be very difficult to distinguish from each

other in the textbook texts, it was decided that they will be joined into one category for the

purposes of this analysis. The same procedure was applied to all non-academic

and academic prose types of texts, lectures, essays and letters.

If this had not been made, the textbook types would cover only about 16 of the 70 registers

proposed by David Lee. Nevertheless, it still remained difficult to properly classify some

types of textbooks texts and recordings. After the aforementioned adjustment, 40 out of

27
This yielded 18 phrasal verbs in total, while lowering the threshold to four would result in adding only
five more phrasal verbs and three was deemed to be simply too low to provide a reasonable comparison.
28
The complete list of the admitted phrasal verbs is provided in 5.2.

52
the original 70 registers have remained. The BNC Audio Index29was studied in order to

find the most suitable spoken registers, while samples from various less clear-cut written

registers were examined in order to obtain the best way of textbook exercise

classification. Although the corpus types might not totally correspond with the ones found

in the textbooks, at least the language used should be the closest as possible. The way

of classification obtained was then consistently applied across all selected exercises in the

three textbooks. The classification of the originally unclear cases is provided in the table

below. The clear cases such as adverts or letters are not included to keep the table shorter.

DLC stands for David Lee’s Classification, DLC tag for the text type abbreviation that is

used in the BNC. All those labels can be found under the following link:

http://rdues.bcu.ac.uk/bncweb/genres.html or in the BNC itself. An asterisk denotes that

the further subclasses of the given category were joined into one.

29
The complete BNC Audio Index is available under the following link:
http://bnc.phon.ox.ac.uk/transcripts-html/

53
 Table 1: Assignment of phrasal verbs to the text types distinguished by David Lee (2001)

Textbook text type DLC DLC tag

articles focusing on biography W_biography
factual information about
a person or persons
articles dealing with newspapers W_newsp_*
current affairs or
specified as newspapers
all written narratives novels and short stories W_fict_prose
articles centred around essay W_essay_*
the writer’s opinion
helpline submissions instructional texts/DIY W_instructional
all other articles popular magazines W_pop_lore
all conversations (both face-to-face conversations S_conv
face-to-face and
telephone)
speakers giving their TV or radio discussions S_radio_discussn
opinion on a topic
prepared radio planned speech, either S_speech_scripted
programmes with only dialogue or monologue
one person speaking
description of a picture more or less unprepared S_speech_unscripted
speech, either dialogue or
monologue
all spoken narratives oral history S_interview_oral_history
interviews/narratives

This classification enables to compare text types of phrasal verbs occurrences in the

textbooks to the corpus. This will be done in the final chapter of this thesis.

4.4.3. Third Stage

Unlike the first two parts of the analysis, the final one will not rely on corpus data

anymore. Instead, it will focus on the way how the identified phrasal verbs are used in the

textbooks, thus answering the research question (Q3). All instances of phrasal verbs will

be taken into account and split into three categories30 according to their function –

no focus, indirect and direct exercise focus. The first category will largely concur with the

set of verbs that were dealt with in the second part of this analysis and will be labelled as

30
This division was inspired by the one done by Gouverneur (2008)

54
“no focus”. It means that such phrasal verbs located in an article, recording or exercise

are no longer explicitly used in another way. Of course, while students are reading a text

or listening to a recording, they might recognize a phrasal verb or even learn it.

However, as no production31 containing such phrasal verbs is taking place whatsoever,

it can be said that the exercise focus lies elsewhere.

As this delimitation of the “no focus” category produced many phrasal verbs whose

textbook use differs considerably, it has been decided to further split this category

into three subcategories – “authentic”, “exercise” and “instructions”. The “authentic”

subcategory includes the same set of phrasal verbs that have been used in the second stage

of the analysis, with the exception of texts or recordings that also serve as exercises

related to phrasal verbs to some extent. The “exercise” category subsumes verbs that are

included in exercises whose focus lies elsewhere (for example, filling in a suitable modal

verb). The subcategory “instructions” obviously includes instructions for exercises,

but also pieces of text that help learners with certain phenomena, present a strategy or

provide bullet points for further discussion (in short, textbook parts which are not meant

to represent authentic language and where students are only to read how to do something).

“Indirect focus” refers to a situation where a phrasal verb is used in an exercise,

but without explicitly mentioning the term “phrasal verb(s)”. For example, fill in the gap

exercises where one of the words to be filled in is a particle corresponding to the

preceding lexical verb, but which are not serving as a practice of phrasal verbs, fit into this

category. One of the borderline cases was various bullet points usually used to stimulate

discussion or prompts in exercises. Eventually, bullet points/prompts made up purely of

phrasal verbs have been included in the “indirect focus” category, while short sentences

31
Consequently, such phrasal verbs appear only receptively in the exercises

55
containing phrasal verbs appearing as bullet points/prompts have been assigned to the

“no focus” category.

It should be stressed at this point that the analysis will take purely the textbook content

into account, disregarding potential exercise interpretations. Therefore, while a teacher

might use the exercise in a way that explicitly states the term “phrasal verb”, thus making

the exercise unfit for this category. But the analysis will be done on the textbook level

and not on the instructional level, so such possibilities will not be further explored. On the

contrary, “direct focus” means that the term “phrasal verb(s)” is used and learners are

aware that they are practising the use or form of phrasal verbs. Comments to all these

three groups will be provided individually for each textbook. In order to maintain clarity,

the commas in names of the categories (e.g. “direct focus”) will be omitted in the analysis.

Now that all the essential information regarding the analysis process has been provided,

the following and final chapter will be concerned with the analysis itself. It will follow

the procedure described in 4.4. by using phrasal verbs found in the three textbooks

mentioned in 4.2. It will also answer the research questions provided at the beginning

of this chapter.

56
 5. The Analysis
Before proceeding to the analysis steps described in the previous chapter, an overview

of the sample of phrasal verbs extracted from the three textbooks will be discussed and

summarized in three tables. From now on, the term “phrasal verb (verbs)” will be

shortened to “PV (PVs)”. Similarly, the textbooks New Headway and Maturita Solutions

will be referred to as only Headway and Solutions for reader’s convenience in the

following text. Similarly as Gardner and Davies (2007) have done, the particles around

and round will be combined in the following chapters. This is possible because the two

forms “are synonymous and represent mainly a usage variation between American and

British English (Liu, 2011, p. 668). From here on, only round will be used, as it is the

preferred variant in British English (Liu, 2011).

Table 2: Number of PVs and different PV forms in the textbooks

Unique PVs Occurrences Occurrences

Absolute Relative
Headway 102 268 2.29
Insight 110 286 2.04
Solutions 112 336 2.51
Total 19932 892

As shown in Table 2, 892 occurrences of phrasal verbs have been registered in the

textbooks. In total, 199 different PVs make up this number. According to the tabled data,

the amount of different phrasal verb forms is almost the same for every textbook, while

Solutions has by far the biggest number of occurrences (336) and Headway the smallest

(268). However, this is not directly comparable as the textbooks are varying in length.

Therefore, the last column shows the number of frequencies by page, with Solutions once

again having the most. Gardner and Davies (2007) pointed out that in the BNC, PVs occur

approximately once per 150 words. According to them, this can be viewed as “roughly 2

32
Some of the expressions are overlapping across the textbooks, therefore this number is not the sum of
the previous three

57
[occurrences of PVs] per average page of written text” (Gardner & Davies, 2007, p. 347).

This observation is more or less in line with the textbook data, as the textbooks include

marginally more PVs per page. This might be expected given the fact that PVs are

explicitly taught as a term33 in all the three textbooks, which implies some degree of their

concentrated use compared to the much more general BNC, which also includes more

academic text types where PVs are less likely to occur (Darwin and Gray, 1999).

Table 3 summarizes how many lexical verbs and particles are included in the 199 unique

PV forms. It can be seen that their distribution is relatively equal across the textbooks

with Insight including a bit more variety in this aspect.

Table 3: Number of different lexical verbs and particles in the textbooks

Unique lexical verbs Unique particles

Headway 66 14
Insight 73 15
Solutions 66 14
Total 11323 1723

It might be interesting to note that Gardner and Davies (2007) found out that the BNC

only distinguishes 16 adverbial particles, while there have been 17 found in the textbooks.

The ones that are not recognized by the BNC are ahead (go ahead), apart (fall apart),

behind (leave behind), forward (put forward) and together (get together). However, such

expressions comply with the PV definition formulated before and are included in both

dictionaries that were used as a helping hand. On the contrary, across, by and about have

not been identified as adverbial particles in the textbooks at all. That might be not so

surprising though, as across and by only function as adverbial particles in 0.1% of cases,

while about in 6.6% cases (Gardner & Davies, 2007). Instead, they are often more

prevalent in prepositional constructions. Gardner and Davies (2007) also observed that

when the 20 most frequent lexical verbs combine with all the particles, such constructed

33
Further details will follow in the third analysis stage

58
PVs make up for 53.7% of all PVs in the BNC. When this is done in the sample of PVs

extracted from the textbooks, the value is even substantially higher – such PVs account

for 65.7% of all occurrences of PVs in the textbooks. The main reason for this difference

might be the enormous productivity of PVs, which has already been mentioned in 1.1.

As textbooks present a more controlled (and selected) sample of language that should

than be repeated enough so students can acquire it, it follows that there is not so much

space for unusual or newly coined PVs, which have its place in the authentic language.

Complete lists of all PV occurrences sorted according to their frequency for each

textbook34 can be found in Appendix 1.

Table 4 is concerned with the amount of repetition of the identified PVs. Although the

number of phrasal verbs introduced in each textbook (always over 100) might seem rather

satisfying at first sight, sufficiency of their recurrence is perhaps a bit questionable.

After all, Thornbury (2002, as cited in Zafiri & Mukundan, 2013, p. 1828) claimed that

regular occurrences “over spaced intervals35” dramatically increase chances of being

learned.

Table 4: Repetition of PVs in the textbooks (in percentages)

% Once At least four At least five times36

times
Headway 50.98 23.53 14.71
Insight 49.09 21.82 13.64
Solutions 50 26.79 18.75

Table 4 shows that a striking number of approximately 50 per cent of PVs appears only

once in the textbooks and every second PV has thus no repetition at all. As follows from

the last column of table 4, only around 15% of all PVs appear at least five times in each

34
Combined lists for all textbooks can be easily created from these ones, it was decided not to include it
in the appendix due to space constraints and relatively low relevance for the thesis
35
Spaced intervals refer to the fact that there should be short pause(s) between the occurrences
36
The values of four and five were chosen because only PVs occurring four (five) times will be admitted
to the first (second) part of the analysis

59
textbook, which makes it debatable whether such numbers allow for the majority of PVs

to be learned. Thornbury (2002, as cited in Zafiri & Mukundan, 2013, p. 1828) stated that

a minimum number of occurrences allowing for a good chance of remembering a word

should be seven. This indicates that it might prove useful to revisit many of the PVs37

more often in the textbooks. However, the main reason why this table was shown here

(and will be further elaborated) is that it might provide a starting point for a potentially

interesting area of further research related to textbook language and/or phrasal verbs.

Another such area might be a focused cross-textbook comparison, which will also not be

attempted on a higher scale in the following chapters.

The first part of the analysis, which is concerned with frequency counts of the PVs that

were found in the textbook and their comparison to the BNC data, is as follows.

5.1. Frequency counts

The first part of the analysis will investigate frequencies of PVs and answer the research

question (Q1): What are the most frequent phrasal verbs in the textbooks compared to the

BNC? It will be done by providing three sections, each for one textbook. Every section

will follow the same structure and begin with a table containing a selection38 of the most

frequent PV patterns in the given textbook and the corpus. The corpus part (the two

columns on the right) is based on the list of the most frequent PVs created by Liu (2011).

The two columns on the left contain the PVs from the given textbook sorted according

their number of occurrences. Also included are counts of PV occurrences, which can be

found in parentheses. In the middle, a position difference between the PV in the textbook

and the BNC is provided. “X” marks that the given PV is not found in the Liu’s (2011)

list and therefore not one of the 150 most frequent PVs in the BNC. As it is beyond the

37
Frequencies of the individual PVs will be provided in the first part of the analysis; it should be kept in
mind that although some have many occurrences, they are sometimes “crammed” into one page only in
the textbook, which will be indicated in the third analysis stage
38
This selection was described in 4.4.1.

60
scope of the thesis to determine the exact number of words that are included in each

textbook, or building a corpus out of the textbooks, this value cannot be directly compared

(in its relative form) to the BNC data. Liu’s (2011) list can be found in its complete form

(only for the BNC, COCA is not included), in Appendix 1 as well as the full list for each

textbook.

5.1.1. Headway

Table 5 shows that eight PVs that appear at least four times in Headway are also included

in Liu’s (2011) list of the 150 most frequent PVs in the BNC. Those eight PVs account

for one third (33%) of the ones depicted in the table 5.

Table 5: The most frequent PVs in Headway and the BNC

Rank Headway Difference BNC Rank

1 pick up (14) +2 go on 1
2 grow up (12) +51 set up 2
2 work out (12) +14 pick up 3
4 go out (10) +2 go back 4
5 bring up (9) +35 come back 5
6 write down (8) +60 go out 6
7 get up (7) +18 turn out 7
7 give up (7) +16 find out 8
7 take off (7) +38 come up 9
10 find out (6) -2 make up 10
10 sit down (6) +10 take over 11
10 take up (6) +8 come out 12
13 break up (5) +68 come on 13
13 make up (5) -4 come in 14
13 run away (5) X go down 15
16 blow up (4) +101 work out 16
16 come over (4) +83 set out 17
16 cut off (4) +58 take up 18
16 fall out (4) X get back 19
16 look up (4) +10 sit down 20
16 put in (4) +98 turn out 21
16 sort out (4) +21 take on 22
16 turn on (4) X give up 23
16 wake up (4) +46 carry out 24

Only three PVs do not occur among the top 150 ones from the BNC and the first of them,

run away, is ranked only 13th in Headway. Some PVs tend to have rather similar

61
proportional frequency in both Headway and the BNC, especially the ones whose position

difference is 20 or smaller. Ten such PVs can be found in the table, including pick up,

go out and work out which are all very frequent in the textbook as well as in the corpus.

However, some prominent PVs from the BNC are missing in this table. Out of the ten

most frequent PVs in the BNC, only four (pick up, go out, find out and make up) appear

at least four times in Headway. Notable missing PVs are go on, which is the most frequent

in the BNC but appears only once in Headway, and set up, which is second in the BNC

but occurs only twice in Headway. Furthermore, the fourth most frequent PV in the BNC

(go back), is not included in Headway at all, similarly to turn out (seventh in the BNC)

and come up (ninth in the BNC).

On the contrary, some PVs are much more represented in Headway than in the corpus.

Good example is grow up, which the second most used PV in Headway but does not

appear so extensively in the BNC at all. While grow up is used in exercises and texts of all

sorts, write down (sixth in Headway) is solely used to give instructions39, which is

probably why it is not represented so much in the corpus (66th). Other examples of “over-

represented” PVs in Headway are the ones that are taught when talking about

relationships – break up and fall out. The PV blow up also appears much more often

in Headway and is located 101 positions higher than in the BNC, which is the biggest

difference in the table. However, it is only used in one sense in the textbook (blow up

a balloon) and two related exercises centred on the same topic, which explains its

relatively high number of occurrences. Type in has also been identified as having a similar

position difference (+98), but was exclusively used with PIN code as an object. As the

latest additions to the BNC date back to 1993 when paying with credit cards was not as

39
This will be further discussed in 5.3.

62
prevalent as it is nowadays, it is probably expected that such expressions are not so

frequent in the corpus.

5.1.2. Insight

Table 6 that depicts the data gained from Insight lists the same amount of PVs (24)

as the corresponding one for Headway.

Table 6: The most frequent PVs in Insight and the BNC

Rank Insight Difference BNC Rank

1 find out (18) +7 go on 1
2 set up (11) 0 set up 2
3 put up (10) +33 pick up 3
4 give up (9) +19 go back 4
4 wake up (9) +58 come back 5
6 carry on (8) +21 go out 6
6 put on (8) +63 turn out 7
8 go out (7) -2 find out 8
9 get up (6) +16 come up 9
9 grow up (6) +44 make up 10
9 pick up (6) -6 take over 11
9 switch on (6) X come out 12
13 get back (5) +6 come on 13
13 move on (5) +59 come in 14
13 stand up (5) +20 go down 15
16 break down (4) +32 work out 16
16 die out (4) X set out 17
16 dream up (4) X take up 18
16 fall out (4) X get back 19
16 go away (4) X sit down 20
16 go on (4) -15 turn out 21
16 stop off (4) X take on 22
16 switch off (4) X give up 23
16 turn up (4) +22 carry out 24

Seven PVs (approximately 29% out of the ones depicted) are included on both lists,

but the number of PVs that are not included on the list compiled by Liu (2011) is quite

high. In total, there are seven such PVs as well as one (switch on) among the ten most

frequent in Headway. Both these features might indicate that the correspondence

between the two lists might be lower than in the case of Headway. However, all of the

three most frequent PVs in the BNC are included in Insight as well. Furthermore, the

63
position differences in Insight are not nearly as big as in Headway. Still, some of the most

frequent corpus PVs are missing in Insight completely, such as go back (fourth in the

BNC) and turn out (seventh), while come back (fifth) occurs only once in the textbook.

As far as PVs having a maximum of 20 positions difference between their textbook and

corpus ranking, eight such PVs have been identified in Insight. Interestingly, set up is

placed second in both Insight and the BNC and is therefore the only PV in the three

textbooks that retains its corpus position. The dominantly most frequent PV in Insight,

find out, is also frequently represented in the BNC, where it lies on eight place. One of

the reasons why find out occurs extensively in all three textbooks, despite the fact that it

is constantly used in one sense only, might be that it is quite a versatile PV that can appear

in instructions as well as in all sorts of textbook exercises or texts.

Other PVs that are the most frequent in Insight are not so pronounced in the corpus data.

This is especially the case with the PVs put up (third in Insight), wake up (fourth) and

put on (sixth), which are from 33 up to 63 positions higher than in the list made by Liu

(2011). It might be also interesting to observe that both switch on and switch off are not

included on Liu´s (2011) list at all while being present in Insight. These PVs primarily

have “digital” objects in the textbook, such as computer or TV, which might be one of

the reasons why they are relatively less represented in the corpus given its age4041.

Like Headway, Insight also includes the PV fall out, which is also explicitly taught when

dealing with vocabulary related to relationships.

40
It also follows from the BNC data that both turn off and switch off are more frequent than turn on and
switch on, while Headway and Insight exhibit an opposite trend (turn on is more frequent than turn off in
both of them, and Solutions too, as it will be shown, and switch on is more frequent than switch off in
Insight)
41
However, such data also highly rely on circumstances and types of activities during which they were
collected. One of the analyses dealing with this was carried out by Baker (2008)

64
 5.1.3. Solutions

The final textbook left to be discussed in this part of the analysis is Solutions. Its most

prominent PVs are illustrated in table 7 below. Because Solutions includes the biggest

number of PVs, it is not surprising that table 7 illustrating the ones that appear at least

twice contains 30 PVs, thus six more than both Headway and Insight.

Table 7: The most frequent PVs in Solutions and the BNC

Rank Solutions Difference BNC Rank

1 go out (28) +5 go on 1
2 find out (16) +6 set up 2
3 give away (15) X pick up 3
4 get up (14) +21 go back 4
5 look out (11) +54 come back 5
6 act out (9) X go out 6
7 sit down (8) +13 turn out 7
7 take off (8) +39 find out 8
7 wake up (8) +55 come up 9
10 chat up (7) X make up 10
10 work out (7) +6 take over 11
12 break down (6) +33 come out 12
12 go on (6) -11 come on 13
12 save up (6) X come in 14
15 ask out (5) X go down 15
15 come in (5) -3 work out 16
15 grow up (5) +39 set out 17
15 make up (5) -5 take up 18
15 pick up (5) -12 get back 19
15 put away (5) X sit down 20
15 stay in (5) X turn out 21
22 carry on (4) +5 take on 22
22 come back (4) -17 give up 23
22 come out (4) -10 carry out 24
22 fall out (4) X get up 25
22 check in (4) X look up 26
22 set off (4) +30 carry on 27
22 turn on (4) X build up 28
22 turn up (4) +16 go up 29
22 write down (4) +44 get out 30

Twelve PVs (40% out of the 30) are present in both lists, which is the highest proportion

out of the three textbooks. The most frequent PV in Solutions is by far go out, which is

also frequent (sixth) in the corpus, as well as second-placed find out (eight in the BNC).

65
Overall, there are 12 PVs in the table whose position difference is not higher than 20.

While this number encompasses almost half of the PVs in the table, some of the highly

frequent PVs from the BNC are once again missing in Solutions. In particular the second-

placed PV set up, which is represented only twice in the textbook. As in the other two

textbooks, go back (fourth in the BNC) does not appear at all in Solutions, while turn out

(seventh) appears at least once, which is the only occurrence of such frequent corpus PV

in all the three textbooks. Generally, it can be said that the variation of PVs across

Solutions and the BNC is lower than in the case of the other two textbooks, as the largest

position difference is 55 compared to 101 (Headway) and 63 (Insight)

One third of the PVs in table 7 is not found in Liu’s (2011) list, most notably give away,

which is the third most frequent PV in Solutions. However, all of its 15 occurrences

happen on two pages and twelve of them even in one text42. Also the sixth-placed PV

in Solutions, act out, is nowhere to be found among the 150 most frequent PVs of the

BNC. The primary reason for this is the fact that act out is solely used to give instructions

in Solutions, similarly to write down, which is placed 22nd. Another case of this sort is the

fifth-placed PV look out, which is 54 positions up compared to its corpus ranking.

However, this PV is used solely as a heading of the so-called “Look out!” boxes, which

contain explanations and language-related tips, for example about the difference between

say and tell.

In contrast, the fourth-placed PV get up is never used in instructions and is present in the

list made by Liu (2011) as well, which indicates that the PVs that are not used

in instructions correspond with the corpus data rather well. As in the other two textbooks,

grow up and wake up are much more represented in Solutions than in the BNC. PVs

related to relationships appear frequently once again and are represented by chat up (10th),

42
The text is a story about a billionaire who spent his later years by giving away all of his money (the text
can be found on p. 88 in Solutions)

66
ask out (15th) and fall out (22nd) in the table for Solutions. All these PVs do not appear

in the list taken from the corpus.

The first part of the analysis dealt with frequencies of PVs found in the textbooks, while

the second one will focus on the text types they typically occur in.

5.2. Text Types

The aim of this analysis stage will be to identify in what types of texts or spoken

interactions PVs appear in the textbooks and compare these findings to the data from the

BNC. This aim is incorporated in the research question (Q2). As already mentioned

in 2.2.1., the BNC is primarily a written corpus, as approximately 90% of its content is

of a written type. However, the textbooks show mostly an opposite trend, as shown in

table 8. Table 8 provides an overview of three basic text types (written, spoken and non-

authentic) included in the three textbooks; the BNC data are shown as well

for comparison. The values for textbooks and the BNC are shown in rows, while columns

indicate the basic text types. The “non-authentic” category subsumes all parts of the

textbooks that do not have an authentic or authentic-like form, such as instructions or gap

fill exercises. Therefore, such category cannot be represented in the BNC at all.

This category will not be further discussed in this chapter, but will be dealt with in the

last part of the analysis.

Table 8: Overview of the basic text types in the textbooks and the BNC43

% Written Spoken Non-authentic

Headway 24 32 44
Insight 38 30 32
Solutions 21 29 50
BNC 90 10 0

43
Values in this table were exceptionally rounded to integer numbers as no more detailed data for the
BNC were found

67
Table 8 indicates that the non-authentic texts largely make up the majority of all texts of

the textbooks, as they are most numerous in both Headway and Solutions.

Furthermore, both of these textbooks display more PVs in the spoken domain than in the

written one. Insight stands out in both these aspects, as it includes more PVs in written

texts than in the non-authentic ones and spoken situations.

Not all PVs will be taken into account in the following part of the analysis, which was

already dealt with in the chapter describing methodology. The PVs that were admitted

into further discussion in this part of the analysis after applying the threshold of at least

five occurrences in authentic or authentic-like texts or recordings introduced in 4.4. are

listed in Table 9:

Table 9: List of PVs included in the further analysis for each textbook

Headway get up, go out, grow up, pick up, sit down
Insight carry on, find out, get up, give up, go out, grow up, pick up, put
on, put up, set up, stand up, switch on, wake up
Solutions come in, find out, give away, go on, go out, sit down, work out

Table 9 shows that the most of the selected PVs come from Insight (13 in total), which is

perhaps a bit surprising given the fact that Insight includes 52 less verbs than Solutions

but has almost twice as many as Solutions in this table. Solutions has provided seven

verbs, which is more comparable to Headway (five PVs), although Headway lacks a full

70 PVs compared to Solutions. However, when looking at table 8, such result might be

expected as it largely corresponds with the amount of PVs in the non-authentic category

(last column). It is also observable in the table that only one PV (go out) is shared among

all the three textbooks. As Insight has substantially more “authentic” PVs than the other

two textbooks, it follows that the selected PVs cannot be largely similar for all the three

textbooks. However, four of the five PVs from Headway are found in Insight as well.

The subset of PVs taken from Solutions does not correspond with Insight, as only two

out of seven Solutions’ PVs are included in Insight too.

68
After a careful collection of data for each PV depicted in table 9, it has become clear that

representation of the results that would be comprehensible and concise enough not to take

up too much space would be difficult. Therefore, the main features of the data were

summarized into one table for each textbook, which will be presented in the beginning

of the corresponding section. Each table contains six columns in total and the first one

(to the left) lists the PVs for each textbook. The second column contains the text or spoken

interaction type according to David Lee’s Classification (DLC Type). The third and

fourth columns contain information about the textbook position44 of the genre and the

percentage of how many times the PV appears in this genre in the textbook respectively.

Finally, the last two columns include the same information with respect to the BNC.

Each PV has two rows45 dedicated to it – the first one primarily lists the most frequent

genre in the textbook, whereas the second one does the same for the BNC. They also

provide the position and percentage of the given medium’s46 most frequent genre in the

other medium. The genre selected for the upper row is always the most frequent one in the

textbook, while the genre represented in the lower row is the most common one in the

BNC. The full tables for each PV can be found in Appendix 2 and they will be referred to

during the analysis process.

5.2.1. Headway

As described before, each section will start with a table containing the most important

regarding the genres47 that the given PVs appear in most frequently, as does table 10

for Headway. The table was compiled from the tables H1-H5 that can be found

44
After determining genres of the given PV, they were counted and the same genres were added up. Then
the genres were sorted according to their frequencies (1 st is the most frequent), thus obtaining positions of
all the genres; the same was done for the BNC
45
In some cases, there is one row (because both the textbook and the BNC share the same most frequent
genre) or three rows (because the most frequent textbook genre is tied)
46
The term “medium” will refer to either the given textbook or the BNC in this chapter and “media”
collectively to both
47
Genres will collectively refer to both text and spoken interaction types from now on

69
in Appendix 2. It is the shortest textbook-specific table of this chapter as it includes

merely five PVs.

Table 10: Prevailing genres where PVs appear in Headway compared to the BNC

PV DLC Type48 Headway Headway BNC BNC Percentage

Rank Percentage Rank
Get up S_interview 1 60 28 0.13
W_fict_prose x x 1 44.42
Go out S_conv 1 33.33 2 18.99
S_brdcast_discussn 1 33.33 11 1.41
W_fict_prose x x 1 29.78
Grow up S_conv 1 27.27 8 3.75
W_fict_prose x x 1 23.66
Pick up S_speech_unscripted 1 44.44 10 1.47
W_fict_prose x x 1 37.99
Sit down W_pop_lore 1 83.33 7 3.23
W_fict_prose 2 59.11 1 59.11

As seen in table 10, the BNC part of the five PVs is mostly unified. All of them are most

often found in fictional prose in the corpus, which is predominantly not reflected

in Headway. The written domain in general is not so dominant in Headway, as four of the

five PVs are most used in one of the genres belonging to the spoken domain. The fiction

genre appears only once in the textbook thanks to the PV sit down, but even in this case

it is only represented in one of its six occurrences. All its other occurrences are

in magazine-like articles, which are a genre that is seventh most frequent in the BNC,

which indicates that sit down is included in more or less the same text types in both

Headway and the BNC.

The same cannot be said for the remaining four, as the genre of fiction is missing among

their occurrences in Headway. Therefore, this information will not be repeated but kept

in mind throughout the rest of this section. However, some similarities can still be found.

For example, the PV go out is largely frequent in face-to-face conversations in both

48
Complete list of categories distinguished by David Lee (2001) is linked here once again for reader’s
convenience: http://rdues.bcu.ac.uk/bncweb/genres.html

70
media. It is not only its prevalent genre in Headway, but the second most frequent one in

the BNC as well. This PV is equally frequent (in Headway) in broadcast discussions as

well. This genre is also relatively well represented in the BNC, as it covers at least over

1% of all occurrences of the PV. Go out has also been identified in one of the essays

in Headway, but this genre is more marginal in the BNC (29th).

Grow up has been spotted in six genres in total, which is the highest value for Headway

and some of the genres are often found in the BNC as well. Apart from conversations,

which were the most represented and Headway and are ranked eighth in the BNC, also

biographies, newspapers and magazine-like articles are among the top seven in both

media, thus indicating a great similarity of genres. However, this PV is not so common

in spoken interviews in the BNC (17th), whereas it was the second most frequent genre

in the textbook.

The final two PVs that are left to discuss – get up and pick up – mostly exhibit lower

genre correspondence than the previous three. The most characteristic genre of get up

in Headway is the one of spoken interviews, which is in contrast rather marginal in the

BNC (28th), where it accounts for only 0.13% of all cases. Its only other genre in the

textbook, broadcast discussion, is also not so prominent in the BNC (11th), although it is

not as negligible as the previous one. But still, the most prominent genres of get up in the

BNC are fiction, conversations and non-academic texts, which are all nowhere to be found

in Headway. Genres of pick up in Headway display more variety, as it has been identified

in four of them. However, the two most frequent Headway genres, which are both spoken

– unprepared speech and narrative – are not exactly the most represented ones in the BNC,

as they rank respectively 10th and 13th there. Only the category of magazine-like articles

is more frequent in both media, as it ranks fourth in Headway and fifth in the BNC.

71
The three most typical genres for this PV in the BNC are fiction, non-academic texts and

conversations.

The following section will deal with Insight and it will be the most prominent one of

this chapter.

5.2.2. Insight

By far the most numerous sections of this analysis stage is the one of Insight, where

13 PVs are represented. Table 11 shows the genres where they appear the most in both

Insight and the BNC. It is a shortened version of the tables I1-I13 that are enclosed

in Appendix 2.

Table 11: Prevailing genres where PVs appear in Insight compared to the BNC

PV DLC Genre Insight Insight BNC BNC Percentage

Rank Percentage Rank
Carry on W_fict_prose 1 25 1 17.95
S_brdcast_news 1 25 25 0.27
Find out S_interview 1 30 32 0.14
W_fict_prose x x 1 30.88
Get up W_pop_lore 1 40 5 4.33
W_fict_prose x x 1 44.42
Give up W_pop_lore 1 50 5 8.54
W_fict_prose 2 12.5 1 26.26
Go out S_interview 1 33.33 21 0.35
W_fict_prose 2 16.67 1 29.78
Grow up W_biography 1 50 7 6.91
W_fict_prose x x 1 23.66
Pick up W_pop_lore 1 40 5 7.35
W_fict_prose 2 20 1 37.99
Put on W_pop_lore 1 66.67 4 5.68
S_conv x x 1 31.47
Put up S_conv 1 60 3 12.62
W_fict_prose x x 1 19.52
Set up S_interview 1 33.33 26 0.12
W_non_ac* x x 1 21.63
Stand up W_pop_lore 1 60 7 3.45
W_fict_prose x x 1 64.3
Switch on S_speech_unscripted 1 80 17 0.32
W_fict_prose x x 1 44.92
Wake up S_speech_scripted 1 33.33 x x
W_fict_prose x x 1 41.31

72
Once again, is it clearly visible from table 11 that vast majority of the PVs are most

commonly used in the category of written fictional prose. This category is prevalent in the

BNC in 11 out of the 13 cases depicted above. Like Headway, Insight does not exactly

follow this trend, as nine out of 13 PVs are not found in such genre in Insight at all.

What seems to be the prevalent genre in Insight is the one of magazine-like articles, where

five of the PVs appear the most. It is also indicated that the spoken domain is more

represented in the textbook, as five PVs appear primarily in one of the spoken genres,

whereas there is only one such instance in the BNC. There is only one verb in Insight that

corresponds with the domination of fictional prose in the BNC, namely carry on.

One quarter of its occurrences is in fiction, which is comparable to almost 18% in the

BNC. However, other genres do not correspond so well. Carry on is often found

in broadcasts and spoken interview (tied 3rd) in Insight, but these genres are only marginal

in the BNC (25th and 33rd, respectively).

Other PVs that are frequently included in fiction in both Insight and the BNC are give up,

go out and pick up. All these PVs are predominantly found in fiction in the BNC, while

their occurrences in this genre are the second most frequent in Insight. It is also shown

in the table that give up is very frequent in magazine-like articles in both media, which is

also the case for go out and pick up. Give up is also represented in broadcast discussions

and letters (both tied 2nd) in the textbooks, but these categories are scarce in the BNC (38th

and 26th, respectively). The same goes for go out, which is most frequently found

in spoken interviews in Insight (2nd), but this category is not so pronounced in the BNC

(21st).

Another PV that mostly appears in rather similar genres in both media is put on. It appears

most frequently in fiction in Insight, which is the fourth most frequent category in the

BNC. Furthermore, magazine-like articles are the second most frequent genre for this PV

73
in both media. Although the aforementioned genres are similarly frequent for the both

media, put on is mostly found in spoken conversations in the BNC, where it is totally

missing in Insight. As indicated in table 11, both put up and stand up primarily occur

in fictional prose49 in the BNC, which is a genre that they are not included in Insight.

However, the other genres (two for each PV) they are represented in Insight are common

in the BNC as well. Put up is primarily situated in face-to-face conversation in Insight,

which is the third most common genre in the BNC. The second most frequent Insight

genre for this PV is magazine-like articles, which are on fourth position in the BNC.

Stand up is frequently found in magazine-like articles (1st in Insight, 7th in the BNC) and

newspapers (2nd in Insight. 5th in the BNC) in both media.

The remaining PVs (find out, get up, grow up, and wake up) have rather mixed

correspondence between their most prevalent genres. Find out has been identified in six

genres in Insight, which is, together with carry on, the largest number in this chapter.

However, its most frequent Insight genre (spoken interviews) is one of the least common

ones in the BNC (32nd). This PV is also found in broadcast documentaries (2nd) and

discussions (4th) in Insight, while these categories are once again much less pronounced

in the BNC (12th and 27th, respectively). It also does not appear at all in fiction in Insight,

which is the prevalent genre in the BNC. However, find out often occurs in face-to-face

conversations (2nd in Insight, 7th in the BNC), biographies (4th in Insight, 8th in the BNC)

and magazine-like articles (4th in both) in both media.

Get up appears primarily in magazine-like articles in Insight, which is a category that is

also common in the BNC (5th). The PV is also frequent in conversations in both media,

as it is the second most typical genre in both of them. However, its other two prominent

Insight genres –documentaries and prepared speech (tied 2nd) – are rather marginal cases

49
It should be noted that the proportion of this genre for stand up is over 64% in the BNC, which is the
highest value from all the data gained from the corpus. This makes its Insight absence even more striking

74
in the BNC (38th and 26th, respectively). Once again, fiction has been found the most used

genre in the BNC, but there was no such case in Insight.

Although grow up is frequently found in biographies in both media, the other genres that

this PV appear in differ a great deal among Insight and the BNC. The situation of

switch on is similar. It often occurs in face-to-face conversations in both Insight (2nd) and

the BNC (4th), but the dominant textbook category (unprepared speech) is only the 17th

most frequent in the BNC. One third of occurrences of set up in Insight is in spoken

interviews, which is a genre that is represented in substantially under one per cent of cases

in the BNC. This situation is the same for all its other textbook genres apart from

magazine-like articles, which are frequently represented in both media. This PV is often

found in non-academic and academic texts as well as in newspapers, which are genres

that are absent in Insight for this particular PV.

Wake up is also found in rather different genres in each medium. Although it is frequently

represented in magazine-like articles in both Insight and the BNC, the most frequent

Insight genre (prepared speech) is not represented in the BNC at all, which is interesting

given its much bigger size. It is also found in letters and instructional texts in the textbook,

which are also marginal categories in the BNC (each makes up for only about 0.1% of all

occurrences of the PV). The most frequent BNC genres for wake up are fiction, face-to-

face conversations and non-academic texts, all of which are not present in Insight at all.

The last textbook that is left to be discussed in this chapter is Solutions, which will be the

focus of the following section.

5.2.3. Solutions

As already stated in the introductory part of this chapter, the amount of PVs in Solutions

lies between Headway and Insight. Therefore, table 12 will present the seven PVs

from Solutions that have passed the aforementioned threshold of at least five textbook

75
occurrences in authentic texts or recordings. Complete tables for each verb (S1-S7),

which were used as a basis for this table, are enclosed in Appendix 2.

Table 12: Prevailing genres where PVs appear in Solutions compared to the BNC

PV DLC Type Headway Headway BNC BNC Percentage

Rank Percentage Rank
Come in S_conv 1 60 2 15.31
W_fict_prose x x 1 34.57
Find out W_pop_lore 1 33.33 4 8.34
W_fict_prose 2 16.67 1 30.88
Give away W_pop_lore 1 100 3 13.90
W_fict_prose x x 1 24.55
Go on S_consult 1 40 29 0.18
S_conv 1 40 2 12.14
W_fict_prose x x 1 36.92
Go out S_conv 1 57.14 2 18.99
W_fict_prose 2 21.43 1 29.78
Sit down W_fict_prose 1 40 1 59.11
Work out W_pop_lore 1 80 4 9.31
W_fict_prose x x 1 16.71

All of the seven PVs depicted in table 12 are primarily used in fictional prose in the BNC.

This is a comparable situation to both tables 10 and 11, primarily to the one depicting the

PVs in Headway, as there every single PV is most frequently situated in this genre as

well. Solutions again presents a bit of a different state of affairs, as only three of the seven

PVs appear in fiction. Magazine-like articles seem to be prevalent in the textbook as three

PVs are primarily used in this genre, which is followed by face-to-face conversations

(two PVs).

Although the genre of consultations50 has not been identified in the other two textbooks,

it is the most frequent genre where go on appears in Solutions and is also included among

the genres where sit down occurs. Sit down is also the only PV whose dominant Solutions

genre is fiction. In addition, both media share the second most frequent genre – face-to-

face conversations. This is quite an unusual case, as sit down is the only PV in the analysis

50
In Solutions, it is represented by a doctor giving advice to his patient (p. 40 and 42)

76
whose two most prominent genres are the same in both the textbook and the BNC. Apart

from the aforementioned genres, the two other identified textbook ones51 are rather

peripheral in the BNC, as they together account for only 0.34% of all occurrences.

Other PVs that feature representation of fiction in both media are go out and find out.

As well as sit down, go out also has the identical two most frequent genres in both

Solutions and the BNC, but in a reversed order. It is also the PV with the most occurrences

(14) in this chapter. Most of them appear in face-to-face conversations, which is the

second most frequent category in the BNC. As stated before, the dominant category in the

BNC is fiction, which is in turn the second most typical one in Solutions. Also narratives

are well represented in both media (4th in Solutions, 7th in the BNC), whereas the genre of

letters, which accounts for two of the 14 occurrences, is rather marginal in the BNC (32nd).

As far as find out is concerned, it is most typically found in magazine-like articles in the

textbook, which is its fourth most typical genre in the BNC. Four genres are tied on second

place and among them is also fiction, the prominent BNC genre. However, the other three

genres – interview, prepared speech and narrative – are not so frequent in the BNC

(especially the first two) and they together cover just over 1% of all occurrences of

find out.

All the remaining PVs are not represented in fiction in Solutions at all. Work out has been

identified in two genres in Solutions, where both of them are written, which is an unusual

case in the textbooks. It is most typically situated in magazine-like articles in Solutions,

which is the fourth most prominent category in the BNC. It has been also found in an

advert in the textbook, but this genre is not so represented in the BNC (19th). Come in is

located in three genres in Solutions and all of them are in turn spoken. Prevalent are face-

to-face conversations, which are very frequent in the BNC as well, as they occupy

51
both of them are spoken – consultations and interviews

77
2nd place there. Not totally infrequent in the BNC are also broadcast discussions (11th),

which is the second most frequent genre of come in in Solutions together with interviews.

However, spoken interviews are not so typical for the occurrences of come in in the BNC,

as they account for only 0.33% of its occurrences (23rd position). Interesting case is the

PV give away. As indicated in 5.1.3., all of its occurrences in Solutions are concentrated

on one page and centred on one article. Therefore, it is not surprising that all its authentic

occurrences in Solutions come from only one article and thus all belong to the genre

of magazine-like articles. It is quite frequent in the corpus as well, as it is its third most

prominent genre.

All the aforementioned PVs have displayed a rather good correspondence of genres

at least in the case of their most prominent one (or ones) in Solutions. This does not hold

up so well for go on. It is found most in consultations in Solutions, which is a peripheral

category in the BNC (only 29th). It is also prominent in face-to-face conversations, which

rank 2nd in the BNC and this category is therefore well represented in both media. Its third

genre in Solutions, which is the one of interviews, is not typical in the BNC (26th). Instead,

apart from fiction and conversations, the most frequent genres in the BNC for go on are

newspapers and non-academic texts.

While the previous two analysis steps have contrasted textbook findings to the corpus

data, the final stage of the analysis will be primarily concerned with the way PVs are used

in the textbooks.

5.3. Functions of PVs in the Textbooks

As already indicated, the main aim of the last analysis chapter will be to study how PVs

are used in the textbooks, as formulated in the research question (Q3). Table 13 shows

a breakdown of the three main categories – no focus, indirect and direct focus.

Specifications of the no focus category are not included here in order to provide a clearer

78
overview and will be discussed in more detail in the sections corresponding to the

individual textbooks.

Table 13: Distribution of PVs into textbook exercise types according to their focus
(in percentages)
% No focus Indirect focus Direct focus
Headway 78.11 0.75 21.13
Insight 78.67 9.44 11.88
Solutions 73.89 8.61 17.51

A trend is visible – most of the PVs (around three quarters of them) appear in parts of the

textbooks where the focus lies elsewhere, which is to be expected. It should also be noted

that the proportion of PVs situated in this category is more or less the same for all the

textbooks. Direct focus is prevalent over the indirect one in all the three textbooks, albeit

to a different degree in all of them. The difference between those categories is particularly

pronounced in Headway, which includes almost no “indirect” PVs at all, while the

indirect and direct focus categories are relatively balanced in Insight. The reason for the

more explicit focus in Headway might well be its syllabus, which is the most structural

one out of the three textbooks. Solutions includes a larger amount of explicitly presented

PVs than Insight primarily because the textbook contains substantial amount of pages

dedicated to grammar and vocabulary practice following its ten units.

What follows now are three sections devoted to the individual textbooks, which will

include all the categories delimitated in 4.4.3. Like the previous chapters, also one will

also follow the same format for every textbook.

At the start of each textbook section, a table showing distribution into the three categories

of PV use (no focus, indirect focus, and direct focus) will be provided and these three

categories will then be discussed individually. The authentic subcategory of the no focus

category will not be dealt with any further as it was already the main concern of the

previous chapter. As far as the category of instructions is concerned, Zafiri and Mukundan

(2013) said that PVs with instructional functions are “far from pedagogically exploited”

79
and likely not to be caught by student attention as formats of the exercises “indicate what

the students are required to do” (p. 1824). Therefore, the no focus category will be

discussed rather briefly and more attention will be devoted to the indirect and direct focus

categories instead.

5.3.1. Headway

Table 14 indicates that the division of PVs in Headway is rather imbalanced, although it

follows the trend of all the three textbooks.

Table 14: Distribution of PVs into exercise types according to their focus in Headway
(in percentages)
No focus Indirect focus Direct focus
78.11
Authentic Exercise Instructions 0.75 21.13
55.85 13.96 8.30

What is interesting at first glance is the very low percentage of PVs in the indirect focus

group, which is compensated by a significant amount of PVs in the direct focus class.

More than a half of all PVs belongs to the authentic category, which has already been

studied in the previous analysis section. All the categories except for the authentic one

will now be discussed in more detail below.

5.3.1.1. No focus.

The class of instructions, which makes up for approximately one tenth of this category,

includes primarily the prototypical examples such as act out, fill in, or write down, which

already indicate what the following exercise will be about. The only two PVs standing

out are hold on and wake up – the first one is included in a box which helps students

with phenomena occurring in spoken English; in this case the use of just. The latter one

80
is part of an example how to start the Fortunately, Unfortunately game52, which is

suggested as a lesson starter.

Exercises with no focus on PVs contain approximately twice as many exemplars as the

instructions class and cover a variety of tasks. Such used PVs can be found in eight out

of the ten units and also in extra materials intended for writing exercises. The most

frequent PV in this category is go out, which appears four times in completely different

exercises (choosing a correct verb form, matching, making and rewriting sentences).

This already indicates that variety in this subclass is large, but given the fact that it is not

centred on PVs, it does not justify its elaborate description in this thesis. Therefore, only

a brief description of this category (such as the one above) will also be provided for the

remaining two textbooks.

5.3.1.2. Indirect focus.

This is the smallest section of the whole chapter, as only two PVs have fallen into it –

put up and take off. They are both used in multiple choice gap fill exercises where learners

are to select which verb form fits into the provided gap:

(13) His plane took off/has taken off a few minutes ago. (p. 35)

(14) Dan asked his mum put up/putting up/to put up his Australian friends. (p. 63)

Therefore, the main focus of both these exercises was the form, more precisely the tense

of the PVs in question. Such an extremely low amount of PVs in this category suggests

that the authors of Headway wanted to present PVs in a more explicit way than the other

two textbooks, which is indicated in table 14. This is most likely closely tied to its

syllabus, which exhibits the biggest tilt towards the structural features.

52
The game is started by a statement (e.g. I woke up early this morning), students react using responses
with appropriate use of fortunately/unfortunately. For example: Fortunately, it was a lovely day
(description taken from p. 22 in Headway).

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 5.3.1.3. Direct focus.

First of all, it should be noted that Headway has the biggest percentage of PVs belonging

to this category out of the three textbooks. In total, 56 explicitly presented PVs have been

identified in Headway. This is not a small number; however, all those PVs occur in only

two lessons and three textbook pages in total. Five of the PVs are used in a reading

exercise (p. 35), which is a rare example in this category as it is one of rare examples

of PVs in an authentic piece of text. Six sentences are provided next to the text with one

verb in bold and the task is to find a phrasal verb in the text that has the same meaning

and replace the verb in bold with it, for example:

(15) Electronics items increase the value of the rooms. (p. 34, the corresponding

phrasal verb in the text is push up)

Thus, the focus of this exercise is clearly the meaning of the given PVs, which are

included in the text. No options or other explicit clues are provided, so students have to

search through the text on their own to find the PVs. This implies that students need to

know how PVs are formed as well and find all the lexical verb + particle combinations,

which is the simplest definition of PVs that was provided in 1.1.1.

The following page (36) is completely devoted to PVs and includes four53 exercises

explicitly dealing with PVs. Two of the exercises are dealing with meanings senses

of take off, bring up, cut off and pick up. The task is to identify which meaning is literal

and which idiomatic, as in the following example (p. 36, ex. 2):

(16a) The village was cut off by the floods.

(16b) Hello, hello? I can’t hear you. I think we’ve been cut off.

(16c) She cut off a big piece of meat and gave it to the dog.

53
There are five such exercises on the page, but exercise four is not included here as it only contains
prepositional verbs per definition formulated before

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This exercise also stresses meaning and indicates that PVs can have various meanings,

both literal and idiomatic. This can be seen as a more student-centred approach compared

to the ones found in Insight or later stages of Headway, where dictionary entries listing

all the meanings are often provided and students only read them. Here, their task is to

work out the meaning(s) based on the context.

The following exercise provides seven sentences with PVs54 and introduces the term

“separable PVs”. All sentences include an object in italics that is to be replaced with

a personal pronoun, two sentences are given as an example in the textbook, with one

of them being the following:

(17) He turned on the light. – He turned it on. (p. 36, ex. 3)

The remaining five sentences are then left to be done by the students. Students need to be

aware where the pronoun object is placed in the case of PVs, which is something that was

discussed earlier in 1.2. Thus, the focus here is on form and the use of pronouns, which

reinforces students’ notion of the correct word order. There is also exercise dealing with

inseparable PVs, but such constructions are labelled prepositional or phrasal-

prepositional verbs in this thesis.

The final exercise on this page dealing with PVs is a set of seven sentences with a gap

that is to be filled in with one of the four particles (with, up, to, after) that are provided

in a box above the sentences, but only combinations with up satisfy the definition of PVs

in this thesis. Apart from previously practised look up, give up, and pick up, take up is

included as well:

(18) Have you recently taken ____ any new sport or hobbies? (p. 36, ex. 5)

This exercise once again stresses the form of PVs, where a particle is required in order

for the lexical verb to “work” as a PV in the given context. Some awareness of meaning

54
turn on, take off, take up, pick up, look up, bring up, give up

83
is also needed here in order to assign the particles correctly, but this task functions most

likely as a reminder of some previously learned PVs, as the PVs have already been

introduced before at some point (and the vast majority of them in the previous exercises).

The rest of PVs in the direct focus category are found on page 92, which is concerned

with PVs with the particles out and up. Like page 36, it is also a vocabulary practice

and phrasal verbs are mentioned in its heading. The page begins with dictionary entries

for three PVs – work sth out, work out and make sth up. Students are about to read them

and answer the following three questions: What are the verbs? What do sth and sb stand

for? Which groups of phrasal verbs are separable and inseparable? This is basically the

only such theoretical exercise that focuses more on the metalanguage than on the actual

presentation or practice of PVs. With answers to the previous questions in mind, students

are then asked to fill in eight sentences including a gap (or gaps) with the correct form

of one of the aforementioned PVs:

(19) Sherlock Holmes ____ who committed the crime. (worked out; p. 92, ex. 2)

The main aim of the exercise is to practice the PVs introduced through the dictionary

entries before. Both meaning and form are important here, as various tenses are included

in the answers. A bit freer practice of the PVs is provided in exercise five, which will be

discussed (soon) below.

The next exercise (3) introduced eight more PVs55 containing out or up. It is a matching

exercise where learners match the PVs in the left column with short expressions provided

in the right column. For example, eat up is to be joined with all your greens be healthy

and break up should be combined with with a boyfriend/girlfriend. It follows that

meaning is the key here, as students have to work it out based on the context

(the expressions in the right column). Exercise number four then uses the PVs introduced

55
find out, break up, eat up, eat out, save up, sort out, take up, fall out

84
in the previous exercise and lists eight sentences with a word or phrase in italics, which

is replaceable with one of the PVs. Students are reminded that they should use the correct

form of the PVs:

(20) Have you discovered why you didn’t get the job? (found out; p. 92, ex. 4)

The aforementioned exercise provides a controlled practice of the PVs from the exercise

number three and students have to primarily remember their meanings in order to

correctly replace the phrase in italics, but the form is not neglected either as various tenses

are included

The final exercise discussed from Headway is more open, as its task is to finish eight

sentences containing PVs in “any suitable way” (p. 92) while working with a partner.

Examples of two of them are listed below:

(21a) I need to sort out... (p. 92, ex. 5)

(21b) I’ve just found out that..... (p. 92, ex. 5)

This exercise can be seen as a freer practice of the PVs introduced earlier on the page.

However, the PVs are already provided, which means that the students get to practice

mainly their meanings, as there is no space for changing the given PV.

5.3.2. Insight

Table 15 depicts the breakdown of the use of PVs in the exercise types of Insight.

Table 15: Distribution of PVs into exercise types according to their focus in Insight
(in percentages)
No focus Indirect focus Direct focus
78.67
Authentic Exercise Instructions 9.44 11.88
55.94 16.78 5.94

Unlike Headway, Insight includes many more PVs without explicitly mentioning them,

which is indicated by the fact the indirect and direct focus categories contain almost the

same amount of PVs. It is also interesting to observe that the proportion of PVs in the

85
authentic class is the same as in Headway, whereas the category of instructions is by far

the least populated. More detailed description follows in the coming paragraphs.

5.3.2.1. No focus.

The class of instructions in Insight subsumes the least PVs out of the three textbooks.

However, compared to Headway for example, almost none of them are included in the

“typical” instructions. Instead, some of them are used as bullet points to help

with speaking exercises and most of them are included in various strategies (how to write

a letter of complaint, look up idioms in a dictionary, report on findings etc.). This serves

for a relative variety of PVs in this category, as 16 occurrences are made up 11 different

PVs, with find out being the most frequent (3 entries).

Variety is present also in the exercises with no PV focus, as this class of 47 PVs in total

is represented in every unit of Insight, two reviews and most of the vocabulary banks.

Because of this diversity, it is difficult to generalize the findings, but the PVs tend to

occur primarily in vocabulary and writing exercises. Most often, the task of such exercises

is matching or choosing a correct word form. However, this might be down to the

characteristics of the whole textbook.

5.3.2.2. Indirect focus.

The indirect focus category in Insight is not as empty as in Headway, as it contains 29

instances of PVs, which appear in seven units; one review and two vocabulary builders.

In order to concentrate on the more prominent types of exercises, only those that contain

at least two PVs will be discussed. One such exercise is a follow-up task of an article

about an endangered island on page 42. Nine verbs, including PVs wash away and die out,

are highlighted. The task is to complete gaps in the subsequent article with the correct

form of highlighted verbs, therefore the exercise aims to practice the selected expressions

from the article. One sentence from the gap fill article follows as an example:

86
 (22) ...rising sea levels ____ homes and sometimes whole islands... (are washing

away; p. 42, ex. 5)

There is no specific focus on PVs, as most of the highlighted verbs are not phrasal.

Students have to work out their meaning from the text, as no definitions are provided.

There is also only one gap in the sentence intended for the PV to be filled in,

which suggests that the possibly varying object position (as mentioned in 1.2.) is not the

concern here. However, both awareness of meaning and form are important to complete

the exercise.

Another exercise can be found on page 59 and deals with the second conditional. Its aim

is to practice the correct form of the verbs in second conditional. Students are asked to

fill in the gaps in six sentences with the correct form of words in brackets; the PV find out

is used twice as the expression enclosed in brackets:

(23) If Simon ____ (find out) that Jack knows the truth, what ____ (he/do)? (p. 59,

ex. 8)

Given this shape of the exercise, it is not necessary to know the meaning of find out at all

and all the focus lies on its form (tense). This is a bit of a borderline case as the fact that

there is a PV in the brackets instead of a single verb does make virtually no difference

in how the task is approached.

While the previous exercise had established no specific context, the following one is more

focused as it is an interview with eight blanks in it. Its aim is to practice the expressions

have/get something done. The topic is Christmas preparations and students are once again

asked to fill in the blanks with the expressions provided in brackets. Three of them use

PVs – put up is used twice and switch on once:

(24) We ____ (have/it/put up) yesterday, and we ____ (get/the lights/switch on) by

Father Christmas tomorrow. (p. 75, ex. 8)

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As in the previous exercise, also this one is focused purely on form and the notion that

have/get should be in present simple, while the following verb in past perfect tense.

Once again, the particle hardly makes any difference. The last six occurrences of PVs

discussed here are found on page 135 in one of the vocabulary banks. The topic is

transport and therefore it is rather unsurprising that PVs such as slow down, speed up and

take off appear, each of them twice. Their first appearance is in a mind map, which is

focused on four means of transport – “coach”, “plane”, “ship” and “train” – and students

are asked to assign provided nouns and verbs to these categories. The PVs are then also

used in a subsequent gap fill exercise, which is a set of four short stories related to

travelling. While the mind map serves to assign all the expressions to the means

of transport they are most related to, the aim of the second exercise is to practice those

expressions, as in the following example:

(25) ... so the driver ____ to overtake them. (speeded up; p. 135, ex. 2)

The former exercise is focused on meaning, while the latter one primarily on form,

as meanings have already been established and the task now is to fill in the correct form

of the introduced expressions. Once again, the fact that PVs also include particles is not

so prominent here as the PVs are already provided in its complete form and no

grammatical changes happen to the particle. Of course, the direct focus category,

which will be discussed in the next paragraphs, is a bit of a different story in this aspect.

5.3.2.3. Direct focus.

As stated before, the direct focus category in Insight is not as numerous as in Headway

and includes only seven more PVs that the indirect one. These PVs can be found in only

two units and one vocabulary bank, so the term “phrasal verb” appears on only four pages

of the textbook. Furthermore, all their occurrences apart from one exercise are outside

of the unit core, as they are either in the vocabulary/review section or in the vocabulary

88
bank. The first exercise mentioning PVs explicitly is found in the vocabulary section

of unit five. The whole page is dedicated to PVs and it also provides their definition and

division into intransitive, transitive separable and inseparable categories. This already

suggests that the textbook uses the term “phrasal verb” for both PVs and prepositional

verbs. The first exercise uses an extract from a previous listening, which contains six

phrasal verbs that students should find and determine their meaning. However, only

grow up satisfied this thesis’s definition of PVs. Afterwards, dictionary entries for three

PVs containing the lexical verb fall56 are provided and learners are asked to classify them

into one of the aforementioned categories. Those PVs are then used in the next exercise

that contains six questions and the task is to correct possible mistakes, such as in the

example (26):

(26) He has fallen his mother out. (incorrect because fall out is not separable;

p. 66, ex. 3)

This exercise puts focus on form, as the previous assignment into the grammatical

categories of PVs can be used as a checklist to successfully complete the task.

The textbook also asks the students to state reasons for their choices, which was not

explicitly required in Headway. Following the previous exercise, three more PVs

containing the lexical verb put57are introduced once again using their dictionary entries.

After a follow-up exercise where students match four pairs of sentences in order to

construct a mini dialogue, the fifth exercise of the page provides six series of prompts

that are to be arranged in the correct order to make sentences. The prompts use three of the

PVs introduced before – fall through, put sth up and put up sth, but they do not include

particles, which should be deduced by the students:

56
fall apart, fall out and fall through
57
put sb up, put sth up, put up sth

89
 (27) a fight/She/the attacker/put/against (She put up a fight against the attacker;

p. 66, ex. 5)

Both exercises are similar in a way that they both require arranging things into a certain

order. The main difference is that exercise four asks student to form a dialogue and thus

primarily focus on form, exercise number five has a more grammatical focus, as students

need to be aware of the word order of English sentences. Furthermore, the need for adding

particles once again stresses that phrasal verbs need two components to make them

complete.

The final exercise on this page relies on students completely, as it instructs them to look

up three PVs formed from the lexical verb get (get away, get round sb and get sb down)

in a dictionary and then determine their grammatical category and provide an example

sentence for each PV. It is freer in practice than the one before, as no specific requirements

are made. A more authentic text type is used on page 108, which contains an article about

a day in the digital world, where there are seven PVs58 highlighted. They are then used

in a follow-up exercise, which contains eight sentences with phrases in italics. These

phrases are to be replaced with one of the PVs from the article and thus the aim is to

practice the PVs in a controlled way. Students therefore need to study context of the PVs

(which are highlighted in the article) and the aim is to practice the PVs from the article

by using them in the appropriate situation replacing the phrase in italics:

(28) She doesn’t usually talk freely about her feelings. (open up; p. 108, ex. 4)

This indicates that the main focus is on meaning, which is not explicitly defined for the

PVs, but students need to grasp it from the article. This controlled practice of the PVs

from the article also requires use of their correct form. Another exercise where PVs are

explicitly mentioned is a short story about meeting a friend. The story includes six blanks,

58
break down, dig up, hit off, log in, open up, pick on and stress out

90
where either lexical verb or particle of the given PV are missing and should therefore be

filled in. In total, three PVs59 selected from the ones appearing in the aforementioned

exercise are included; one of them is illustrated below:

(29) I met Tom at a party and we hit it ____ immediately. (off; p. 119, ex. 1)

This is the only exercise in all three textbooks that does not completely specify the

element that has to be filled in – this one leaves two options and thus provides two points

of view on PVs in one exercise, which might prove useful. No options are provided;

meaning and from are therefore both important and students get a clear reminder that PVs

consists of two equally important elements. Also the last exercise discussed here can be

seen as having an authentic background, as it is a story about a woman and a famous

politician in Myanmar. The text includes eight PVs60 in total and the task is to find

and match them to definitions provided below the exercise; for example: give in – to admit

that you have been defeated. This exercise is similar to the one on page 108, but this time,

PVs are not highlighted and students need to identify them on their own, while also

figuring out their meanings. The PVs are then not further used in any other way in the

textbook.

5.3.3. Solutions

Table 16 shows that Solutions include a bit less PVs used in authentic texts or recordings,

while more PVs appear in the other no focus subcategories, as it has relatively the most

PVs used in exercises with no focus on PVs and instructions (when compared to the other

two textbooks).

Table 16: Distribution of PVs into exercise types according to their focus in Solutions
(in percentages)
No focus Indirect focus Direct focus
73.89
Authentic Exercise Instructions 8.61 17.51
42.73 17.81 13.35

59
break down, hit off, open up
60
back down, ease off, fight back, give in, step up, take on, throw out and take back

91
It is also the only course book out of the three which has less than half of the PVs in the

authentic texts or recordings. Direct focus is more pronounced than in Insight, but less

than in Headway. More information about the individual categories can be found below.

5.3.3.1. No focus.

The subclass of instructions in Solutions is lengthier than in the other two textbooks,

but does not include much variety. The two most prominent PVs are act out and look out,

which have already been discussed in 5.1.3. and account for one third of the whole

category. It includes also other “phrasal teddy bears” (Zafiri & Mukundan, 2013, p. 1824)

for purely instructional functions such as find out, read out or write down. However, some

of the PVs are included in sentences serving as examples of grammatical phenomena

(reported speech, a little vs little, present simple vs continuous). It is interesting to observe

that the PV get up is often included in such examples.

The subclass of exercises with no focus on PVs is also the broadest in Solutions and is

represented in all but one unit as well as in most of the grammar and vocabulary builders.

They are most often present in grammar builders, while their occurrences in exercises

related to vocabulary practice is rare, especially compared to Insight. Get up is once again

the most prominent PV of this category, this time together with go out. The most common

type of exercise they appear in is generally filling in the gaps or choosing a correct word

form, most often in exercises that practise tenses.

5.3.3.2. Indirect focus.

Although it is not the case in percentages, Solutions includes the most PVs in both indirect

and direct category in absolute terms. The 29 indirectly used PVs are, very much like

in Insight, scattered around the textbook, as they are represented in four units and reviews

as well as in several grammar builders. As in the corresponding section of Insight, only

exercises containing at least two PVs will be further discussed.

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The first of such exercises can be found on page 64. At the beginning of the seventh

lesson, various phrases related to dating and relationships are provided in a box,

which also includes three PVs61 – ask somebody out, chat somebody up and make up.

Students should work in pairs and arrange these phrases into the order that might happen

in a relationship. This is one of rare exercises in the (in) direct categories,

which potentially involves some speaking, as students might need to discuss and argue

their points. The phrases from the box are further used in a following exercise, which is

a story about a couple with fourteen gaps62, which should be filled in with particles, or left

empty:

(30) She said yes, and Zak and Lily went ____ for three months. (out; p. 65, ex. 2)

This exercise has a focus on form, but primarily requires knowledge of the phrases

from the box. This indicates that the aim is not to deal with grammatical aspects of PVs

or other similar expressions, but mainly to practice the phrases related to the topic of

relationships. The next instances of indirectly used PVs are situated in the language

review after units seven and eight. It resembles the previously described exercise both

due to its topic and the use of the same PVs, but this time, the lexical verbs should be

filled in a text with gaps. Interestingly, the correct form of the verbs is already provided

in the box. One of the sentences from this exercise is listed below:

(31) Noah has ____ Scarlett out and she said no. (asked; p. 82, ex. 1)

The form of this exercise supports the previous claim that the expressions are important

here and not their form, as that is already provided in the box. Therefore, this exercise

stresses meanings of the individual PVs related to relationships. Other PVs are included

in a speaking exercise on page 99. Students are asked to describe a picture using words

61
The other potential PVs in this box, such as fall out, are listed with a further particle (with in the case of
fall out) and are therefore considered to be instances of phrasal-prepositional verbs
62
Apart from the aforementioned PVs, this exercise also includes fall out and go out

93
that are provided in a box. Two of the expressions are the PVs look up and look down,

which are both used in their literal senses. The aforementioned exercise is rather

a borderline case in this category, as it is likely that the students would not pay too much

attention to form of those specific words, thus probably not realizing they are in fact PVs.

The last exercise that will be discussed here is situated in grammar builder nine. It is once

again concerned with filling in the blanks in six sentences. Above them, a box containing

six verbs is provided and they should be filled in together with a reflexive pronoun.

The exercise contains two PVs, namely turn off and turn on:

(32) Our heating has a timer switch and can ____ ____ on and off. (turn itself;

p. 125. ex. 2)

As indicated above, both PVs are used in one sentence, which can help students to

remember the correct particles after the lexical verb turn in this meaning sense.

The primary focus and aim here is to fill in the correct forms of pronouns, as the section

of this grammar builder is devoted to them. However, meanings of the lexical verbs are

important as well as they partly determine which of the pronouns (or their forms) will be

used.

5.3.3.3. Direct focus.

Although Headway has a higher proportion of PVs in the direct focus category, Solutions

includes 59 such used PVs in total, which is the highest number in all the textbooks.

However, the PVs appear in three units and vocabulary builders and are concentrated

in only eight exercises, which indicates that exercises with PVs in Solutions include more

of them than the other two textbooks. First of the exercises makes use of the reading that

precedes it and that includes six PVs63. Students should identify the PVs on their own

in the text and then fill in their particles into a set of eight sentences with a gap:

63
find out, go out, set off, sit down, throw away and turn up (twice)

94
 (33) She usually sets ____ for work at 6.00am. (out; p. 21, ex. 3)

This exercise thus reinforces the notion that PVs consist of two clearly different

components. No options are provided, therefore it is essential for the students to identify

the PVs (preferably on their own) in the text. The focus here is on form, as students do

not even need to know what the PV mean in order to fill in the particle successfully,

because they have all the PVs in the previous text.

Another exercise explicitly dealing with PVs that is based on an article is present on page

29. Three PVs (find out, carry out and work out) are highlighted in two texts and the task

is to join them with their definitions provided in one of the follow-up exercises.

Therefore, unlike the previous exercise, this one targets the meaning of the PVs

in question and a context (the article) is provided to help the students to identify it

correctly. The offered definitions are rather brief however; the correct ones of the three

aforementioned PVs are learn, discover (both belong to find out), do and deduce.

The final explicit appearance of PVs in the regular units is on page 60, where a box

containing four intransitive phrasal verbs (break down, carry on, get up and wake up) is

provided. Description of the term of intransitive PVs is introduced64 and one example

sentence is given. Students are also asked to find two more intransitive PVs (go out and

stay in) in a previous dialogue. There are no other PVs in the article, which means that

students do not have to check whether the grammatical properties of intransitive PVs hold

and can purely look for combination of a verb and a particle. No further use of these PVs

is made throughout the rest of the units and PVs appear again only in vocabulary builder

two, which is probably a bit surprising given the fact that the box containing the

grammatical explanation is included, but the term is not further practised.

64
However, its formulation is a bit strange. It states that intransitive PVs do not take a direct object and
that the verb and the preposition cannot be separated – the presence of preposition in this explanation
seems to be a bit off, as the particles included in the box have an adverbial function. Thus, Solutions
seems to refer to what is termed particles in this thesis as to prepositions

95
Vocabulary builder two includes two exercises, which are preceded by a box that

establishes the difference between transitive and intransitive PVs, as also outlined in this

thesis (1.1.1.). Afterwards, students should read six pairs of sentences containing PVs65

and decide which is correct in each pair based on the (un)necessity of an object.

For example: Our car broke down (correct)/Our car broke down the engine (incorrect).

This exercise already makes it necessary to be able to identify the object and thus

distinguish transitive PVs from the intransitive ones. The second exercise starts with

a box that contains four transitive PVs - call back, call off, put away and put on.

These PVs then serve for rewriting sentences that contain a phrase in bold that should be

replaced by one of the PVs:

(34) They cancelled the football match because of the rain. (called off; p. 130,

ex. 2)

The aim of this exercise is not to identify objects or other grammatical phenomena

anymore (as students know that all PVs are transitive), but it transfers its attention to the

meaning of the individual PVs, whose knowledge is vital to complete the exercise.

The following page (131) includes another theoretical box about PVs, which deals

with their separability. This is closely tied to pronoun placement, which has already been

discussed in 1.4. and is one of the useful means of how to differentiate PVs from other

multi-word verbs. The subsequent is made up of seven sentences66 that once again contain

a phrase in bold, which should be this time replaced by a pronoun and moved to the slot

between the lexical verb and its particle, which is the only possible position as stated

in 1.4. An example follows:

(35) Kieran worked out the answer. (worked it out; p. 131, ex. 1)

65
break down, go off and go out
66
Which include the following five PVs: give out, make up, put away, take off (twice) and work out

96
This exercise has a clearly grammatical focus, as the students are made aware where does

the pronoun functioning as the object belongs in the previous box. This exercise thus

provides an opportunity for controlled practice of the previously described grammatical

point and helps students to establish the correct word order when dealing with PVs.

Vocabulary builder six on page 134 repeats the table from page 60 dealing with

intransitive PVs, which is followed by a box containing eight more intransitive PVs67.

They should then be once again used (using their correct form) to replace phrases in bold

in the upcoming set of eight sentences; one of them is provided below:

(36) We returned home from the match exhausted. (came back; p. 134, ex. 1)

This exercise is the “intransitive counterpart” to the exercise two on page 130 with a clear

focus on meaning.

Eight more sentences with phrases in bold are listed in the following exercise, which is

also the last one in this category. This time, PVs are included as well and students should

identify which sentences are wrong and correct them. The sentences include both

transitive and intransitive PVs68. The aim is to practice the difference between transitive

and intransitive PVs by identifying incorrectly used objects; the only necessary

corrections are simply crossing them out. Such as in the following sentence, where the

object in bold is redundant:

(37) The plane did not take off the runway until midnight. (p. 134, ex. 2)

This exercise focuses on transitivity, similarly to the first exercise in vocabulary builder

two. However, this one is more complicated as it includes eight unrelated sentenced

instead of similar pairs, which makes it more difficult to see the incorrect pattern.

67
come back, fall through, give up, go out, grow up, hold on, stand up and stay in
68
come back, get up, grow up, hold on, sit down, stand up, take off and wake up

97
After the results have been presented in the previous chapters, the following chapter will

not only summarize and discuss them, but will also provide their implications for future

research.

98
 6. Discussion
The final chapter of this thesis will be split into three main sections. The first section will

summarize the results, comment on the key findings and relate them to the previously

undertaken research (where applicable) described in the third chapter. The second one

will list some limitations of the analysis or the things that could have been done

differently, while the final one will be concerned with possibilities of future research

in the field of textbook use of PVs and other relevant areas.

6.1. Discussion of Results

The main aim of this thesis was to study the patterns of phrasal verbs in intermediate

volumes New Headway (4th edition), Insight and Maturita Solutions and compare the

findings to the data gained from the British National Corpus (BNC). In total, 892

occurrences of PVs were registered and PVs appeared a little above twice per page

on average.

The first part of the analysis was concerned with the comparison of frequency counts

of PVs in the textbooks and the BNC. It was observed that Solutions had the most PVs

in both the absolute and relative (per page) senses. The analysis then took PVs with

at least four occurrences in the given textbook into account, sorted them according to their

frequency and compared their textbook positions to the ones in Liu’s (2011) list.

The results proved to be rather mixed. After the list of PVs of at least four textbook

occurrences was compared to the part of Liu’s (2011) list including the same number

of PVs, it was discovered that approximately one third (from 29% in Insight up to 40%

in Solutions) of PVs was situated in both tables. Similar percentages of PVs had lower

position difference than twenty among the two lists – from 33% in Insight up to 42%

in Headway. This indicates that Insight has the lowest overall correspondence of PV

frequencies, while Headway and Solutions are rather comparable in this aspect.

99
Although the most frequent PV of all in each textbook was always also among the most

frequent ones in the BNC, some very prominent PVs in the BNC did not appear

sufficiently in any of the three analysed textbooks. Especially striking is the case of

go back (4th in the BNC), which does not appear in any of the textbooks at all, just like

turn out (7th in the BNC)69. In contrast, some PVs, such as find out, go out and pick up,

were determined to be very frequent in both media70. A couple of PVs were also

consistently frequent in the textbooks, while not so prevalent in the corpus; most notably

fall out and wake up.

The study of frequencies seems to be the most prominent area in the research related to

phrasal verbs or other phenomena in the textbooks and their comparison to the corpus

data. The high frequency of the PV fall out or more prominent presence of break up in the

textbooks indicates that the textbook authors indeed tend to present expressions (in this

case PVs) based on the topic and not their lexical verb for example, as Koprowski (2005)

already pointed out. This trend is most observable in Solutions, which also frequently

includes ask out or chat up that are clearly relevant to the topic of relationships.

The mixed results of this part of the analysis were thus to be expected, as the researchers

have already claimed that the outcome of similar analyses was inconsistent or even

puzzling (Gouverneur, 2008; Zafiri & Mukundan, 2013). Zafiri and Mukundan (2013)

also found out that the results were often distorted due to high frequencies of PVs that

function solely to give instructions with no learning objective in mind. This is in line

with the findings of this thesis, as such PVs also appeared here. Examples of them include

act out, look out and write down – once again, primarily in Solutions. Also some of the

PVs appearing frequently in the three selected textbooks for this analysis, such as find out

69
Another PV from the BNC top 10 not present at least four times in each textbook is make up (9th in the
BNC)
70
As in the fifth chapter, the term “media” refers to both the three textbooks and the BNC

100
or work out, have been used for these purposes in many cases. Overall, although many

PVs are frequently included in both media, the methods of the selection of PVs to be

included in the textbooks remains questionable, as many frequent exemplars from the

BNC were neglected.

The second stage of the analysis consisted of the text types and genres where PVs appear

in the both media and their comparison. It was clearly shown in table 8 that while the

BNC is primarily a written corpus, while textbooks are more inclined to use PVs in spoken

contexts. They are dominant in both Headway and Solutions, while Insight includes them

a bit more in written contexts. About one third of all PV occurrences in the textbooks

were in non-authentic or fabricated exercises or instructions and were thus not included

in the analysis, as corpora contain only authentic data.

Only PVs with at least five occurrences in authentic-like textbook texts or recordings

were taken into account. Interestingly, the most PVs that surpassed this limit came from

Insight (13), which has the lowest number of PVs per page out of the three textbooks.

Headway (5) and Solutions (7) are comparable in this aspect, although Headway includes

significantly fewer PVs than Solutions. The most frequent genre in Headway is that

of face-to-face conversations, while magazine-like articles are prevalent in both Insight

and Solutions, and therefore also when the three textbooks are combined together. In the

BNC, fictional prose is dominant as it is the most frequent genre in 23 out of the 25 PV

instances in total. This genre is rather absent in the textbooks, as it is the most frequent

one in only two cases and 15 PVs are not found in this text type at all.

It has to be admitted that this comparison cannot be fair in its every detail, as textbooks

simply cannot include all the genres that the BNC does. However, the main similarities

or differences are still observable. PVs are overall frequently included in face-to-face

conversations and magazine-like articles in both media. The textbooks tend to include

101
a bigger proportion of PVs in genres like interviews, letters or essays and spoken

narratives. On the contrary, apart from the aforementioned fictional prose, newspapers

and non-academic articles from specialized fields are substantially under-represented

in the textbooks compared to the BNC data.

It is understandable that the focus of English textbooks cannot be presenting extensive

amount of fiction or academic articles, some potentially valuable and frequent PVs might

get lost from the textbooks when omitting these genres (as indicated in the frequency

tables in 5.1.). This might be an opportunity for teachers to step in and enrich the textbook

syllabus with supplementary materials that would cover these genres. For example,

students could read English books (or their simplified versions based on their level) and

then prepare a presentation or discuss and interpret its content together in class or in a

written paper. Teachers could also encourage their students to follow news from the

English-speaking world. This might turn out to be a successful way of delivering the parts

of lexical content (not only PVs) that may be perceived as neglected in the textbooks to

the students71.

The final part of the analysis dealt with the function of PVs in textbook exercises.

For such purposes, textbook exercises were divided into three main categories – direct,

indirect and no focus72 on PVs. In each textbook, vast majority of PVs (around 75%)

belongs in the no focus category. The least prominent is the indirect focus category, while

direct focus lies somewhere in between for all the three textbooks. Gouverneur (2008)

established the same three categories when studying textbook use of patterns including

make and take. However, she considered only vocabulary exercises, thus excluding most

of the texts from the no focus category of this thesis. She found out that in her three

71
Such as the PV turn out used in this sentence, which was found to be heavily under-represented in the
textbooks with only one occurrence in all of them combined
72
Because of many very differently used PVs in the no focus category, it was further split into the
following subclasses: authentic, exercises and instructions

102
analysed textbooks (Cutting Edge, Inside Out and Headway), direct focus is dominating

while no focus is virtually non-existent and indirect focus rather negligible. If this thesis

adopted such an approach, the findings would be similar, although the direct focus

category would be not as dominant, which is expected given the narrower scope73 of the

studied phenomenon. Interestingly, when she studied advanced volumes of the textbooks,

the order of the categories was the same as in this thesis despite the different definitions

of the categories.

Although the number of PVs in the no focus category is comparable in all the textbooks,

the other classes exhibit some differences. Headway contains almost no PVs in the

indirect focus category, while having the biggest proportion of direct focus. Insight and

Solutions would have been comparable in this aspect had it not been for the fact that

Solutions includes many vocabulary builder sections after the core units and thus offers

more explicitly mentioned PVs. The trend observable in Headway is given by its syllabus,

which exhibits most structural features out of the three. As far as the actual use of PVs

in the textbooks is concerned, it is rather similar in all three. Almost all the exercises

(with the exception of two) are written and rather controlled with few possibilities for

freer production of PVs.

Focus on both form and meaning is present in all the textbooks, which also all distinguish

transitive and intransitive PVs. Each textbook also deals with the placement of pronouns

and separability of PVs, but their terminology is not consistent74 with the one used in this

thesis. The indirect focus category consists almost exclusively of exercises that require

filling in particles or use PVs in their prompts. There is a lot of gap filling also in the

direct focus category, which combines mainly with replacing a given phrase with the

73
After all, make and take are one of the most frequent English verbs and are also subsumed in many PVs
74
Because they use PVs as the umbrella term for all types of multi-word verbs introduced in the first
chapter

103
corresponding PV, choosing whether sentences containing PVs are correct based on the

PV’s transitivity, or simply matching PVs to their definitions.

It might be perceived as a bit unfortunate that the vast majority of the textbook sections

dealing explicitly with PVs gives a list of PVs and then offers two to four very controlled

exercises of one of the types mentioned above. The exercises also tend to be concentrated

on a very small space (typically one page) and then not to be mentioned for several units.

The most striking example can be found in Headway on page 60. A box presenting the

definition and examples of intransitive PV is provided and students are asked to find

another two such PVs in a dialogue. However, none of the PVs is then used in any explicit

way throughout the rest of the textbook units. Of course, there is a small number

of exceptions to the aforementioned possible shortcomings. However, as it has been

indicated that PVs are very productive and mainly used in less formal contexts, it might

be worth trying scattering them more across the textbook and adding a larger variety

of exercises by allowing students to figure out some patterns by themselves instead of

purely presenting them in grammar boxes. Of course, the aforementioned features are

also dependent on the individual textbooks. Thus, it could be interesting to study other

contemporary English textbooks (preferably with various types of syllabuses) as well.

After pointing out the key results and comparing them to some of the research presented

in the third chapter, it is now time to turn to limitations of the analysis and possible areas

of further research.

6.2. Limitations of the Analysis

Although this thesis might provide a valuable insight into the use of phrasal verbs in some

of the currently most exploited ELT textbooks in the Czech Republic, it inevitably also

has some limitations. The first three are closely tied to the BNC. As the first two parts

of the analysis rely on the part of speech tagging incorporated in the BNC, it should be

104
made clear that this tagging system might have its flaws, thus potentially influencing the

results. However, Gardner and Davies (2007) pointed out that the rate of tagging

inaccuracies in the BNC is 1.58% for adverbial and 0.59% for prepositional prepositions

according to the BNC authors, which is a sufficiently small percentage in the opinion

of Gardner and Davies (2007, p. 342).

Another seemingly problematic aspect might be the division into genres, which was done

in the second analysis stage. Although the division was done very carefully, it is virtually

impossible to achieve one to one correspondence with the categories proposed by David

Lee (2001). Furthermore, it can be hardly assumed that there is the same amount of text

in the BNC coming from all the genres. It should be also remarked that the basic

distribution (spoken/written/non-authentic) varies a great deal between the textbooks and

the BNC. Both of the aforementioned aspects might affect the results. The last BNC-

related aspect is its age, as no texts have been added at all since 1993. However, after

comparing PVs in the BNC to COCA, Liu (2011) concluded that “PV use has remained

fairly stable” and that the lists for both COCA and the BNC “may withstand the test

of time” (p. 671). Furthermore, this thesis has not taken various meaning senses of PVs

into account mainly because it would be beyond its scope had the structure been retained.

As PVs are known to be very productive, it is quite likely that the study of their senses

might provide illuminating results.

The aforementioned limitations are in many cases related to the areas of further research;

some of them will be suggested in the following section.

6.3. Areas of Further Research

This thesis starts with a chapter on multi-word verbs and then goes on to state that only

PVs will be further discussed. Therefore, it might be an obvious choice to extend the

analysis to prepositional and phrasal-prepositional verbs as well, as these categories also

105
include interesting exemplars that might be challenging for language learners all over the

world. Furthermore, all of the three categories of multi-word verbs are often simply called

“phrasal verbs” in the textbooks, as already mentioned above. Because of this, strictly

adhering to one of the linguistic definitions of PVs might seem to be too restrictive from

certain point of view. Oliveira and Avezedo (2012) provided analyses of all the three

main multi-word verbs categories, for example. It was admitted in the section 6.2. that

the various meaning senses of PVs have not been taken into account in the analysis,

so another research possibility would be to compare the prevalent meanings in the

textbooks to the corpus data. Gardner and Davies (2007) used the online lexical database

WordNet75 for determining the number of senses for the 100 most frequent PVs in the

BNC that contain one of the twenty most common lexical verbs. They reached the

conclusion that the average number of meaning senses of one PV is 5.6. However, Garnier

and Schmitt (2015) pointed out that WordNet sometimes tends to generate rather

redundant senses, which implies the need for further studies in this area.

Introduction to the analytical chapter (five) suggested further two aspects which have not

been covered here in the utmost detail – more focused textbook comparison (as this

analysis primarily compared textbooks to the BNC) and the amount of repetition of PVs

(as it has been indicated that it might be not satisfying enough). Choosing other (or adding

more) textbooks or changing the reference corpus (for example to COCA) might provide

interesting results from a bit of a different point of view as well. It could also prove fruitful

to adjust or simplify (for example by merging even more genres to make the comparison

more transparent) the method of comparing the genres that the PVs appear in the

textbooks and the corpus and thus to come up with more generalised results.

75
It can be accessed from the following link: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

106
 Conclusion
The main focus of this thesis was on phrasal verbs. Given the fact that many researchers

are aware of and frequently point out the difficulty of learning, or even mastering, phrasal

verbs, it comes as a surprise that various studies suggest that their selection for textbook

use is rather inconsistent and not reasonably grounded. This thesis tried to shed some light

on their use in three contemporary English textbooks frequently used in Czech secondary

schools – New Headway, Insight and Maturita Solutions. In order to verify whether this

use corresponds to natural language, the thesis made use of data from the British National

Corpus (BNC). Thus, the main aim of the thesis was to study the patterns of use of phrasal

verbs in the three textbooks and compare them to the BNC data.

The thesis offered six chapters in total, where the initial two were theoretical. At first,

a clear line was drawn between phrasal verbs and other types of multi-word verbs. A more

lenient definition of phrasal verbs was adopted, which allowed for a substantial amount

of expressions to be admitted into the analysis. What followed was a chapter on the most

necessary tool of this thesis – corpora. The definition of phrasal verbs used in this thesis

was selected in line with previously undertaken research, which was presented in the third

chapter. The fourth chapter outlined all the vital components of the research methodology,

which was then put in practice in chapter five, which was concerned with the analysis

itself. As this thesis has a practical basis, the analysis formed the central part of the thesis.

Results of the analysis were presented in three subchapters, each corresponding to one

of the research questions. The results were illustrated in tables separately for each

textbook, which enabled a clear overview of data. They were then commented on in the

later paragraphs. The final chapter was the discussion, which not only summarized the

results, but also stated some limitations of this thesis and provided suggestions for future

research in the field.

107
The analysis in this thesis consisted of three main layers, where each had its own research

question76 on which it was centred. The first analysis section dealt with frequency counts

of PVs and compared the ones in the textbooks the BNC-based list put together by Liu

(2011), which includes the 150 most frequent phrasal verbs in the BNC. The second stage

of the analysis was concerned with the comparison of genres where phrasal verbs appear

in the textbooks and the BNC. Finally, the third layer of the analysis departed from the

corpus data and was centred on the function of phrasal verbs in the three textbooks

instead. It is apparent from the results of this thesis that PVs are substantially covered

in all of the three textbooks, as many occurrences of phrasal verbs have been identified.

However, its comparison to the BNC data have shown some discrepancies. The BNC

surely cannot be taken as the only and ultimate measure of the present English language.

However, those differences are sometimes substantial enough that they, together with

some of the conclusions presented in the previous research outlined in the third chapter,

warrant further study in this field.

76
These research questions were the following: What are the most frequent phrasal verbs in the textbooks
compared to the BNC? In what types of texts and spoken interactions are phrasal verbs used in the textbooks
compared to the BNC? In which ways are phrasal verbs used in the textbooks?

108
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http://www.unemat.br/revistas/moinhos/media/files/A_DESCRIPTIVE_STUDY

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113
114
 Resumé in English
This master’s thesis deals with phrasal verbs in three English textbooks that are currently

(April 2018) widely used in secondary schools in the Czech Republic, namely

New Headway, Insight and Maturita Solutions. Phrasal verbs pose a substantial challenge

for both students and teachers, as many languages do not include such constructions at all.

Furthermore, both productivity and versatility of phrasal verbs is so profound that it might

be rather difficult to keep up with all their forms. It should be stressed that phrasal verbs

are studied not only with respect to their presentation in the textbooks, but this thesis is

also concerned with the degree of correspondence between the textbook presentation and

the natural use of phrasal verbs by native speakers. To enable such comparison, the

analysis makes use of data from the British National Corpus (BNC), which is one of the

most comprehensive English corpora that is freely available on the Internet.

The main aim of the thesis is thus to study the patterns of use of phrasal verbs in the

textbooks and compare the findings to the data gained from the BNC. Both frequencies

of phrasal verbs in the textbooks and the text types they appear in are compared to the

BNC will be taken into account. Furthermore, the functions of phrasal verbs in textbook

exercises are also examined. The initial part of the thesis is rather theoretical and presents

the necessary background for understanding the notions of multi-word (primarily phrasal)

verbs and corpora. An overview of available research in the field is then provided.

The overview is followed by the description of research methodology. The crucial part

of the thesis is the analysis itself, where the results are presented step by step. The final

chapter includes a summary of the key findings and their relation to previous research

and outlines some limitations of the thesis and possible areas of further research.

115
116
 Resumé in Czech
Tato magisterská diplomová práce se zabývá frázovými slovesy ve třech učebnicích

angličtiny, které jsou v současnosti (duben 2018) hojně používány na středních školách

v České republice. Těmito učebnicemi jsou New Headway, Insight a Maturita Solutions.

Frázová slovesa představují značnou výzvu jak pro žáky, tak učitele, jelikož v mnoha

jazycích se tento jev nevyskytuje. Počet nově vznikajících frázových sloves a široké

možnosti jejich použití ještě více komplikují průběh učení a činí všechny jejich tvary

těžko zapamatovatelnými. Frázová slovesa nejsou v této práci studována jen s ohledem

na jejich prezentaci ve zmíněných učebnicích. Práce se rovněž zabývá mírou podobnosti

mezi použitím frázových sloves v učebnici a v přirozeném jazyce rodilých mluvčích.

Toto porovnání umožňují data získaná z Britského národního korpusu (BNC), který patří

k nejobsáhlejším volně dostupným korpusům anglického jazyka.

Hlavním cílem této magisterské práce je studovat využití frázových sloves ve výše

zmíněných učebnicích a výsledky porovnat s daty získanými z BNC. V analýze jsou

porovnávány jak četnosti jednotlivých frázových sloves, tak typy textů, ve kterých se

frázová slovesa vyskytují nejčastěji. Dále jsou zkoumány funkce frázových sloves

v učebnicových cvičeních. Úvodní část práce je především teoretická a jejím záměrem

je vysvětlení nezbytného základu pro porozumění pojmům víceslovná (především

frázová) slovesa a korpusy. Poté následuje přehled dosud publikovaných výsledků

výzkumu v oboru. Tento přehled předchází představení metodologie výzkumu použité

v této práci. Stěžejní částí práce je kapitola obsahující samotnou analýzu a postupné

představení jejích výsledků. Poslední kapitola obsahuje shrnutí nejdůležitějších zjištění a

jejich vztah k dosud publikovaným studiím, nástin omezení této práce a možnosti dalšího

výzkumu.

117
118
 Appendix 1

Headway

Table A1: All occurrences of PVs in Headway sorted according to their frequency

Rank PV Count Rank PV Count

1 pick up 14 51 calm down 1
2 grow up 12 51 carry on 1
2 work out 12 51 catch up 1
4 go out 10 51 come in 1
5 bring up 9 51 come on 1
6 write down 8 51 come out 1
7 get up 7 51 dig up 1
7 give up 7 51 fill in 1
7 take off 7 51 get down 1
10 find out 6 51 get out 1
10 sit down 6 51 get together 1
10 take up 6 51 go ahead 1
13 break up 5 51 go away 1
13 make up 5 51 go down 1
13 run away 5 51 go on 1
16 blow up 4 51 hang on 1
16 come over 4 51 have over 1
16 cut off 4 51 hold on 1
16 fall out 4 51 hold up 1
16 look up 4 51 keep up 1
16 put in 4 51 knock down 1
16 sort out 4 51 knock over 1
16 turn on 4 51 leave behind 1
16 wake up 4 51 look round 1
25 act out 3 51 mess round 1
25 come back 3 51 move back 1
25 come round 3 51 pass on 1
25 eat out 3 51 pull out 1
25 get back 3 51 push up 1
25 get on (with) 3 51 put forward 1
25 check in 3 51 run out 1
25 save up 3 51 rush round 1
25 stand up 3 51 send off 1
34 clean up 2 51 send out 1
34 cross out 2 51 set off 1
34 do up 2 51 set out 1
34 eat up 2 51 settle down 1
34 freak out 2 51 snap up 1
34 get round 2 51 spread out 1
34 give away 2 51 sum up 1
34 hand over 2 51 switch off 1
119
34 log on 2 51 take away 1
34 move out 2 51 tear down 1
34 put down 2 51 tell off 1
34 put up 2 51 tidy up 1
34 set up 2 51 try on 1
34 slow down 2 51 turn off 1
34 stay out 2 51 walk away 1
34 stay up 2 51 walk out 1
34 take out 2 51 wrap up 1
51 break out 1
51 bring together 1

120
Insight

Table A2: All occurrences of PVs in Insight sorted according to their frequency

Rank PV Count Rank PV Count

1 find out 18 57 beat back 1
2 set up 11 57 bring up 1
3 put up 10 57 build up 1
4 give up 9 57 call out 1
4 wake up 9 57 carry out 1
6 carry on 8 57 clean up 1
6 put on 8 57 come along 1
8 go out 7 57 come back 1
9 get up 6 57 come on 1
9 grow up 6 57 come out 1
9 pick up 6 57 come round 1
9 switch on 6 57 dig up 1
13 get back 5 57 ease off 1
13 move on 5 57 eat out 1
13 stand up 5 57 fall apart 1
16 break down 4 57 fall off 1
16 die out 4 57 finish off 1
16 dream up 4 57 get away 1
16 fall out 4 57 get down 1
16 go away 4 57 get round 1
16 go on 4 57 give in 1
16 stop off 4 57 hand over 1
16 switch off 4 57 hang on 1
16 turn up 4 57 have back 1
25 give away 3 57 help out 1
25 go ahead 3 57 hold up 1
25 hand out 3 57 cheer up 1
25 hang out 3 57 keep out 1
25 hit off 3 57 leave behind 1
25 open up 3 57 link up 1
25 sign off 3 57 log in 1
25 soak up 3 57 look round 1
25 take up 3 57 make up 1
25 throw out 3 57 pass on 1
25 turn round 3 57 pick on 1
25 turn down 3 57 point out 1
25 work out 3 57 pull out 1
38 back down 2 57 put out 1
38 bring back 2 57 scare off 1
38 close down 2 57 send out 1
38 fall through 2 57 shake up 1
38 fight back 2 57 show off 1
38 give out 2 57 sit round 1
38 go down 2 57 sit down 1

121
38 let down 2 57 stay behind 1
38 look up 2 57 step up 1
38 read out 2 57 stress out 1
38 save up 2 57 take away 1
38 set out 2 57 take on 1
38 slow down 2 57 think up 1
38 speed up 2 57 throw away 1
38 take back 2 57 tune in 1
38 take off 2 57 turn on 1
38 try on 2 57 write down 1
38 try out 2 57 stress out 1
38 wash away 2

122
Solutions

Table A3: All occurrences of PVs in Solutions sorted according to their frequency

Rank PV Count Rank PV Count

1 go out 30 57 bend down 1
2 find out 16 57 bring up 1
3 give away 15 57 build up 1
4 get up 14 57 call back 1
5 look out 11 57 call off 1
6 act out 9 57 carry over 1
7 sit down 8 57 catch up 1
7 take off 8 57 clean out 1
7 wake up 8 57 come round 1
10 chat up 7 57 cut down 1
10 work out 7 57 cut up 1
12 break down 6 57 dig out 1
12 go on 6 57 drive up 1
12 save up 6 57 fall apart 1
15 ask out 5 57 fall through 1
15 come in 5 57 get out 1
15 grow up 5 57 give in 1
15 make up 5 57 give up 1
15 pick up 5 57 go ahead 1
15 put away 5 57 help out 1
15 stay in 5 57 hold up 1
22 carry on 4 57 hurry up 1
22 come back 4 57 chat away 1
22 come out 4 57 check out 1
22 fall out 4 57 cheer up 1
22 check in 4 57 look round 1
22 set off 4 57 look back 1
22 turn on 4 57 look down 1
22 turn up 4 57 mess up 1
22 write down 4 57 phase out 1
31 carry out 3 57 pull up 1
31 come on 3 57 put on 1
31 eat out 3 57 put out 1
31 go off 3 57 read out 1
31 heat up 3 57 run out 1
31 look up 3 57 see round 1
31 turn off 3 57 slow down 1
31 type in 3 57 split up 1
39 catch on 2 57 spring out 1
39 clear up 2 57 stand out 1
39 come over 2 57 stay behind 1
39 fall over 2 57 stick out 1
39 give out 2 57 sum up 1
39 go away 2 57 switch off 1

123
39 hang on 2 57 switch on 1
39 have back 2 57 take down 1
39 hold on 2 57 take out 1
39 log on 2 57 tie up 1
39 point out 2 57 top off 1
39 run away 2 57 travel round 1
39 set up 2 57 try out 1
39 stand up 2 57 turn down 1
39 take away 2 57 turn out 1
39 take up 2 57 wrap up 1
39 throw away 2 57 write in 1
39 try on 2 57 write out 1

124
Liu’s (2011) list

Table A4: The 150 most frequent PVs in the BNC according to Liu (2011)

Rank PV Rank PV
1 go on 76 send out
2 set up 77 put back
3 pick up 78 keep up
4 go back 79 rule out
5 come back 80 pass on
6 go out 81 break up
7 turn out 82 come along
8 find out 83 come round
9 come up 84 sum up
10 make up 85 slow down
11 take over 86 run out
12 come out 87 sit up
13 come on 88 get in
14 come in 89 make out
15 go down 90 get off
16 work out 91 settle down
17 set out 92 pull up
18 take up 93 close down
19 get back 94 turn down
20 sit down 95 bring down
21 turn out 96 follow up
22 take on 97 lay down
23 give up 98 line up
24 carry out 99 come over
25 get up 100 break out
26 look up 101 go over
27 carry on 102 turn over
28 build up 103 go through
29 go up 104 reach out
30 get out 105 clean up
31 take out 106 back up
32 end up 107 hold on
33 come down 108 pick out
34 stand up 109 sit back
35 put down 110 keep on
36 put up 111 wind up
37 sort out 112 hold back
38 turn up 113 stand out
39 get on 114 put in
40 bring up 115 walk out
41 bring in 116 move in
42 look back 117 blow up
43 look down 118 take down
44 bring back 119 show up

125
45 break down 120 pull back
46 take off 121 put off
47 go off 122 come about
48 bring about 123 go along
49 open up 124 set about
50 hang on 125 pay off
51 go in 126 turn off
52 set off 127 give in
53 grow up 128 check out
54 fill in 129 come through
55 go round 130 move out
56 go ahead 131 move back
57 hand over 132 break off
58 put out 133 hang up
59 look out 134 get through
60 take back 135 give out
61 hold up 136 come off
62 wake up 137 take in
63 catch up 138 give back
64 turn round 139 set down
65 get down 140 throw out
66 write down 141 start out
67 hold out 142 move up
68 look round 143 shut down
69 put on 144 call out
70 shut up 145 step back
71 bring out 146 hang out
72 move on 147 figure out
73 pull out 148 lay out
74 cut off 149 play out
75 turn back 150 fill out

126
 Appendix 2
Headway

Table H1: Breakdown of genres the PV get up in Headway compared to the BNC (in percentages)

get up Headway Headway BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
S_interview 1 60 0.13 28
S_brdcast_discussn 2 40 0.78 11
W_fict_prose x x 44.42 1
S_conv x x 19.82 2
W_non_ac* x x 6.38 3

Table H2: Breakdown of genres the PV go out in Headway compared to the BNC (in percentages)

go out Headway Headway BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
S_conv 1 33.33 18.99 2
S_brdcast_discussn 1 33.33 1.41 11
S_speech_unscripted 4 16.67 0.76 16
W_essay* 4 16.67 0.17 29
W_fict_prose x x 29.78 1

Table H3: Breakdown of genres the PV grow up in Headway compared to the BNC (in percentages)

grow up Headway Headway BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
S_conv 1 27.27 3.75 8
S_brdcast_discussn 2 18.18 1.45 11
S_interview 2 18.18 0.34 17
W_biography 2 18.18 6.91 7
W_newsp* 5 9.09 9.42 4
W_pop_lore 5 9.09 12.11 3
W_fict_prose x x 23.66 1

Table H4: Breakdown of genres the PV pick up in Headway compared to the BNC (in percentages)

pick up Headway Headway BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
S_speech_unscripted 1 44.44 1.47 10
S_interview_oral_history 2 22.22 1.14 13
W_instructional 2 22.22 0.43 19
W_pop_lore 4 11.11 7.35 5
W_fict_prose x x 37.99 1
W_newsp* x x 9.36 2
S_conv x x 9.31 3

127
Table H5: Breakdown of genres the PV sit down in Headway compared to the BNC (in percentages)

sit down Headway Headway BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
W_pop_lore 1 83.33 3.23 7
W_fict_prose 2 16.67 59.11 1

128
Insight

Table I1: Breakdown of genres the PV carry on in Insight compared to the BNC (in percentages)

carry on Insight Insight BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
W_fict_prose 1 25 17.95 1
S_brdcast_news 1 25 0.27 25
S_brdcast_discussn 3 12.5 0.74 17
S_interview 3 12.5 0.11 33
S_speech_scripted 3 12.5 0.11 33
W_pop_lore 3 12.5 7.09 7

Table I2: Breakdown of genres the PV find out in Insight compared to the BNC (in percentages)

find out Insight Insight BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
S_interview 1 30 0.14 32
S_brdcast_discussn 2 20 1.66 12
S_conv 2 20 5.55 7
S_brdcast_docummentary 4 10 0.19 27
W_biography 4 10 2.94 8
W_pop_lore 4 10 8.34 4
W_fict_prose x x 30.88 1

Table I3: Breakdown of genres the PV get up in Insight compared to the BNC (in percentages)

get up Insight Insight BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
W_pop_lore 1 40 4.33 5
S_brdcast_docummentary 2 20 0.03 38
S_conv 2 20 19.82 2
S_speech_scripted 2 20 0.16 26
W_fict_prose x x 44.42 1

Table I4: Breakdown of genres the PV give up in Insight compared to the BNC (in percentages)

give up Insight Insight BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
W_pop_lore 1 50 8.54 5
S_brdcast_docummentary 2 12.5 0.15 28
S_brdcast_news 2 12.5 0.15 28
W_fict_prose 2 12.5 26.26 1
W_letters* 2 12.5 0.17 25

129
 Table I5: Breakdown of genres the PV go out in Insight compared to the BNC (in percentages)

go out Insight Insight BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
S_interview 1 33.33 0.35 21
S_brdcast_docummentary 2 16.67 0.12 32
S_brdcast_discussn 2 16.67 1.41 12
W_fict_prose 2 16.67 29.78 1
W_pop_lore 2 16.67 5.26 5

Table I6: Breakdown of genres the PV grow up in Insight compared to the BNC (in percentages)

grow up Insight Insight BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
W_biography 1 50 6.91 7
S_brdcast_docummentary 2 16.67 0.13 28
S_interview 2 16.67 0.34 17
W_instructional 2 16.67 x x
W_fict_prose x x 23.66 1

Table I7: Breakdown of genres the PV pick up in Insight compared to the BNC (in percentages)

pick up Insight Insight BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
W_pop_lore 1 40 7.35 5
S_brdcast_docummentary 2 20 0.07 33
S_speech_scripted 2 20 0.11 29
W_fict_prose 2 20 37.99 1

Table I8: Breakdown of genres the PV put on in Insight compared to the BNC (in percentages)

put on Insight Insight BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
W_pop_lore 1 66.67 5.68 4
W_fict_prose 2 16.67 26.99 2
W_letters* 2 16.67 0.04 32
S_conv x x 31.47 1

Table I9: Breakdown of genres the PV put up in Insight compared to the BNC (in percentages)

put up Insight Insight BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
S_conv 1 60 12.62 3
W_pop_lore 2 40 10.81 4
W_fict_prose x x 19.52 1

130
 Table I10: Breakdown of genres the PV set up in Insight compared to the BNC (in percentages)

set up Insight Insight BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
S_interview 1 33.33 0.16 26
S_brdcast_docummentary 2 16.67 0.05 34
W_advert 2 16.67 0.19 25
W_essay* 2 16.67 0.21 23
W_pop_lore 2 16.67 9.86 5
W_non_ac* x x 21.63 1
W_ac* x x 14.28 2
W_newsp* x x 13.77 3

Table I11: Breakdown of genres the PV stand up in Insight compared to the BNC (in percentages)

stand up Insight Insight BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
W_pop_lore 1 60 3.45 7
W_newsp* 2 40 4.29 5
W_fict_prose x x 64.3 1

Table I12: Breakdown of genres the PV switch on in Insight compared to the BNC (in percentages)

switch on Insight Insight BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
S_speech_unscripted 1 80 0.32 17
S_conv 2 20 8.64 4
W_fict_prose x x 44.92 1

Table I13: Breakdown of genres the PV wake up in Insight compared to the BNC (in percentages)

wake up Insight Insight BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
S_speech_scripted 1 33.33 x x
W_letters_* 2 33.33 0.06 25
W_instructional 3 16.67 0.13 20
W_pop_lore 3 16.67 6.88 6
W_fict_prose x x 41.31 1
S_conv x x 14.38 2
W_non_ac x x 9.44 3

131
132
Solutions

Table S1: Breakdown of genres the PV come in in Solutions compared to the BNC (in percentages)

come in Solutions Solutions BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
S_conv 1 60 15.31 2
S_interview 2 20 0.33 23
S_brdcast_discussn 2 20 2.08 11
W_fict_prose x x 34.57 1

Table S2: Breakdown of genres the PV find out in Solutions compared to the BNC (in percentages)

find out Solutions Solutions BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
W_pop_lore 1 33.33 8.34 4
S_interview 2 16.67 0.14 32
S_speech_scripted 2 16.67 0.13 34
S_interview_oral_history 2 16.67 0.97 17
W_fict_prose 2 16.67 30.88 1

Table S3: Breakdown of genres the PV give away in Solutions compared to the BNC (in percentages)

give away Solutions Solutions BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
W_pop_lore 1 100 13.90 3
W_fict_prose x x 24.55 1

Table S4: Breakdown of genres the PV go on in Solutions compared to the BNC (in percentages)

go on Solutions Solutions BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
S_consult 1 40 0.18 29
S_conv 1 40 12.14 2
S_interview 3 20 0.22 26
W_fict_prose x x 36.92 1
W_newsp* x x 8.08 3
W_non_ac* x x 6.46 4

Table S5: Breakdown of genres the PV go out in Solutions compared to the BNC (in percentages)

go out Solutions Solutions BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
S_conv 1 57.14 18.99 2
W_fict_prose 2 21.43 29.78 1
W_letters* 3 14.23 0.12 32
S_interview_oral_history 4 7.14 4.25 7

133
Table S6: Breakdown of genres the PV sit down in Solutions compared to the BNC (in percentages)

sit down Solutions Solutions BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
W_fict_prose 1 40 59.11 1
S_interview 2 20 0.27 19
S_consult 2 20 0.07 30
S_conv 2 20 10.60 2

Table S6: Breakdown of genres the PV work out in Solutions compared to the BNC (in percentages)

work out Solutions Solutions BNC BNC

DLC Type Rank Percentage Percentage Rank
W_pop_lore 1 80 9.31 4
W_advert 2 20 0.75 19
W_fict_prose x x 16.71 1

134