PHRASAL

VERBS
Chapter 22
 Topics:
Form of English Phrasal Verbs
Subtopic: Syntactic Analysis
of Phrasal Verbs

Syntactic Features of Phrasal

Verbs
Subtopic/s:
-Transitive and intransitive
Phrasal verbs
- Phrasal verbs that require
Prepositions
- The Separability of Phrasal Verbs

Distingushing Phrasal verbs from Verb

+Preposition Sequences
-Syntactic Tests
- Phonological test

Meaning of English Phrasal Verbs

-The productivity and idiomaticity of
Phrasal verbs

Semantic Categories of Phrasal Verbs

-Literal Phrasal verbs
-Aspectual Phrasal verbs
-idiomatic phrasal verbs
The use of Phrasal verbs
-Register
-Level of Formality
-Field
The issue of Phrasal Verb
Separability
-Principle of Dominance Revisited
- Sentences with Separable phrasal
verbs, Direct and indirect objects
Conclusion
 Introduction
● Consider the following sentences and their analyses
adapted from O’Dowd (1994). How would you
describe the role of up in each?

a. She walked up the street to get a bite to eat.

b. I live up in Sprongfield.
c. When are you going to clean up your room?
d. I am sorry that I messed you up.
● The meaning of phrasal verbs is often
noncompositional; that is someone can know the
meaning of the verb and the apparent meaning of the
particle, but when they put together, a unique
meaning is derived.

Jennifer gave up. (to give up= to surrender)

● Some nonnative speakers of English have have a
tendency to overuse single lexical items where a
phrasal verb would be much more appropriate; for
example:

a. I arose early this morning.

b. I got up early this morning.
● A final learning challenge involves the conditions
governing optional or obligatory separation of the
verb and the particle for phrasal verbs used
transitively.

a. Turn out the lights Separation optional

(direct object is not a pronoun)
b. Turn the lights out.

c. Turn them out. Separation necessary

(Direct object is a pronoun)
d. *Turn out them
 Form of English Phrasal Verbs

Syntactic Analysis of Phrasal Verbs

● A phrasal verb (PV) is made up of two (or
more) parts that function as a single verb.
● Phrasal verbs are sometimes called two-
word verbs because they usually consist of a
verb plus a second word, the latter often
referred to us as an adverb.
 To be able to analyze
sentences with phrasal verbs,
we need to refine our phrase
structure rule for the VP by
generating a PV as an
alternative to V.
The PV category is then
expanded in a new phrase
structure rule as a verb and
particle (Prt):
The symbols on either side
of the particle indicate
that although the particle
is part of the phrasal
verb, it need not be
contiguous with it.
The basic structure of a
A tree where the particle is not
sentence in which the
contiguous with the verb
particle follows the verb
rather is separated from it by
directly.
an intervening direct object.
Jamie turned out the light Jamie turned the light out.
 SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF
PHRASAL VERBS
Transitive and Intransitive Phrasal Verbs
Like single-word verbs, phrasal verbs can be
transitive:

Harold turned on the radio.

Barbara passed out the new assignment.
I called off the meeting.

(Others: do over (repeat), look over (examine), fill

out (complete), find out (discover), etc.)
● Phrasal verbs can also be intransitive.

My car broke down.

He really took off.
The boys were playing around in the yard.

(others: come back (return), come over (visit),

Make up ( reconcile) pass out (faint), etc.)
 Some regular ergative or change-of-state verbs
(e.g., open,increase) may be either transitive or
intransitive depending on the role of the agent, some
phrasal verbs can have this dual function, too;
for example:

An arsonist burned down the hotel. (transitive)

The hotel burned down. (intransitive)
 Phrasal Verbs that Require
Prepositions
● Also like single-word verbs, adjectives, and nouns, many
phrasal verbs take a specific preposition. Examples of
this type of construction are:

put up withget along with cut down on close in on

look in on check up on catch up with make away with
look down on check out of stand up for make up for
get away with go in for keep up with drop in on
get down to come up with end up with run up against
get back to give in to pick up on break up with

In these expressions the phrasal verb and preposition must be

learned as a unit.
● The only thing that can be added to such a string is
an adverb or adverbial phrase between the particle
and the preposition:

I haven’t kept up fully with the work.

Mort has cut down almost completely on his smoking.
● Here’s how a tree would look with a “three-word
phrasal verb” (i.e., a phrasal verb that takes
preposition).

Donna broke up with Joe.

 The Separability of Phrasal
Verbs
● There is one syntactic characteristic peculiar to
transitive phrasal verbs: sometimes the particle can be
separated from the verb by the direct object and
sometimes it cannot. Separation is obligatory when the
direct object is pronoun.

Separable Phrasal Verbs

Mark threw away the ball. *Rachel looked up it.
Mark threw the ball away. Mark threw it away.

Rachel looked up the information. *Rachel looked up it.

Rachel looked the information up. Rachel looked it up.

(Others: take up (discuss), leave out (omit), pass out (distribute),

bring back (return), turn down (refuse), etc.)
● A smaller category of inseparable phrasal verbs, where
the particle cannot be separated from its verb.

Inseparable Phrasal Verbs

I came across an interesting article last night. I came across it

last night.
*I came an interesting article across last night. * I came it across
last night.

Josh ran into an old friend. Josh ran into him.

*Josh ran an old friend into. *Josh ran him into.

(Others: get over (recover), go over (review), look into

(investigate), go for (attack), etc.)
 A tree for a sentence with an
inseparable phrasal verbs. Since
the particle must follow the
verb directly in an inseparable
phrasal verb. Only one tree is
possible
Angela ran across a classmate.
 Phrasal Verbs That Are Always
Separated
● A few phrasal verbs seem to occur only with the
verb and particle separated:
The reason for the obligatory separation is presumably
to avoid the ambiguity with the inseparable phrasal
verbs that have the same form but a different
meaning:

get through the lesson (get through=finish)

see through his excuse (see through=not be deceived
by)
Distinguishing Phrasal Verbs From
Verb + Preposition Sequences

Syntactic Tests
There is a reason to try to arrive at a common
understanding of what distinguishes its
prepositional use from that of its particle use in a
phrasal verb. The following are some of the tests
that have been applied (adapted from O’Dowd
1994:19).
 Only Prepositions (not
particles) allow:

Phrase Fronting
Adverb insertion
Up the hill Jhon ran
We turned quickly off *Up the bill Jhon ran.
the road.

*We turned quickly Wh-Fronting

off the light.
About what does he
write?
*Up what does he
write?
Only particles in separable
phrasal verbs (not
prepositions) allow:
Passivization
The light was turned off.
*The road was turned off.
Verb Substitution
The light was extinguished.
(=the light was turned off.)
NP insertion
We turned the light off.
*We turned the road off.
The rationale for many of
these tests is the fact
that a preposition makes a
natural unit with the NP
object that follows it,
whereas a particle makes
a natural unit with the
verb that preceds it.
 Hierarchy of Tests
(separable PVs, Inseparable PVs, and
verb-plus-preposition sequences)

Example/s:

Peter looked up the new word.

Peter looked at the newspaper.
Peter looked into the matter.
 1. Can you put the object noun
between the verb and the “P”?
Peter look the new world up. (Yes=Separable PV (look up)

*Peter looked the newspaper at. (No=Inseparable PV or V+Prep

*Peter looked the matter into

2. Can you front the “P” in a wh-question?

At what did Peter look? Yes=V+Prep(look at)
• Into what did Peter look (look into=investigate) No=Inseparable
PV (look into)
 Phonological Test
● Another formal difference between a verb +
preposition and a phrasal verb is that a particle may
receive stress, whereas a preposition usually doesn’t:

He looked up the word. (Phrasal verb)

He looked up the road. (verb + preposition)
 Meaning of Phrasal Verbs
(the productivity vs. idiomaticity of Phrasa verbs

● Certain particles such as over, off, up, out, down,

away, and back can readily form phrasal verbs by
combining with common verbs such as be, come,
go,do, make, take, put, and give.
● Phrasal verbs are highly productive lexical category
in English. Indeed Bolinger (1971:xi)refers to the
constant new coinage of phrasal verbs as “an
outpouring of lexical creativeness that surpasses
anything else in our language.
● There is a certain unpredictability as to what the
meaning of a new phrasal verb will be since many of
them are noncompositional or idiomative.

For example: knowing the meaning of run and the

meaning of out doesn’t provide much of a clue to the
meaning of their combination in a phrasal verb where
to run out means “to exhaust.” To make matter
worse, the antonym run in, has completely different
meaning of “to send to jail” when it is separated.

Ex. I am going to run him in for violating his parole.

 Semantic Categories of
Phrasal Verbs
● First of all, the systemacity that does not exist
becomes easier to perceive when phrasal verbs are
not treated monolithically.

● Three categories of Phrasal verbs can be discerned:

1. Literal Phrasal verbs

2. Aspectual Phrasal verbs
3. Idiomatic Phrasal verbs
Literal Phrasal Verbs
● The first category is
comprised of verbs that
appear to be a combination
of a verb and a directional
● Some examples:
PrepP. Nevertheless, for Sit down, stand
pedagogical purposes, we will
classify them as phrasal
up,hand out, take
verbs because they function down, carry out,
syntactically like verb- throw away, climb
particle constructions. Since
the particle retains its up, fall down, pass
prepositional meaning, the through.
result is a phrasal verb
whose meaning is
compositional (Jackenoff
1997)
 Aspectual Phrasal Verbs
The second category is one
where the meaning is not as
transparent, but it is not
idiomatic either. This category
consists of verbs to which
certain particle contribute
consistent aspectual meaning.
This category in turn be
subdivided into a number of
semantic classes, depending on
the semantic contribution of
the particle
oIncentive (to signal a
beginning state)
Ex. John took off.
(others: set out, start up)
o Continuative (to show that
the action continues)
a. use of on and along with
activity verbs
Ex. Her speech ran on and on.
Hurry along now.
(others: carry on, keep on,
hang on, come along, play
along)
b. Use of away with activity d. use of through with activity
verbs with the nuance that verbs to mean from beginning
the activity is “heedless” to end
Ex. They danced the night Ex. She read through her
away. lines in the play for audition.
(others: work away, sleep (others: think through, skim
away, fritter away) through, sing through )
c. Use around with activity
verbs to express absence of
purpose.
Ex. They goofed around all
afternoon.
(Others: mess around, play
around, travel around)
o iterative (use of over with
activity verbs to show
repetition)
ex. He did it over and over
again, until he got it right.
(others: write over, think
over, type over)
completive ( uses particles
up, out, off, and down to
show that the action is
complete)
a. turns an activity verb into
accomplishment
ex. He drank the milk up.
(others: burn down, mix up,
wear out, turn off, blow out)
b. Reinforces the sense of goal
orientation in an
accomplishment verb
Ex. He closed the suitcase up.
(others: wind up, fade out, cut
off, clean up)
c. adds durability to a punctual
achievement verb
Ex. He found out why they
were missing.
(others: check over, win over,
catch up)
-certain aspectual particles
co-occur with certain verbs.
Ex. Fade out-not fade up (Brinton
1998:182)

Idiomatic Phrasal verbs
Many phrasal verbs are
idiomatic, such as chew out,
tune out, catch up, put off.
Stauffer (1996) makes the
point that native speakers
coin novel phrasal verbs and
can understand phrasal verbs
that they have never before
encountered because they
understand the underlying
logic of the language.
For example:
Verb+preposition sequence
Run up the hill
Run up the bill
Run means-sense of motion
entailing change
Up –pertains to higher
vertical direction on some
path.
 Polysemous Phrasal Verbs
● Phrasal verbs can be polysemous. A verb such as
check out, for instance, can have many meanings.

A partial inventory might include:

1. I need to check out by 1:00 P.M.
2. I went to the library to get a book, but someone
had already checked it out.
3. Be sure to check it out before you buy it.
4. Check it out!
5. If you have fewer than 10 items, you can check out
in the express lane.
 The use of Phrasal Verbs
● Register
a. Level of Formality
Many phrasal verbs do have single-verb counterparts,
words derived from latin. One factor that makes
English speakers prefer phrasal verbs such as put
off, call off, and show up to their latinate
counterparts postpone, cancel, and arrive is
presumably the question of register. Phrasal verbs
are common in informal registers, although not
completely absent from formal discourse (Cornell
1985)
b. Field
Another use of term register is relevant here. Register
can also refer to the social activity in which the
language is being used and what is being talked
about.
Certain phrasal verbs are associated with the
particular field for which there are no concise
alternatives.

For ex. I need to check out by 1:00 P.M.

Check out- means check out of the hotel. No other
verb alternative.
● Conversely, airline personnel often favor Latinate
verbs over phrasal verbs, perhaps to assist nonnative
speakers of English comprehend announcement.

● For ex.
“Extinguish all smoking material,” prior to landing
rather than the common “ put out your cigarette.”

Thus, the field-specific use of the term register is

pertinent in explaining the use or non-use of phrasal
verbs in certain contexts.
 The issue of Phrasal verb
separibility
● Principles of Dominance Revisited
Erteschic-Shir’s (1979) principle of dominance, which
discussed in chapter 19, applies to account for when
separable phrasal verbs require that an NP direct
object intervene between the verb and particle. If
the direct object is pronoun, by virtue of its
nondominance, it does not occupy the final position in
the sentence if this can be avoided, and thus a
pronoun direct object is put between the verb and
its particle.

Ex. He poured out his heart. (Direct object is a noun-

He poured his heart out. either order is
syntactically possible)
● He poured it out. (direct object is a
● * He poured out it. pronoun –it must be
placed between the verb
and particle)

On the other hand, if the direct object contain new,

complex, or unpredictable information, its insertion
between the verb and the particle would interrupt
the cognitive unity of the verb and particle and make
processing very difficult.

Ex. ? He poured a brand new can of green paint that

was on sale out.
● Thus, if the direct object is not a pronoun, and
especially if it is a long and elaborate NP, it would
occupy the more dominant position after the
particle. You will recall that this is the conventional
position for new, discourse-salient information.

Ex. He poured out a brand new can of green paint that

was on sale.

Of course if the direct object is not dominant, then

the particle can occupy the dominant position.

Ex. He cried his eyes out.

 Sentences with Separable
phrasal verbs
● Direct and Indirect Objects
Noted also in chapter 19 that indirect objects are
nondominant are likely to precede direct objects. In
the following, the indirect object-the country
singer-marked by the definite article as having
already been introduced into the discourse, is
nondominant.

Ex. The Mayor of Nashville gave the country singer a

tour of the city.
● What happens when the direct object and indirect
object occur in a sentence with a separable phrasal
verb? As you might expect, the order of particle,
direct object and indirect object depends on the
dominance of the objects.

- If the indirect object is dominant, then the

sentence could occur with the particle directly
following the verb and the indirect object in
sentence-final position:
Ex. John paid back his loan to the bank.
● To reinforce the dominance of the indirect object,
the direct object could be followed by the particle,
separating the direct and indirect objects:

Ex. John paid his loan back to the bank.

 If, on the other hand, the direct object is dominant

NP, then the order would be:

Ex. John paid the bank back his loan.

● It is not likely that the verb and its particle would
occur contiguously in such a sentence because it
would be in conflict with the fact that the indirect
object is nondominant:

Ex. ?John paid back the bank his loan.

 Finally, it is possible to have a sentence order in

which the particle follows both the direct and the
indirect objects:

Ex. John paid the bank his loan back.

(Here the direct object, his loan, is more more dominant than
the indirect object, the bank, but his loan is less dominant
than when it was in sentence-final position. It’s the particle
back; which is in the final position, and therefore dominant.)
 Conclusion
● Phrasal verbs are not unique to English, but they are
different enough from verbs in many languages, and
common enough in English, to pose a significant
learning challenge.
● Furthermore, the meaning of idiomatic phrasal verbs
is not only obscure, it is often deceptive because the
words look so familiar.
● ESL/EFL students will also have to make appropriate
choices when it comes to the dimension of use- when
to use a phrasal verb versus a single-word and when
to split the particle from its verb.
THANK YOU 