Transcript Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal Verbs
Ed McCorduck
English 402--Grammar
SUNY Cortland
http://mccorduck.cortland.edu
slide 2: definition of phrasal verbs
Phrasal verbs are idioms consisting of a verb and a particle.
• idiom: a phrase that has a meaning different from that of
the combination of the words that comprise it
• particle: usually a preposition but sometimes an adverb
English 402: Grammar
slide 3: alternative terms in use for phrasal verbs
Phrasal verbs are sometimes called
• prepositional verbs (but not accurate when the particle is
not a preposition, hence these are also known as
phrasal/prepositional verbs)
• two-word verbs
• multi-word verbs (because some consist of more than two
words, e.g., put up with)
English 402: Grammar
slide 4: examples of phrasal verbs
examples of phrasal verbs
speak up
check out
fill out
get out
get out
give in
go down
give up
get up
give away
fall through
fire away
put up with
go out for
get away with
English 402: Grammar
slide 5: demonstration of the difference between a phrasal verb and a verb plus adverb or PP
compare:
The balloon floated up.
adverbial of place
Jack ran up the stairs.
preposition, head of the PP up the stairs
Jill threw up.
particle in the phrasal verb throw up (= vomit)
English 402: Grammar
slide 6: Reed-Kellogg diagrams of sentences with phrasal verbs
In Reed-Kellogg diagrams, the verb and the particle(s) of
a phrasal verb are put together on the main line with no
separating line. For example, here is the diagram of the
sentence The food ran out quickly containing the phrasal
verb run out which means something like ‘become
exhausted’ or ‘become depleted’:
English 402: Grammar
slide 7: diagrams of sentences with phrasal verbs compared to those with verbs plus adverbials
Compare the previous diagram to the following one of the
sentence The balloon floated up quickly which contains the
verb run followed by the adverb up (actually, this same
diagram serves also for the sentence The balloon floated
quickly up, once more illustrating the relative flexibility in
the positioning of adverbials and giving more evidence of
the adverbial status of up in this use):
English 402: Grammar
slide 8: the movability test
To determine if a particle following a verb “belongs to”
that verb in a phrasal verb combination or whether the
particle is an adverb or is a preposition heading a
following prepositional phrase, you can use the so-called
movability test. To do perform this test, try moving the
particle and any word or phrase following it to the front of
the sentence. If the resulting sentence is grammatical,
you know that you have either a verb followed by an
adverbial or a prepositional phrase; if the sentence is
ungrammatical, this indicates that verb-particle
combination is in fact a phrasal verb.
English 402: Grammar
slide 9: the movability test in action
exx
The man ran out.
grammatical, therefore run out
is not a phrasal verb here
⇒ Out the man ran.
The man ran out the door.
⇒ Out the door the man ran.
English 402: Grammar
grammatical, therefore run out
is not a phrasal verb here
slide 10: examples of the application of the movability test revealing a phrasal verb
but
The money ran out.
⇒ *Out the money ran.
The money ran out quickly.
⇒ *Out quickly the money ran.
ungrammatical, therefore run
out is a phrasal verb here
(meaning something like
‘become exhausted’ or ‘become
gone’)
ungrammatical, therefore run
out is a phrasal verb here
(meaning something like
‘become exhausted’ or ‘become
gone’)
English 402: Grammar