Lecture 8

Verbs II

Multi-word lexical verbs

1 Multi-word verbs: structure and meaning

Many multi-word units function like a single verb. These combinations usually

have idiomatic meanings. That is, their meaning cannot be predicted from the

meaning of each individual word.

These multi-word verbs fall into four classes:

phrasal verbs

prepositional verbs

phrasal-prepositional verbs

other multi-word verb constructions.

Phrasal verbs consist of a verb followed by an adverbial particle (e.g. carry out,

find out, or pick up). When these adverbial particles are used independently, they have

literal meanings signifying location or direction (e.g. out, in, up, down, on, off). However,

in phrasal verbs they are commonly used with less literal meanings. For example, the

meaning of find out does not include the 'place' meaning of out.

Prepositional verbs consist of a verb followed by a preposition, such as look at,

talk about, listen to.

Phrasal-prepositional verbs contain both an adverbial particle and a

preposition, as in get away with.

Because they are idiomatic in meaning, it is sometimes possible to replace multi-

word verbs by single-word verbs with a similar meaning:

multi-word verb single-word verb carry out undertakelook at observeput up with toleratefind out discovertalk about discussmake off with steal

In contrast to multi-word verbs, free combinations consist of a single-word

lexical verb followed by an adverb or preposition with a separate meaning (e.g. come

down, go back). In practice, it is hard to make an absolute distinction between free

combinations and multi-word verbs. It is better to think of a continuum where some

uses of verbs are relatively free and others relatively idiomatic.

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1.1 Characteristics of phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs

The meanings and structures of phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs, and free

combinations differ in many ways. However, just three criteria are usually sufficient for

distinguishing among the types of multi-word combinations. The criteria are:

•whether or not there is an idiomatic meaning

•whether or not particle movement is possible

•how the wh-question is formed.

The nature of a multi-word expression is determined by whether or not there is a

following noun phrase. When there is no following noun phrase (e.g. shut up or go

away), there are only two possible interpretations. It must be either an intransitive

phrasal verb, or a free combination of verb + adverb. If there is a following noun phrase

(e.g. find out the meaning), there are three possible interpretations. Either it is a

transitive phrasal verb, a transitive prepositional verb, or a free combination of verb +

adverbial prepositional phrase.

A Idiomatic meaning

Checking for an idiomatic meaning is especially useful when there is no

following noun phrase, and you wish to distinguish between an intransitive phrasal

verb and a free combination. Intransitive phrasal verbs usually have an idiomatic

meaning, while the words in free combinations retain their own meanings. For

example, the intransitive phrasal verbs come on, shut up, get up, get out, break down, and

grow up all have idiomatic meanings beyond the separate meanings of the two parts (e.g.

grow up means to act/become more mature, not literally to grow in an upward

direction). In contrast, both the verb and the adverb have separate meanings in free

combinations like come back, come down, go back, go in, look back.

Intransitive phrasal verbs:

Shut up you fool!Come on! Tell us then!

Intransitive free combinations:

If this was new, I wouldn't let people go in.Come back, or I'll fire.He was afraid to look back.

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B Particle movement

When multi-word combinations have a following noun phrase, tests using

structure are more important than those involving idiomatic meaning. The first important

test is particle movement: that is, whether the adverbial particle can be placed both

before and after the object noun phrase. Transitive phrasal verbs allow particle

movement. In the following examples the object noun phrase is shown in brackets.

I went to Eddie's girl's house to get back [my wool plaid shirt].I've got to get [this one] back for her mom.

He came back and picked up [the note].He picked [the phone] up.

When the object of a transitive phrasal verb is a pronoun, the adverbial particle is

almost always after the object:

Yeah I'll pick [them] up. So I got [it] back.

Particle movement is not possible with prepositional verbs. Instead, the

particle (actually, a preposition) always comes before the noun phrase that is the object:

Well those kids are waiting for their bus. <compare: *Well those kids are waiting their bus for.>It was hard to look at him. Availability depends on their being close to the root.

C Wh-question formation

Wh-question formation is a second important structural test for deciding the

type of multi-word verb. This test is especially useful for distinguishing between a

t ransi t ive preposi t ional verb + object and a f ree combinat ion of verb +

adverbial prepositional phrase. In sentences with a prepositional verb, wh-questions

are typically formed with what or who. These questions indicate that the noun phrase

that follows the preposition functions as the object of the prepositional verb:

What are you talking about? What are you laughing at? <compare the statement: I am talking about / laughing at something.>Who are you working with?Who was he talking to? <compare the statement: I am working with / talking to somebody.>

In contrast, wh-questions for free combinations can be formed using the

adverbial wh-words where and when. These questions indicate that the

prepositional phrase is an adverbial that follows the verb:

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place:

Where are you walking? <compare the statement: I am walking to that place.>Where will we meet? <compare the statement: We will meet at that place.>

time:

When are you playing? <compare the statement: I am playing at that time.>

When are you leaving? <compare the statement: I am leaving at that time.>

Comparing these features does not always result in clear-cut distinctions

between all multi-word verb combinations. Many combinations can function as more

than one type, depending on the context. Further, some combinations can be

interpreted as belonging to more than one category.

1.2 Multi-word combinations in multiple categories

Sometimes multi-word combinations fit into more than one category. For

example, the combination fit in can be an intransitive phrasal verb (1), or a free

combination of verb + adverbial prepositional phrase (2):

1 He just doesn't fit in. 2 The mushroom was too big to fit [in a special dryer at Purdue University's plant and fungi collection].

In addition, some combinations have the characteristics of more than one

category even in a single occurrence. For example, consider come back, with the

meaning to 'recover' or 'resume an activity'. This combination might be analyzed as a

free combination because come and back both contribute independently to the

meaning. But the combination could also be regarded as an intransitive phrasal

verb, because the combined meaning of the parts is idiomatic.

3 Everton came back from a goal down to beat Blackburn 2-1. 3 When Jim went to the police station, officers told him to come back another

day.

Sentence 4 might seem more clearly a free combination because the adverb back

has a literal directional meaning, while 3 has a more clearly idiomatic meaning

('recover'). However, 4 also has a meaning that can be represented by a single verb:

return. In this sense, it, too, is idiomatic. In sum, as for many grammatical categories, the

distinction is not always clear-cut.

1.3 Frequency of multi-word verb types

Prepositional verbs are far more common than phrasal verbs or phrasal-

prepositional verbs. Both phrasal verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs are extremely rare

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in academic prose, while in the other registers phrasal verbs are more common than

phrasal-prepositional verbs. Phrasal and phrasal-prepositional verbs are most commonly

used for physical activities, while prepositional verbs cover a wide range of semantic

categories.

2 Phrasal verbs

There are two major subcategories of phrasal verbs: intransitive and transitive.

Intransitive phrasal verbs:

Come on, tell me about Nick. Hold on! What are you doing there? I just broke down in tears when I saw the letter.

Transitive phrasal verbs:

Did you point out the faults on it then? I ventured to bring up the subject of the future. I want to find out the relative sizes of the most common dinosaurs.

With transitive phrasal verbs the particle can be placed after the direct object.

This is the normal word order when the object is a pronoun:

Terri turned it on. I just thought I would point it out to you. The warden said that she would turn the heating on.

In addition, a few phrasal verbs are copular, such as turn out, end up, and wind

up.

2.1 Most common phrasal verbs

A Intransitive phrasal verbs

Conversation and fiction use phrasal verbs much more frequently than news and

academic prose do. This difference is especially noteworthy for intransitive phrasal

verbs. They are extremely common in conversation and fiction, but extremely rare in

news and academic prose. One reason for this difference is that most phrasal verbs

are colloquial in tone.

In fact, the most common intransitive phrasal verbs are activity verbs that are

used as directives. They often occur as imperatives. Since imperative clauses are most

common in conversation and fiction, it is not surprising that these intransitive phrasal

verbs are also most common in those registers:

Shut up! Just forget it. Go off to bed now. Stand up straight! People are looking!

In declarative clauses, the common intransitive phrasal verbs usually have human

subjects (underlined below):

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No, he came over to the study. Crowe sat up and stared at Frederica. I sat down behind my desk.

The intransitive combination come on in conversation is the most common

phrasal verb in any register. This verb has three major functions:

as an exclamation in a call for action:

Come on, let Andy do it.

as a pre-departure summons to move:

Come on, we’d better go.

as the main verb in a clause, meaning 'to start' or 'become activated':

The heating didn't come on this morning.

The intransitive phrasal verb go on is also extremely common. Go on is similar to

come on in having a number of different functions. However, unlike come on, go on is

used often in both written and spoken registers:

as an exclamatory call for action (like come on above):

It's alright, rub it in. Go on!

to express continuation:

I just ignored her and went on. I didn't have time to talk.As time went on, Liebig developed his thesis.

to mark continuation of some general action (as a transitive verb with a

complement ing- or to-infinitive clause as direct object):

Labour would go on getting the public's support by constructing strong unity of purpose.

Bjornsson went on to study the newspapers of 11 countries.

to mark an unspecified activity, with a meaning similar to 'happen':

Think what's going on. It's dreadful.

B Transitive phrasal verbs

Transitive phrasal verbs are more evenly spread across written and spoken

registers. For example, verbs such as put on, make up, and find out are relatively common

in both conversation and the written expository registers:

Some people they read the top bit and read the bottom bit, and sort of make up the bit in the middle. Because you might find out it works. Haven't you found that out yet? For the modern mathematician these numbers would make up an ordered pair.

In fact, a few transitive phrasal verbs are actually more common in expository

writing than in conversation. These include carry out, take up, take on, set up, and point out:

It is common practice to carry out a series of design point calculations.

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The rule also affected Henry Cotton, who took up the post at Royal Waterloo, Belgium, in 1933. When the Spanish arm of the operation needed assistance he was asked to take on a supervisory role. The EIT was set up last year to help fund university research. Gushchin (1934) pointed out many of the weaknesses of these attempts.

Finally, the combination turn out is unusual in that it is a common phrasal verb that

can function as a copular verb.

3 Prepositional verbs

All prepositional verbs take a prepositional object, i.e. the noun phrase that

occurs after the preposition. There are two major structural patterns for prepositional

verbs: with a single prepositional object (Pattern 1), and with a direct object and a

prepositional object (Pattern 2):

Pattern 1: NP + V + prep + NP (prepositional objects are underlined)

It just looks like the barrel. I've never even thought about it.

Pattern 2: NP + V + NP + prep + NP (direct objects and prepositional objects are

underlined):

[Yeah it's really pretty]. It reminds me of some parts of Boston.He said farewell to us [on this very spot].But McGaughey bases his prediction on first-hand experience.

The two-object prepositional verb (Pattern 2) is also common with passive verbs.

The noun phrase that corresponds to the direct object is placed in subject

position:

The media is falsely accused of a lot of things. <compare the active voice: People falsely accuse the media of a lot of things.>The initiative is based on a Scottish scheme. <compare the active voice: Someone based the initiative on a Scottish scheme.>

Most prepositional verbs occur with only one pattern. However, some

prepositional verbs occur with both Patterns 1 and 2. These include apply (NP) to,

connect (NP) with, provide (NP) for, ask (NP) for, hear (NP) about, know (NP) about:

apply to with Pattern 1:

The regulations also apply to new buildings.

apply to with Pattern 2:

They were cosmologists wrestling to apply quantum mechanics to Einstein's general theory of relativity.

ask for with Pattern 1:

But I've asked for much too much already.

ask for with Pattern 2:

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He asked Stan for a job.

The structure of a prepositional verb can be analyzed in two ways. On the one

hand, it can be considered a single-word lexical verb that is followed by a prepositional

phrase. The prepositional phrase functions as an adverbial. This analysis is supported

by the fact that it is usually possible to insert another adverbial between the verb and

the prepositional phrase in Pattern 1. The adverbials exactly and much are between

the verbs and prepositional phrases in these examples:

She looked exactly like Kathleen.

I never thought much about it.

However, the verb + preposition can also be considered as a multi-word unit—a

single 'prepositional verb'. This analysis is supported by the fact that

prepositional verbs often have idiomatic meanings that cannot be derived from

the meanings of the two parts. The two-word units can often be replaced by a single

transitive verb with a similar meaning:

thought about it → considered it

asked for permission → requested permission

stand for it → tolerate it

Also, wh-questions with prepositional verbs are formed using who or what (e.g.

What are your thinking about?), rather than a wh-adverb where, when, or how.

3.1 Most common prepositional verbs

Unlike phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs are common in academic writing as

well as in conversation and fiction. However, different kinds of prepositional verbs

are preferred in each register.

A Conversation and fiction

Because of the typical topics and purposes in conversation and fiction, these

registers have many common prepositional verbs that are activity,

communication, or mental verbs. The most common prepositional verb is look at. It is

used in two main ways:

to direct the attention of others:

Look at that great big tree stuck under the bridge!

to describe actions involving sight:

The boys looked at each other tearfully unbelieving.

The communication verb say to (say NP to NP) is also very common in

conversation and fiction. This prepositional verb is used to report the content of speech

(the direct object), while also identifying the addressee (the prepositional object):

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She said something to mom and dad earlier on. I went to say thank you to Doris.

In many examples with say to, a clause is used as the direct object, to report the

content of the speech. Often, following the principle of end-weight, such lengthy direct

objects are in final position:

I said to John something about the house on Frazier Street. <compare: I said something about the house on Frazier Street to John.>I keep saying to Michael it's so expensive. <compare: I keep saying it's so expensive to Michael>

In addition to these two very frequent prepositional verbs, conversation and

fiction use a number of other common prepositional verbs to indicate activities,

communications, and mental processes:

activity verbs:

Pity we couldn't go for a romp around a canal, isn't it? Patrice held her breath, waiting for Lettie's reply. He stared at me blankly, unbelievingly.

communication verbs:

Just talk to her. I was talking about the old sort of diesel multiple unit. He spoke to Paul in a bitter, controlled tone.

mental verbs:

What did they think of the brochure then? I was thinking about the playgroup downstairs. Since when does nobody listen to you?

Academic prose also uses several common prepositional verbs that mark

physical activities and mental states. However, these are mostly verbs that take the

double object pattern (Pattern 2). They are often used in the passive voice. The most

common of these is use NP in, and its passive counterpart (be used in):

We will continue to use Table 4 in our economic analysis. Another type of football was used in the second century in China to celebrate the emperor's birthday.

Other common prepositional verbs used in academic prose include the

following:

activity verbs:

For example, the Message Type can be derived from its internal structure.Similarly other parts of the body may be used as bases to start from.The method outlined could now be applied to a selected number of points along the blade length.

mental verbs:

This induced mustiness is known as Sierra rice.

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The electron may be regarded as a tiny mass carrying a negative charge.All members of the specified Role Class are considered as possible senders of the received message.

In general, academic prose focuses on the relations among inanimate entities,

with less concern for the people who are performing actions. The preference for

passive voice with prepositional verbs reflects this general focus. Thus, by using the

passive, the above examples avoid mentioning the people who derive, use, apply, know,

regard, or consider.

Academic prose also commonly uses prepositional verbs that express

causation, existence, or simple occurrence. These verbs, too, specify relations among

entities rather than describing actions:

causative verbs:Further experimentation might lead to the identification of other difficulty factors. Replacing the nonsense stems by English stems would have resulted in a grammatically correct sequence.

existence verb:

It will depend on the purpose of, and audience for, the writing.

4 Phrasal-prepositional verbs

The third major type of multi-word verb shares characteristics of both phrasal

and prepositional verbs. Phrasal-prepositional verbs consist of a lexical verb combined

with both an adverbial particle and a preposition. For example, look forward to has

the lexical verb look, the adverbial particle forward, and the preposition to:

I'm looking forward to the weekend.

This type of verb is similar to a prepositional verb, as the complement of the

preposition (the weekend) functions as the prepositional object of the verb (looking

forward to).

Here are some more examples, with the complement of the preposition

underlined:

Perhaps I can get out of it without having to tell her anything.

I would still end up with a lot of money.

A few phrasal-prepositional verbs can take two objects:

I could hand him over to Sadiq. Who put you up to this?

Phrasal-prepositional verbs function as a semantic unit and can sometimes be

replaced by a single transitive lexical verb with similar meaning. For example:

put up with such treatment → tolerate such treatment

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get out of it → avoid it

come up with a proposal → make a proposal

1 Most common phrasal-prepositional verbs

Like phrasal verbs, phrasal-prepositional verbs are more frequent in conversation

and fiction than in expository writing. However, common phrasal-prepositional verbs are

used for a limited range of meanings. Most are activity verbs.

The most frequent phrasal-prepositional verb is get out of. Often it is

imperative (1) or declarative (2):

1 Just get out of my way. 2 We have to get out of here.

Several other phrasal-prepositional verbs are relatively common with activity

meanings. For example:

Stop yakking and get on with it! He said he would get back to me. Burns went up to the soldiers and started talking.

In news, two phrasal-prepositional verbs with activity meanings are relatively

common: get back to and come up with:

It's going to take time for you to get back to full strength. The panel will be asked to come up with the best all-time team on earth.

In addition, the mental verb look forward to is relatively common in fiction and

news:

She had been looking forward to this moment.

In the case of news, look forward to typically occurs in direct (1) or reported

speech (2):

1 We are looking forward to the game. 2 He said he was looking forward to the results of the inquiry.

Other multi-word verb constructions

In addition to the three types of multi-word verbs discussed above, verbs are

also used in relatively fixed or idiomatic multi-word constructions: verb +

prepositional phrase combinations, verb + verb combinations, and verb + noun

phrase combinations.

A Verb + prepositional phrase combinations

Many verb + prepositional phrase combinations are idiomatic. Such

combinations function semantically as a unit that can often be replaced by a single

lexical verb, as in the following sentences:

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I also have to bear in mind the interests of my wife and family. <compare: remember>The triumph came as a surprise to many. <compare: surprised>You have to take into account where the younger shoots are dominant. <compare: consider>

B Verb + verb combinations

A second idiomatic category involves verb + verb combinations, such as make do

(with) and let NP go/be:

Patients had to make do with quiche or ham salad. He was 'very reluctant' to let him go. I think it is time to let it be.

C Verb + noun phrase combinations

There are a few verbs—such as take, make, have, and do—that can be used for

many meanings. These verbs can combine with noun phrases to form idiomatic verbal

expressions. In many cases, the combination also includes a following preposition. For

example:

But you know how you make fun of me sometimes. Let's have a look at this. Do you want me to do your hair? Yes, I'll take care of it.

Conclusions

There are three major types of multi-word verb: phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs, and phrasal-prepositional verbs.o Multi-word combinations can also be free combinations.

Phrasal verbs consist of a verb + adverbial particle; they can be intransitive or transitive.o Phrasal verbs are especially frequent in conversation and fiction. The most

common verbs express physical activities (e.g. come on, get up, pick up).o A few phrasal verbs are especially common in academic prose (e.g. carry out).

Prepositional verbs consist of a verb + preposition. They can have one or two objects.o Prepositional verbs are common in all registers.o Prepositional verbs with activity and communication meanings are especially

common in conversation (e.g. look at, go for).o Passive voice prepositional verbs are especially common in academic prose (e.g.

be based on, be associated with). They have causative or existence meanings. Phrasal-prepositional verbs consist of a verb + particle + preposition.

o Like phrasal verbs, phrasal-prepositional verbs are especially frequent in conversation and fiction. The most common verbs express physical activity (e.g. get out of, get on with).

o There are also other kinds of multi-word verb constructions that occur with idiomatic meanings (e.g. bear in mind, make do and take time).

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