phrasal verbs ed mccorduck english 402--grammar suny cortland

Phrasal Verbs

Ed McCorduckEnglish 402--GrammarSUNY Cortland http://mccorduck.cortland.edu

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

slide 2: definition of phrasal verbs

English 402: Grammar

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)

slide 3: alternative terms in use for phrasal verbs


examples of phrasal verbs

speak up

fill out

get out

go down

get up

fire away

put up with

go out for

get away with

slide 4: examples of phrasal verbs


check out

get out

give in

give up

give away

fall through

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)

slide 5: demonstration of the difference between a phrasal verb and a verb plus adverb or PP


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’:

slide 6: Reed-Kellogg diagrams of sentences with phrasal verbs


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):

slide 7: diagrams of sentences with phrasal verbs compared to those with verbs plus adverbials


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.

slide 8: the movability test


exx

The man ran out.

⇒ Out the man ran.

The man ran out the door.

⇒ Out the door the man ran.

slide 9: the movability test in action


grammatical, therefore run out is not a phrasal verb here

grammatical, therefore run out is not a phrasal verb here

but

The money ran out.

⇒ *Out the money ran.

The money ran out quickly.

⇒ *Out quickly the money

ran.

slide 10: examples of the application of the movability test revealing a phrasal verb


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’)

phrasal verbs ed mccorduck english 402--grammar suny cortland

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