Topic 22 "Multi-word Verbs"

INTRODUCTION.

1. SINGLE AND MULTI-WORD VERBS.

1.1 Syntactic criteria.
1.2 Semantic criteria.

2. PHRASAL AND PREPOSITIONAL VERBS.

3. PHRASAL VERBS.
3.1 Intransitive Phrasal Verbs.
3.2 Transitive Phrasal Verbs.

4. PREPOSITIONAL VERBS.
4.1 Prepositional verbs without a direct object.
4.2 Prepositional verbs with a direct object.

5. PHRASAL PREPOSITIONAL VERBS.

6. RELATED CONSTRUCTIONS.

CONCLUSION & TEACHING INFERENCE

BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDIX A SAMPLE OF MULTI-WORD VERBS

Introduction
Any dictionary of English must account for a very large number of what we may call
’compound verbs’ or multi-word verbs - verb + particle combinations of the kind give in,
look after, carry on, put up with. Multi-word verbs are verbs that consist of more than
one word. There are three types of multiword verbs: prepositional verbs, phrasal verbs,
and phrasal-prepositional verbs.

1. Single and Multi-Word Verbs

 Verbs can be divided into single-word / multi-word verbs:
SINGLE WORD …………………….…….………John called the man. [1]
MULTI-WORD verbs can be subdivided into:

> phrasal verbs : V + Adverb John called up the man. [2]

> prepositional verbs: V + Preposition John called on the man. [3]
> phrasal-prepositional verbs: V+Adv.+Prep. John put up with the man. [4]

Leaving aside, for the moment, the internal differences of multi-word verbs, we will
first distinguish them from other, superficially similar sequences consisting of verbs and
prepositional phrases:

John called from the office. [5]

John called after lunch. [6]

John called from under the table. [7]

The difference between the first set represented by sentences [2 - 4], and the
second set, represented by sentences [5 - 7] can be stated in terms of ‘cohesion’: in the
first set, the adverbial or prepositional particle (up, on, up with) forms a semantic and
syntactic unit with the verb, i.e. an idiomatic combination; in the second set, the
prepositional particle (from, after, from under) is more closely connected with the head
of the prepositional phrase.

Both type of verbs can also be differentiated by syntactic and semantic criteria.

1.1 Syntactic Criteria

1. PASSIVIZATION. The syntactic similarity of verbs in the first set can be seen in
their acceptance of passivization:
called up
First set: The man was called on
put up with

*Lunch was called after

Second set: *The table was called from under
?The office was called from

In the passive, the verbs of the first set behave identically with single-word
transitive verbs (The man was called), whereas the verbs of the second set do not admit
of the passive. Note that ambiguous combinations like put up with take the passive only
when they have the figurative meaning:
Mary couldn’t easily be put up with(= ‘tolerate’ but not= ‘stay with’)

2. PRONOMINAL QUESTION FORM

The questions of the first set are formed with who(m) for personal and with what
for non-personal objects:

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 Who(m) did John call up? What did John look for?

3. ADVERBIAL QUESTION FORM

The prepositional phrases of the second set have adverbial function, and have
question forms with where, when, how, etc:

Where did John call from? When did John call?

There is a certain amount of overlap between the two sets. If we apply the three
criteria, (P) passivization, (Q pro) pronominal question form, and (Q adv) adverbial
question form, to sentences 8 -12, we can state their relations by means of a matrix:

P Q pro Q adv
+ + — The police might ask for more details (8)
— + — John agreed with Mary (9)
— + + The car stopped beside a wall (10)
— — + She left before ten o’clock (11)
— — — His job also comes into the picture (12)

Sentence [8] has both passive and pronominal question form:

More details might be asked for by the police [8p]
What might the police ask for? [8q]

[9] has only the pronominal question form: Who did John agree with? [9q]
The passive is highly doubtful: ?Mary was agreed with by John [9p]

[10] can form no passive, but both types of question are possible; the pronominal
one is rather ‘recapitulation’, whereas the adverbial one is the more natural question:

What did the car stop beside? [10q ]

Where did the car stop?

[11] has only the adverbial question form: When did she leave? [11q]

[12], finally, shows its idiomatic nature by accepting none of the three criteria,
resisting this kind of syntactic manipulation.

1.2 Semantic Criteria

1. The semantic unity in phrasal and prepositional verbs (the first set) can often be
manifested by substitution with a single-word verb, for example, visit for call on,
summon for call up, tolerate for put up with, see for look at, etc.

2. The combinations are not all freely formed; there are severe collocational
restrictions. This is very clearly seen if we substitute the particles in the examples given
above for what would seem to be their opposites. We can look after someone, but we
Topic 22: Multi-word Verbs. 3
cannot similarly look before him, and although we can put up with something, we cannot
put down with it (or put up without or put down without) it.

3. Furthermore, phrasal and prepositional verbs often have composite meanings

which are not normally deducible from their parts, for example, make out
(‘understand’), take in (‘deceive’), come by (‘obtain’). We can distinguish three subclasses
within the first set (where it will be convenient to refer to both the adverbial and
prepositional element as ‘particle’):
(3a) The verb and the particle keep their individual lexical meanings, as in look
over (‘inspect’), set up (‘organize’). The individuality of the components appears in
possible contrastive substitutions:

bring in
take out
turn on
switch off

(3b)The verb keeps its basic lexical meaning, the particle has an ‘intensifying’
function: find out (‘discover’), sweep (up) the crumbs, spread (out) the rug.

(3c) The verb and the particle are fused into a new idiomatic combination, the
meaning of which is not deducible from its parts, for example, bring up (‘educate’),
come by (‘obtain’), put off (‘postpone’), turn up (‘appear’), come in for (‘receive’). In such
combinations there is no contrastive substitution: there are no pairs such as bring
up/down, put off/on, give up/down, give in/out, etc for this subclass. The adverbial,
lexical values of the particles have been lost, and the entire verb-particle combination has
acquired a new meaning.

In some cases the same verb-particle combination can belong to more than one
subclass with a corresponding difference in meaning:

John put up with Mary (‘stay with’).

(“tolerate”)

2. Phrasal and Prepositional Verbs

Once we have seen some differences between multi-word verbs and verbs + a
particle, let’s now try to differentiate between Phrasal and Prepositional Verbs.
They display certain phonological (1) and syntactic differences (2-4):

1. ACCENT: If the particle occurs in final position in the sentence, the preposition
won’t be accented, normally the adverb will:

That’s the hill he ran up. That’s the flag he ran úp.

2. POSITION: The adverb, but not the preposition, may occur after the noun
phrase: *He ran the hill up. He ran the flag up.

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 3. PRONOUN OBJECT: Where there is a pronoun object the preposition occurs
before the pronoun, the adverb occurs after the pronoun. The only possibilities, then,
are: He ran up it. (the hill) He ran it up. (the flag)

4. PASSIVIZATION: Another possible difference is that the preposition cannot be

passivized, with the adverb the sentence can be passivized:

*The hill was run up. The flag was run up.

The Table below also shows these and other criteria that distinguish the two classes
of verbs as having different syntactic patterning with regard to noun object (e), personal
pronoun object (b) and (f), position in relative clause (d), and adverb insertion (c). The
table shows that prepositional verbs take (b) personal or (d) relative pronouns after the
preposition, and admit (c) an inserted adverb; phrasal verbs, on the other hand, have
particles which can be separated from the verb by (e) a noun of (f) a pronoun.

DIAGNOSTIC FRAMES FOR PHRASAL AND PREPOSITIONAL VERBS

PREPOSITIONAL VERB PHRASAL VERB

Call on=”visit” Call up=”summon”
(a) They ‘call on the man They call 1up the man
(b They ‘call on him *They call up him
) They call ‘early on the man *They call early up the man
(c) The man on whom they call *The man up whom they call
(d
)
(e) *They call the man on They call the man ‘up
(f) *They call him on They call him ‘up

Alternative analyses of strings consisting of a verb + a prepositional phrase:

A sentence like He looked at the girl can be given two analyses. In one, there is a
prepositional phrase (at the girl) as adverbial; in the other, looked at is a prepositional
verb with the girl as prepositional object. (We use the shorter term ‘prepositional object’
for what should properly be termed ‘object after a prepositional verb’.)
ANALYSIS 1: V Adv.
He looked at the girl
ANALYSIS 2: prep-V prep-O

Analysis 1 (verb + adverbial) accounts for the similarity of prepositional phrases

with regard to relative clause structure and the positioning of adverbs:
at whom he looked
The girl to whom he came

He looked slyly at the girl

He stood quietly near the girl

Analysis 2 (prepositional verb + prepositional object) accounts for the similarity of

these structures to that of transitive non-prepositional verbs:

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 looked at
The girl was admired
*stood near

Two modes of analysis are also applicable to sentences like:

He gave an apple to the girl

where to the girl can be considered a prepositional adverbial (Analysis 1), accounting for
the similarity between, for example, the following sentences:

gave an apple to
He found an apple for the girl
aimed an apple at

Analysis 2, by which the girl is a prepositional object, highlights the similarity with
the parallel non-prepositional construction:

gave
He found the girl an apple
*aimed

The two analyses can be regarded as different, but equally valid and
complementary ways of looking at the same structure. The former related to voice and it
is natural to adopt the latter analysis: He put his cards on the table.

3. Phrasal Verbs

The following chart shows the principal types of multi-words verbs. The first
example illustrates a non-idiomatic expression (therefore a free combination), while the
second example is idiomatic (and therefore a multi-word verb):

LEXICAL VERB DIRECT OBJECT ADVERB PREPOSITION PREPOSITIONAL

OBJECT
FREE COMBINATION come in
INTRANSITIVE
PHRASAL VERB turn up
FREE COMBINATION send someone away
TRANSITIVE PHRASAL
VERB turn someone down
FREE COMBINATION come with me
PREPOSITIONAL VERB
WITHOUT A DIRECT come across a problem
OBJECT
FREE COMBINATION receive something from me
PREPOSITIONAL VERB
WITH A DIRECT OBJECT
take someone for a fool
FREE COMBINATION send someone out into the world

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 PHRASAL come up with an answer
PREPOSITIONAL VERB

We will now illustrate the main categories of these multi-word verbs.

3.1 Intransitive Phrasal Verbs

TURN UP. These consist of a verb plus an adverb particle. They are usually informal.

The plane has just touched down.

How are you getting on?
She turned up unexpectedly.

Distinction between Phrasal Verbs and Free Combinations: COME IN; SEND
SOMEONE AWAY; COME WITH ME; RECEIVE SOMETHING FROM ME; SEND SOMEONE
OUT INTO THE WORLD.

We must draw a distinction between such phrasal verbs, in which the meaning of
the combination cannot be predicted from the meaning of the verb and particle in
isolation, and free combinations in which the verb and the adverb have different
meanings. An example of a free combination could be:
He walked past.

Past here is an adverb, but its function is equivalent to that of a prepositional

phrase of direction (= past the object/ place). The verb can also be substituted by others,
like ran, hurried or strolled.

There are also syntactic signs of cohesion. In free combinations, it is often possible
to place a modifying adverb right (or straight) between the verb and the adverb particle:

Go right / straight on.

This insertion is usually unacceptable with phrasal verbs:

She turned right up at last.*

Another sign of a free combination is the possibility of placing the adverb before
the verb with subject-verb inversion (or without inversion where the subject is a
pronoun)

Out came the sun.

On we drove into the night.

With phrasal verbs this is not possible:

Up blew the tank.*
Out he passed. *

3.2 Transitive Phrasal Verbs

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 TURN SOMEONE DOWN
Many phrasal verbs may take a direct object and may therefore be described as
transitive.

They have called off the strike.

Find out if they are coming.
I can’t make out what he means.

Some combinations, such as give in or blow up can be either intransitive or

transitive. With most transitive phrasal verbs, the particle can either precede or follow
the direct object:
I turned on the light. I turned the light on.

The particle tends to precede a long object:

I turned on the light the electrician had installed.

When the object is a personal pronoun, the Subject, Verb, Object, Adverb order is
the only one possible:

They switched it on. * They switched on it.

As before, phrasal verbs have to be distinguished lexically from free syntactic

combinations of verb and prepositional adverb. Compare:

She took in the box. (= brought inside) Free Combination

She took in her parents. (=deceived) Phrasal Verb

To distinguish between free combinations and transitive phrasal verbs, the only real
test is the insertion of an adverb before the particle:

She brought the girls up.

She brought the girls right up.

Both sentences could have a spatial meaning (she caused the girls to come up.... the
stairs), but only the first could be a phrasal verb with the meaning of 'educated'.

Many transitive phrasal verbs can normally be turned into the passive:

Tom put away the dishes. The dishes were put away by Tom.

4. Prepositional Verbs

4.1 Prepositional verbs without a direct object

COME ACROSS A PROBLEM.

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 A Prepositional verb consists of a lexical verb followed by a preposition with which it
is semantically and/or syntactically associated:

Look at these pictures.

I don't care for Jane's parties.
We must go into the problem.

In these examples, the lexical verb is followed by a particle which is unequivocally a

preposition.

When we use the term prepositional verb, we indicate that we regard the noun
phrase as the complement of the preposition and not as the direct object of a verb.

4.2 Prepositional verbs with a direct object

TAKE SOMEONE FOR A FOOL.

These prepositional verbs are followed by two noun phrases, normally separated by
the preposition: the first noun phrase is the direct object, the second the prepositional
object.

The umbrella protected him from the rain.

The gang robbed her of her money.
Nancy thanked us for the present.

5. Phrasal Preposional Verbs

COME UP WITH AN ANSWER

These multi-word verbs contain, in addition to the lexical verb, both an adverb and
a preposition as particles. These combinations are largely restricted to informal English:

We are all looking forward to your party on Saturday.

He had to put up with a lot of teasing at school.
You think you can get away with anything.

There are also phrasal-prepositional verbs which require a direct object:

Don't take it out on me.
We put our success down to hard work.
I'll let you in on a secret.

6. Related Constructions

There is no clearly defined class of phrasal or prepositional verbs. There are other
combinations of verbs plus elements other than particles - that otherwise satisfy the
criteria.

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 Other idiomatic constructions involving another word between verb and particle (a
noun apparently except in the case of rid) are illustrated by:

He took care of the matter.

The men set fire to the house.
He got rid of his old car.

All have passives:

The matter was taken care of
The house was set fire to.
The car was got rid of

VERB-ADJECTIVE COMBINATIONS
The combination of verb plus adjective functions exactly like a phrasal verb in:
I cut open the melon.
He made clear his intentions,
They cut short the interview.

This is clear from the position of the adjective - before the object noun phrase
(though it may also occur after it). Both combinations form close units but the adjectives
in verb-adjective combinations have their individual meaning and grammatical
properties:

John didn’t put the tablecloth as straight as Mary

*out

Adjectives in combinations like cut short, rub dry, scrub clean, set free, dye red,
wash clean, work loose, etc, are however selected from a rather restricted range of
adjectives. Thus none of these verbs can have several adjectives, but the adjectives can
co-occur with many different verbs, eg: open: burst open, force open, hold open, kick
open, knock open, lay open, pull open, push open, swing open, tear open, etc. In this
respect verb-adjective combinations differ from verb + adjective complements, which
can select complements from a very wide range of adjectives: He found her pretty/ rich/
intelligent/ fatherless/ stubborn, etc.

Additional elements, such as an infinitive (play hard to get) or a preposition (ride

roughshod over = pasar por encima de algo).

VERB - VERB COMBINATIONS:

In these idiomatic constructions, the second verb is non-finite. It may be an
infinitive as in: He made his daughter do her homework: They let the prisoner go.

It could also be a participle, with or without a following preposition, as in:

The defeat put paid to their chances.

It's late; I must get going.

VERBS GOVERNING TWO PREPOSITIONS:

These are a further variant on prepositional verbs, as in

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 John competed with Tom for the job.
We applied to the Embassy for a visa.

CONCLUSION AND TEACHING INFERENCE

Traditional approaches to the teaching of multi-word verbs focus on the explicit
study of the item. Many ELT course-books and grammars classify them into four distinct
types, depending on whether they are intransitive or transitive, i.e. verbs that don't take
an object and verbs that do, or if the verb and particle can be separated or not. Students
study the rules, and then attempt to match a number of phrasal verbs (generally not
linked thematically) to their appropriate type.

By using this method students, usually analytical learners, have benefited from such
an approach. The terminology can also aid students resourceful enough to study in their
own time, through the use of grammars and dictionaries. Generally however, such an
approach is cumbersome. The learner is often overburdened with terminology, and the
sheer wealth and complexity of the rules can put the students off using them.

Too much classroom time becomes taken up with grammar terminology, with little
left to engage in real language use, such as reading and speaking. The students spend
time ‘learning to use English’, rather than ‘using English to learn it.’

There is usually no situational coherence. The lack of co-text in exercises such as

traditional grammar exercises makes it difficult for students to remember the phrasal
verbs. They lack communicative purpose, and the students have no hooks with which to
connect the meaning to their own life. One possible way of making exercises a little more
communicative is to set students the task of constructing sentences about themselves,
using these verbs, in an attempt to make the meaning real for them.

A further point regarding this type of grouping is that it can be very confusing for
students. It is only the particle which changes the meaning, but being confronted with so
many different particles, students easily confuse them, producing sentences such as, ‘I
need to run into my speech tonight’, for 'run through', and ‘I ran over Carmen in the
supermarket yesterday.’

More recently, approaches have tended to group phrasal verbs into lexical sets.
Certain phrasal verb books group the verbs in this way and have a number of advantages.
The verbs are presented through text, which makes their meanings clearer, and students
can also use the co-text to work out the meanings. Such cognitive engagement may also
make the exercise more memorable. Learners generally move sensibly from recognition
to production and there is usually a final exercise in which students get to personalise the
verbs, by asking each other questions.

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 A more natural approach perhaps, is to teach phrasal verbs as they occur in a text.
Language is used in context and is usually better learnt in context. In authentic texts the
relationship between the verbs is often looser, thereby reducing the chances of
confusion. Furthermore, texts are not weighed down by complex explanation or
categorisation, and thus more classroom time is devoted to authentic language use.

An approach which combines frequent and contextualised exposure with work on

awareness raising may work best.

Bibliography

BOLINGER, D. The Phrasal Verb in English. Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1971
JESPERSEN, O. Essentials of English Grammar. Allen and Unwin. London 1979
LEECH, T. G. AND SVARTVIK, J. A Communicative Grammar of English. Longman 1975
PALMER, F.R. The English Verb. Longman. 1978
QUIRK, R. A Grammar of Contemporary English. Longman. London 1979
SWAN, M. Practical English Usage. Oxford 1997.
ZANDVOORT, R.W. A Handbook of English Grammar. Longman. London 1978

APPENDIX: A sample of multi-word verbs. Multi-word verbs are very

numerous, and we can only give a short list for each verb class. The words in parenthesis illustrate
or gloss their meanings.

PHRASAL VERBS PREPOSITIONAL VERBS

BREAK OFF (our relations) APPLY FOR (a post)
BRING ABOUT (a change) APPROVE OF (an action)
BRING UP (children) ATTEND TO (the matter)
BURN UP (a house) CARE FOR (somebody)
FILL OUT (a form) CONGRATULATE (someone) ON (his exam)
MAKE OUT (understand) CURE (somebody) OF (a disease)
MAKE UP (a story) HINT AT (other possibilities)
PULL UP (stop) OBJECT TO (something)
TURN (the light) OFF RUN FOR (president)
TURN UP (at a meeting) TAKE TO (drink)

PHRASAL- PREPOSITIONAL VERBS

CUT DOWN ON (expenses)
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 FACE UP TO (the problems)
GET AWAY WITH (it, ie ‘without being punished’)
GET DOWN TO (serious talk)
KEEP AWAY FROM (somebody’s company)
LOOK DOWN ON (somebody)
LOOK FORWARD TO (‘anticipate’)
LOOK OUT FOR (wet leaves)
PUT UP WITH (somebody’s behaviour)
TURN OUT FOR (a meeting)

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