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Idiomatic English Phrasal Verbs Bachelor Thesis ŠIAULIAI UNIVERSITY THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH PHILOLOGY IDIOMATIC ENGLISH PHRASAL VERBS BACHELOR THESIS RESEARCH ADVISER: Doc. Dr. Ina Klijūnait ÷ STUDENT: Monika Štr ÷mait ÷; Year 4 Šiauliai, 2011 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................... 3 1. LINGUISTIC STATUS OF ENGLISH PHRASAL VERBS ................................. 5 2. PHRASAL VERBS IN THE DERIVATIONALASPECT ..................................... 9 3. METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................. 12 4. REVERSIBILITY/ NON-REVERSIBILITY OF PHRASAL VERBS ................. 13 5. TYPES OF PHRASAL VERBS SEMANTIC MOTIVATION.............................. 18 5.1. Metaphoric Phrasal Verbs ............................................................................. 19 5.2. Metonymic Phrasal Verbs ............................................................................. 25 CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................................... 31 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 32 DICTIONARIES ......................................................................................................... 32 WEBSITES.................................................................................................................. 33 APPENDIXES 2 INTRODUCTION English phrasal verbs have always been drawing linguists’ attention. Verbs that consist of a verb and a particle are known as Phrasal Verbs . The verb can combine with the second component of the type down, in, off, out, up , etc. Linguistically, there are various terms for the second component, however, we will employ the term postverb . What is more, phrasal verbs are called periphrastic verb form. To define the term periphrasis we should say that it is “two or more words performing a single grammatical function together as a unit”, for example, more interesting . Usually such verbs have a one- word equivalent, for instance, wake up “awake” (Kosur, 2009:1). Phrasal verbs are widely spread in the English language. The following abbreviations are employed throughout the paper: V – verb; Vpv(s) – phrasal verb(s); Pv – postverb. One of the most significant current discussions in linguistics is the usage of idiomatic English phrasal verbs. There is a large number of different phrasal verbs used not only in fiction but also in other registers. Phrasal verbs are usually used informally in everyday speech as opposed to the more formal. They are found in many different contexts, for instance, they appear in songs (Beatles’ I’ll get by with a little help from my friends ), in film titles ( The Empire Strikes Back ), in newspaper headlines ( Country’s misplaced pride holds back its democracy ), etc. The aim of this paper is to examine the usage of idiomatic English phrasal verbs from the point of view of semantics and to find the corresponding examples to the theory. The objectives of the paper are the following: 1. to define linguistic status of English phrasal verbs; 2. to analyze the theoretical issues related to reversible/ non-reversible (phrasal verbs with literal meaning/ idiomatic phrasal verbs) phrasal verbs; 3. to discuss the theoretical issues and types of phrasal verbs semantic motivation; 4. to provide examples related to each type of phrasal verbs. Researchers have been investigating idiomatic phrasal verbs for many years and significant works have been written (as Linguistic Status of English Phrasal Verbs by I. Klij ūnait ÷ (2000), Phrasal verbs in learner English: A corpus-based study of German and Italian students by B. Waibel (2007), Phraseological units: basic concepts and their application by P. Skandera (2004), Word power: Phrasal verbs and compounds. A cognitive 3 Approach by B. Rudzka-Ostyn (2003)). The relevance of the paper is the division of phrasal verbs into non-reversible, metaphoric and metonymic. The methods used in this research paper are the following: 1. the method of derivational analysis (i.e. Vpv-s are regarded as derived from the base verbs and they are motivated by them); 2. method of oppositions intersects with derivational method, i.e. the verbs with the postverbs are analyzed in the opposition with their base verbs; 3. descriptive – theoretical literary analysis provided the possibility to review numerous issues concerning books, linguistic article, etc. related to idiomatic English phrasal verbs. The material of the paper is the examples drawn from Longman Phrasal Verbs Dictionary (2000) (abbr. L) . The scope of this research paper is 81 examples of phrasal verbs. As regards the structure of the paper, it consists of introduction, 4 major parts, conclusions, references, and appendixes. Introduction explains the subject of investigation, reveals the aim and objectives, defines research methods, and material of the paper. The first part deals with linguistic status of English phrasal verbs; the second part concerns phrasal verbs in the derivational aspect; the third part focuses on idiomaticity of verb + postverb units which includes morphological, semantic, syntactic and lexical non-reversibility; the forth part deals with the types of phrasal verbs semantic motivation which includes metaphoric and metonymic phrasal verbs. Conclusions generalize the results from the theoretical and practical parts. References indicate the list of the sources which were used while writing and analyzing our paper and appendixes provide a list of examples of phrasal verbs that are included in our paper. Practical value of the work: we presume that our research and the collected data might be useful for the students’ course of English. A survey of theoretical background necessary for the analysis is represented below. 4 1. LINGUISTIC STATUS OF ENGLISH PHRASAL VERBS One of the most discussed problems in the study of phrasal verbs in the English language is the treatment of the linguistic status of these verbs. Linguists treated phrasal verbs from different points of view: “as verb-adverb combinations, compound verbs, as items having the status of the word or even as combinations intermediate between phraseological units and compound verbs, etc.” (Klij ūnait ÷, 2000:19). What is more, other scholars as Cowie and Mackin (1975) do not actually use the term ‘phrasal verb’; they use ‘verb-particle combination’ instead. According to Allerton (2004) it is not easy to place phrasal verbs as a unit either with collocations or with idioms; if they did not so obviously consist of two words, they could even be put up quite successfully with compound lexemes. Villavicencio (2002) mentions that verb-particle constructions (VPCs) can be either idiomatic or semi-idiomatic combinations, such as get on (e.g. Bill got on well with his new colleagues ), or more regular ones, such as tear up (e.g. In a rage she tore up the letter Jack gave her ). He also believes that VPCs should be distinguished from adverbial modification. He claims that the difference may be quite slight and thus he offers the following criteria: • the postverb may appear either after or before noun phrase (NP) in transitive VPCs (e.g. He backed up the team vs He backed the team up ). It should be added that the particle separation depends on the size of the NP, the kind of it, and the degree of the bondage of the particle with the verb; • unstressed personal pronouns must precede the particle in transitive VPCs (e.g. They ate it up but not *They ate up it ); • in transitive VPCs the particle goes before a simple definite NP and does not take it as its object (e.g. He brought along his girlfriend but not It consists of two parts ); • in VPCs subcategories, like prepositional phrases (PPs) and complements of sentence, the particle has to come immediately after the verb (e.g. rely on , in He relies on his wife for everything ); • VPCs with the particle further specifying the meaning of the verb are verbs that subcategorize for an optional goal argument that is fulfilled by a locative or directional particle (e.g. walk up in Bill walked up the hill ). According to Klij ūnait ÷ (2000:20) two factors have determined the problem of different treatment of Vpv-s and postverbs. The first factor is that postverbs are phonemically duplicated to adverbs and prepositions in postverbal position, cf. (adverb) He ran up and away. I saw him out there ; 5 (preposition) He ran up the hill. I saw him ou t the window ; (postverb) He ran up a bill. The patient saw the week out . The second factor is that we can not identify a clear contrast among the given classes of elements. These particular aspects of postverbs are settled by their common origin from adverbs with the meaning of location or direction. That is why it is necessary to differentiate postverbs from homonymous adverbs and prepositions (Ibid.). The linguistic status of postverbs has an approach known as the “differential” approach – the practical variety of the elements like out, up is in no uncertain terms claimed, and these components are separated one from another as homonymous adverbs, postverbs and prepositions. The “differential” approach is adopted in the present study and discussed in more detail (Ibid.). Such authors as Lindner (1983), Frazer (1976), Okunev (1978) and others distinguish several types of verbal combinations with the homonymous second element in the “differential” approach. They are the following (Klij
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