CONSTRUCTIONS AND RESULT: ENGLISH PHRASAL VERBS AS ANALYSED IN CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR by ANNA L. OLSON A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Master of Arts in Linguistics, Analytical Stream We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard ............................................................................... Dr. Emma Pavey, PhD; Thesis Supervisor ................................................................................ Dr. Sean Allison, Ph.D.; Second Reader ................................................................................ Dr. David Weber, Ph.D.; External Examiner TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY September 2013 © Anna L. Olson i Abstract This thesis explores the difference between separable and non-separable transitive English phrasal verbs, focusing on finding a reason for the non-separable verbs’ lack of compatibility with the word order alternation which is present with the separable phrasal verbs. The analysis is formed from a synthesis of ideas based on the work of Bolinger (1971) and Gorlach (2004). A simplified version of Cognitive Construction Grammar is used to analyse and categorize the phrasal verb constructions. The results indicate that separable and non-separable transitive English phrasal verbs are similar but different constructions with specific syntactic reasons for the incompatibility of the word order alternation with the non-separable verbs. ii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ i List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. v List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. v Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ vi 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 7 Part 1: Background ....................................................................................................................... 11 2. Description of Phrasal verbs ..................................................................................................... 12 2.1.1 History of the Phrasal Verb.............................................................................................. 14 2.1.2 The Semantics of the Verbs and Particles........................................................................ 16 2.2 Morphology......................................................................................................................... 17 2.3 Syntax ................................................................................................................................. 19 2.3.1 Transitivity ................................................................................................................... 19 2.3.2 Number of Particles ..................................................................................................... 22 2.3.3 Word Order .................................................................................................................. 23 2.4 Prosody ............................................................................................................................... 25 2.5 Definitions of the phrasal verb in the literature .................................................................. 26 2.6 The Phrasal Verb and Result............................................................................................... 34 iii 2.6 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 36 3. Bolinger, Gorlach, and Result ................................................................................................... 37 3. 1 Bolinger.............................................................................................................................. 37 3.1.1 Delineating the Particles .............................................................................................. 41 3.1.2 Bolinger and Result...................................................................................................... 47 3.1.3 Summary of Bolinger ................................................................................................... 52 3.2 Gorlach, Phrasal Verbs, and Result .................................................................................... 52 3.2.1 A Further Look at Result ............................................................................................. 57 3.2.2 Problems in Gorlach’s Analysis................................................................................... 58 3.3 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 59 Part 2: Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 61 4. Construction Grammar.............................................................................................................. 62 4.1 Construction Grammar: A brief overview .......................................................................... 62 4.2 The Semantic Component of Construction Grammar ........................................................ 65 4.3 Phrasal Verbs and Resultatives in Construction Grammar ................................................. 68 4.4 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 72 5. Analysis..................................................................................................................................... 73 5.1 The transitive construction .................................................................................................. 73 5.2 The resultative construction ................................................................................................ 76 iv 5.3 Synthesis and Discussion .................................................................................................... 79 5.3.1 Predicate Classes .......................................................................................................... 83 5.3.2 Bolinger’s Adpreps ...................................................................................................... 86 5.4 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 91 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 94 References ..................................................................................................................................... 97 Appendix A: Phrasal Verbs with Examples ................................................................................ 102 v List of Figures Figure 5.1.......................................................................................................................................76 Figure 5.2.......................................................................................................................................77 Figure 5.3.......................................................................................................................................78 Figure 5.4.......................................................................................................................................79 Figure 5.5.......................................................................................................................................80 Figure 5.6.......................................................................................................................................85 Figure 5.7.......................................................................................................................................89 Figure 5.8.......................................................................................................................................89 Figure 5.9.......................................................................................................................................92 List of Tables Table 2.1........................................................................................................................................31 Table 2.2........................................................................................................................................35 Table 3.1........................................................................................................................................41 Table 5.1........................................................................................................................................86 vi Acknowledgements I would like to thank my advisor, Emma Pavey, for the work she has done in this process, for her many comments, questions, and suggestions for improving this work. Likewise, many thanks go to my readers, Sean Allison and David Weber, whose comments and questions