Bill's suggestion that "Think about" could be classed as a nonseparable 
phrasal verb seems to me to not take into account the essence of a phrasal 
verb which is a combination of a verb and a word with the form of a 
preposition but which functions as an adverbial particle.  'about' does not 
qualify in any way 'think' and is, therefore, not adverbial.  'Think about' 
cannot, therefore, be a phrasal verb.

On the other hand, I seem to remember seeing a book which used the 
separable-nonseparable criterion as a means of teaching ESL students about 
'phrasal verbs'.   However, if I remember rightly, this entails ignoring the 
grammatical function of the preposition/adverbial particle.

It seems to me that there are two important considerations here.  On the one 
hand, with ESL classes, the prime consideration should probably be the most 
effective teaching approach in order to enable students to know when they 
can 'separate' and when they cannot.  On the other hand, in first language 
situations, as this is not a problem, the prime consideration might be the 
grammatical functions of the preposition-like words in different 
combinations.

Ron Sheen


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Spruiell, William C" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 9:21 AM
Subject: Re: Help for a puzzled teacher


Peter, Craig, et al. --

There's an extra distinction that may be at work here -- separable vs.
nonseparable phrasal verbs. You can look up a word, or you can look up a
word; you can put up with something, but you can't put up something
with. "Think about" could be classed as a nonseparable phrasal verb.

Bill Spruiell
Dept. of English
Central Michigan University

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