The way I understand this issue is that there are phrasal verbs which
consist of a verb plus a particle , and there are phrasal verbs which
consist of a verb plus a preposition. Verb plus preposition
constructions, as I understand it, are usually transitive. The way to
identify verb plus preposition constructions is to make the sentence
into a passive. If the preposition stays with the verb, it is a phrasal
verb.
I think about food a lot.
Food is thought about a lot by me. Because food becomes the subject of
the passive and about stays with the verb, about can be determined to be
part of the verb. You couldn't say *About food is thought a lot by me.
We agreed on the solution.
The solution was agreed on by us. You couldn't say *On the solution was
agreed by us.
However, considerth is sentence: My brother looked up the block. It
cannot be made passive, but you could possibly say this: Up the block my
brother looked. 'Up the block' is moveable like many other adverbials.
According to Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartik, there is another
category of phrasal verb which consists of a verb plus both a
preposition and a particle.
I look forward to the party.
The party is looked forward to by us.
Looking forward to seems to mean something like anticipate. I have
noticed that most phrasal verbs appear to have Latin-based one-word near
synonyms.
Additionally, my understanding of phrasal verbs isn't that the particle
or preposition modify the verb, but rather that the verb plus particle
or preposition creates an idiomatic meaning which is different from
either the verb or particle/preposition. In my experience, these
constructions make ESL students crazy.
A good resource for this issue is Longman's Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartik also discuss this extensively. They
claim there are five categories of phrasal verbs.
Janet Castilleja
Heritage University
Toppenish WA
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ronald Sheen
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 9:54 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [BULK] Re: Help for a puzzled teacher
Importance: Low
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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