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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