A LINGUISTIC STUDY ON “GET” PHRASAL VERBS IN ENGLISH WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS
A LINGUISTIC STUDY ON “GET” PHRASAL VERBS IN ENGLISH
WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(ĐẶC ĐIỂM NGÔN NGỮ CỦA ĐỘNG TỪ CỤM “GET” TRONG TIẾNG
ANH VỚI SỰ LIÊN HỆ TIẾNG VIỆT)

CHU THI THU HA

Field: English Language
Code: 60220201

Hanoi, 2017

i


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS

A LINGUISTIC STUDY ON “GET” PHRASAL VERBS IN ENGLISH
WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(ĐẶC ĐIỂM NGÔN NGỮ CỦA ĐỘNG TỪ CỤM “GET” TRONG TIẾNG
ANH VỚI SỰ LIÊN HỆ TIẾNG VIỆT)

CHU THI THU HA

Field: English Language
Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ho Ngoc Trung

Hanoi, 2017
ii


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
This is to certify that I am responsible for the work submitted in the thesis: “A
linguistic study on “Get” phrasal verbs in English with reference to the Vietnamese
equivalents”, that this submission is my own work, to the best of my knowledge and
belief, it contains a little

material previously published or written by another

person, I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my
own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design
and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.

Hanoi, 2017

Chu Thi Thu Ha

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)

Date:……………………

iii


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank people for making the completion of this thesis
possible. First of all I am grateful for the continuous support that my supervisor
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ho Ngoc Trung, who has generously given me valuable and
constructive comments, advices as well as correction of my research paper .
The second, I am greatly indebted to all my lectures at the Faculty of
Graduate Studies at Hanoi Open University for their useful lectures, supports,
encouragement and for inspiring me the love for English foreign language teaching
and doing scientific research.
Besides, I also thank my friends and colleagues who helped me along the
way. The finally, I am very thankful that my parents and my twin daughters made
me have more motivation to finish my project.

iv


ABSTRACT
This thesis is concerned with the use of the study of linguistic on “Get”
Phrasal verbs in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents. Phrasal
verbs are generally claimed to have a very important function in the English
language. To research this project successfully, I would like to answer the following
research questions.
The aim of this thesis is analyzing the linguistic of ‘get’ phrasal verbs and
raising Vietnamese learners’ awareness of these verbs, the use of “get” phrasal
verbs has not yet been the specific focus in different researches, so that is why this

thesis seeks to make a contribution and help them improve their real world
communication exactly and successfully in English. More detail, I also point out
some syntactic and semantics features of ‘get’ phrasal verbs with reference to the
Vietnamese equivalents; and the second one is to propose some implications for
mastering ‘get’ phrasal verbs in an effective way.
The findings of this work are based on the descriptive method is utilized to
give a deep and detailed description of the ‘get’ phrasal verbs and their Vietnamese
equivalents and comparative method is used to analyze the ‘get’ phrasal verbs with
reference to Vietnamese equivalents, hence pointing out the distinctive features of
‘get’ phrasal verbs which cause difficulties for Vietnamese learners and suggesting
some implications for teaching these verbs to learners at Hanoi Vocational College
of High Technology.
The result of the study is expected to give some following benefits.
The research result will help the lectures and students to solve part of their
problems in teaching and learning ‘Get” phrasal verb.
The result of the research can be used as an additional knowledge to improve
the students’ mastery of vocabulary. Because, the students are able to get other new
meaning from the same verb if the verb is added by certain preposition. In other
hand, by understanding the meaning of ‘Get” phrasal verbs; students can implement
them in daily conversation.
They can also develop their mastery of ‘Get” phrasal verbs in speaking,
listening, reading and writing. By using more than one expression, they can say one
idea in various ways.

v


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Adv.

Adverb

Dpt.

Department.

E.g.

For example

i.e.

That is

N.

Noun

N°.

Number

O.

Object

Part.

Particle

Pro.

Pronoun

Prep.

Preposition

p.

Page

Qty.

Quantity

Ref.

Reflexive

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 4.1: Information of the research participants……………………………….41
Table 4.2: The learners’ acquisition levels on the syntactic features……………..44
Table 4.3: The learners’ acquisition levels on the semantic features………………44

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality
Acknowledgements
Abstract
List of abbreviations
List of tables and figures

i
ii
iii
iv
v

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................1
1.2 Aims And Objectives Of The Study .....................................................................2
1.3. Research Questions ..............................................................................................3
1.4 Methods Of The Study ..........................................................................................3
1.5 Scope Of The Study ..............................................................................................3
1.6 Significance Of The Study ....................................................................................4
1.7 Design Of The Study .............................................................................................5
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .....................................................................6
2.1 Previous studies .....................................................................................................6
2.2. A History of English phrasal verbs .....................................................................8
2.3 An overview of English phrasal verbs ................................................................11
2.3.1 Definition of English phrasal verbs .................................................................11
2.3.2 Classifications of English phrasal verbs .........................................................12
2.3.2.1. Intransitive phrasal verbs .............................................................................14

2.3.2.2. Transitive phrasal verbs ...............................................................................16
2.3.3 Syntactic functions of phrasal verbs ..............................................................17
2.3.4 Semantics function of phrasal verbs ................................................................20
2.3.5 The differences of phrasal verbs, collocations and idioms ..............................22
2.4 Summary .............................................................................................................25
Chapter 3: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ‘GET’ PHRASAL
VERBS IN ENGLISH ............................................................................................26
3.1. Syntactic features of ‘get’ phrasal verbs in English ...........................................26
3.1.1. Intransitive features .........................................................................................26
3.1.2. Transitive features ...........................................................................................27
3.1.2.1. ‘Get’ phrasal verbs can be separated by their object ...................................30
3.1.2.2 ‘Get’ phrasal verbs cannot be separated by their object ...............................31
3.2. Semantic features of ‘get’ phrasal verbs in English ...........................................34
3.2.1. Non-idiomatic and literal meanings of ‘get’ phrasal verbs .............................34

viii


3.2.2. Idiomatic meanings of ‘get’ phrasal verbs ......................................................35
3.2.3. Metaphorical meanings of ‘get’ phrasal verbs ................................................36
3.3 ‘Get’ phrasal verbs and Vietnamese equivalents ................................................37
3.4 Summary .............................................................................................................36
Chapter 4: THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING “GET”
PHRASAL VERBS AT HANOI VOCATIONAL COLLEGE OF HIGH
TECHNOLOGY AND SOME SUGGESTIONS .................................................38
4.1 Research contextual…………………………………………….......

…….38

4.1.1. The written test ...............................................................................................39

4.1.2. Data analysis methods .....................................................................................41
4.2 Some suggestions ................................................................................................43
4.2.1 From teachers’ perspective ..............................................................................43
4.2.2 From learners’ perspective ...............................................................................45
2.4 Summary .............................................................................................................47
Chapter 5: CONCLUSION ..................................................................................468
5.1. Recapitulation ……………………………………………………………….48
5.2 Limitations of the study……………………………………………………….48.
5.3 Suggestions for a further study……………………………………………… ..50
REFERENCES
APPENDIX ……………….……………………………………………………….52
KEY ..……………………………………….……………………………………...53

ix


Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 RATIONALE
“While without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary
nothing can be conveyed” (Wilkins, 1972: 111).
This argument has been supported by many researchers in the field of second
language acquisition (SLA) who have emphasized the significance of vocabulary
and agreed that vocabulary is equally,
language structure in language acquisition.

if

not

more,

important

than

Plenty of Vietnamese learners may get accustomed to spoken English as
soon as they begin learning how to write and read in their mother tongue. This
means that people have recognized the importance and necessity of English as well
as the advantages that English may bring about. However, learning English is
always a big challenge for Vietnamese native-speaker learners. One of the
challenging things of acquiring English is phrasal verbs, which seem to be too hard
for them to master, hence inevitable errors in using the phrasal verbs in
communication: both spoken and written English.
In theory, phrasal verbs are generally considered to be idiomatic
combinations of a verb and an adverbial particle. The exact status of the latter is still
being debated, scholars being divided on whether it is an adverb, prepositional
adverb, postpositional prefix, special part of speech, etc. Phrasal verbs are quite
frequently found in the English language. They convey widely varying meanings
which are not always clear and often have little to do.
Generally, the main function of phrasal verbs is conceptual categorization of
reality in the speaker's mind. They denote not only actions or states as "ordinary"
verbs do, but also specify their spatial, temporal or other characteristics. The ability
to describe actions or states more precisely, vividly and emotionally is determined
by the adverbial particle components of phrasal verbs. By combining with these
elements, verbs of broader meaning are subjected to a regular and systematic
multiplication of their semantic functions. While the English verb has no consistent
structural representation of aspect, adverbial particles either impart an additional
meaning to the base verb (e.g. the durative verb sit merges with the particle down
into the terminative phrasal verb sit down) or introduce a lexical modification to its
fundamental semantics. It is due to their special characteristics, learners always have

to face untold difficulties to master phrasal verbs. The phrase verb has a strong

1


combination, the number and the use of a wide range of features, while the semantic
and grammatical structure of the complex, has been an easy to grasp of English
learners. Because most of the phrase verbs have their fixed meaning, they cannot be
inferred from the literal meaning of the whole phrase, which resulted in the
difficulty of English learners.
Among English phrasal verbs, the one with ‘get’ is one of the commonest
and is used in varied ways.
It is common knowledge that an adequate translation requires good sense of
nuances in the semantics of both the source-language and target-language texts. In
my process of English teaching, ‘get’ phrasal verbs have made me pay a great
interest to, because they possess a number of syntactic and semantic features as
well as other stylistic peculiarities.
In order to find out a better way to acquire the ‘get’ phrasal verbs, especially
in teaching and learning English. the topic relating to ‘get’ phrasal verbs with
reference to Vietnamese equivalents has been chosen for my graduation paper.

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The theory is aimed at analyzing the syntactic and semantic features of ‘get’
phrasal verbs and raising Vietnamese learners’ awareness of these verbs, and to
help them improve their real world communication exactly and successfully in
English.
There are three main objectives of this study. The first is to point out
syntactic and semantics features of ‘get’ phrasal verbs in English; the second is to
explore the Vietnamese translation equivalents to English phrasal verbs; the third
one is to propose some implications for mastering ‘get’ phrasal verbs in English in

an effective way.

2


1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In conducting the study, the following questions should be answered:
(i)
(ii)

What are the syntactic and semantic features of ‘get’ phrasal verbs?
How are English Get phrasal verbs expressed equivalently in

(iii)

Vietnamese?
What are the problems of learning ‘get’ phrasal verbs at Hanoi
Vocational College of High Technology and how to solve them?

1.4 METHODS OF THE STUDY
In order to study the subject effectively, a flexible combination of methods
is employed.
First, the descriptive method is utilized to give a deep and detailed
description of the ‘get’ phrasal verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents. Then
examples for illustrating the description will be taken from the grammar and
reference books written by contemporary influential linguists in English such as
“The hobbit” J. R. R. Tolkien J. R.
The second, quantitative method is used to quantify ‘get’ phrasal verbs which
are found out in the research.

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
It is due to the framework of a Master thesis, this study focuses mainly on
‘get’ phrasal verbs with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents as a very
specifically characteristic trait of the English language.
Comparative method is used to analyze the ‘get’ phrasal verbs to explore the
Vietnamese translation equivalents, hence pointing out the distinctive features of
‘get’ phrasal verbs which cause difficulties for Vietnamese learners and suggesting
some implications for teaching these verbs to learners at Hanoi Vocational College
of High Technology.
Survey questionnaire in the form of a written test is used as one of data
collection methods to evaluate participants’ ability in understanding ‘get’ phrasal
verb in terms of syntactic and semantic features. Then, the statistic method is

3


applied to present quantitative descriptions in a manageable form to simplify large
amounts of data in a sensible way.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
It is hoped that the overall findings of the present study will be useful to everyone
involved in language, teaching, learning, doing translation of the Phrasal verbs in
Vietnam because language teachers and learners in particular will be made more
aware of the importance of this language feature for a more effective and efficient
communication.
The first, Theoretical significance.
The theories used to support this analysis are the theory of phrasal verbs
proposed by Brown (2002) as the main theory to know types of phrasal verbs using
particles (out, up, over, in, into, back, down, and away). The types are categorized
based on the particle which collocate the verb, such as particles (out, up, over, in,

into, back, down, and away) and the transitivity of 9 phrasal verb. The theory of
shift proposed by Catford (1965) and prepositional verb are the supporting theories
used to identify the existence of translation shift of phrasal verbs. Category shifts
are divided into four types: Structure shifts, Class shifts, Unit shifts, and Intra
system shifts. The theory proposed by Larson (1998) is also used as to identify the
strategies of equivalence applied in translating the novel of ‘The Hobbit’. Finding
the equivalence strategy is the main goal in translation.
The second, practical significance
In teaching English, Phrasal verbs are an essential part of English
communication and they are important for the students to know and understand.
Phrasal verbs are commonly used at the office, in the household and in everyday
conversation. They have become the beans and rice of English, so make sure the
students have more than a few phrasal verbs in their English vocabulary.
In learning English, when they watch movie, cartoon without translating into
Vietnamese they sometimes do not understand whole the contents so students are
most likely using phrasal verbs to understand, talk, share their ideas, put forward
opinions and learn different perspectives using English. They all want to be
exceptional English communicators.

4


In translating, Phrasal verbs are very important for translators because they
are so prevalent in everyday spoken and informal written language. Not only do
translators need to understand the more common phrasal verbs, but they will also
need to use them themselves correctly.

1.7 DESIGN OF THE STUDY
According to the format of thesis. It will be divided into 5 chapters:
- Chapter 1 gives introduction.

- Chapter 2 Literature review gives the previous studies, presents the theoretical
background issues relating to English phrasal verbs, describes the syntactic and
semantic features of phrasal verbs and gives The differences of phrasal verbs,
collocations and idioms.
- Chapter 3 describes the findings of the syntactic and semantic features of ‘get’
phrasal verbs in English.
- Chapter 4 proposes some pedagogics of the study, especially for the target of
learners at Hanoi vocational college of high technology (HHT).
- Chapter 5 Conclusion
- References come at the end of the study.

5


Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Previous studies
The body of literature dealing with phrasal verbs is extensive, and the
approaches taken are manifold, the terminological approach to multi-word verbs in
this study basically follows Quirk et al.’s (1985) division of multi-word verbs into
‘phrasal verbs’, ‘prepositional verbs’, and ‘phrasal-prepositional verbs’ which in
turn is essentially based on Mitchell (1958). All these multi-word verbs constitute a
syntactic or lexical unit functioning like a single lexical verb; they consist of a verb
and one or two additional elements, generally called particles. Further subdivisions
then relate to the nature of the particle. The general consensus is that in phrasal
verbs it is an adverb, in prepositional verbs a preposition, and in phrasalprepositional verbs an adverb and a preposition.
There are, however, a host of other definitions as to what a phrasal verb is.
Most phrasal-verb dictionaries, e. g. Sinclair and Moon (1989), Cowie and Mackin
(1993), Cullen and Sargeant (1996), and Cambridge International Dictionary of
Phrasal Verbs (1997), include not only phrasal verbs ‘proper’ (according to Quirk et
al.’s (1985) definition), but also prepositional verbs, i.e. verbs with a specified

preposition such as rely on, and phrasal-prepositional verbs (such as put up with).
Others (Cowie & Mackin 1975 and Courtney 1983) go so far as to incorporate verbadjective (lie low), verb-pronoun (kid oneself), or other combinations.26 Most nondictionary oriented linguists however draw the line more rigidly and include only
verb-adverb combinations (e.g. Biber et al. 1999, Greenbaum 1996a, Lipka 1972,
McArthur 1989, Palmer 1974), but not all of them call them ‘phrasal verbs’ (Lipka
1972 for example uses the term ‘verb-particle constructions’). As far as the nonverbal element of a phrasal verb is concerned, most linguists agree that this particle
has adverbial status (e.g. Biber et al. 1999, Bolinger 1971, Cowie 1993, Greenbaum
1996a, Lipka 1972, McArthur 1989, Palmer 1974, Quirk et al. 1985). Huddleston
and Pullum (2002) take a different approach, calling this element an intransitive
preposition. They even refrain from using the expression ‘phrasal verb’ at all, on the
basis that verb + particle combinations of the type put in (an application) do not
form one syntactic constituent any more than do verb + unspecified preposition
combinations such as carry in (the chairs), where in could be replaced by out or
over.
6


According to Stephens “a phrasal verb is made up of a verb and one or two
or three particles which together function as a single verb. The particle may be an
adverb, a preposition, or a word that can act as either an adverb or a preposition”.
Stephens, Ann. (2002) ed. The English Phrasal Verb. University of North Carolina
Press.
Mortimer C. (1972). Phrasal Verbs in Conversation. London: Longman
Group Limited states that "The English language has hundreds of two-part verbs
such as bring up, carry on and put up. These are easy enough to understand when
the meaning of the whole two-part verb is equal to the meaning of the sum of its
two parts". However, he concedes: "But in many cases, knowing the meaning of
the parts does not help us to know the meaning of the whole". Thus, to add the
meaning of bring to the meaning of up will not help us to understand the meaning
of bring up in the expression “He brought up a point”. Nor will it help us to
understand bring up in the expression “She brought up a family”.

Whether used literally or figuratively, phrasal verbs are acquired early by native
speakers, but usually late by foreign learners because their grammar is difficult
and their meaning cannot in many cases be deduced from the meanings of the
separate words. There can be no doubt that phrasal verbs have received a
considerable amount of attention in recent years.
According

to

Nguyễn

Hoa

Lạc,

lecturer

in

English,

“In

transformational generative grammar, the verb phrase is the part of a sentence
which contains the main verb and also any object(s), complement(s) and
adverbial(s).” (An outline of syntax, 2004: 53). Besides, a Vietnamese linguist Diệp
Quang Ban gives us another definition in Vietnamese, “Cụm động từ là tổ hợp từ tự
do không có kết từ đứng đầu, có quan hệ chính phụ giữa thành tố chính với thành tố
phụ, và thành tố chính là động từ.” (Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt, 2006: 62). Or Phạm Thị
Hà, a M.A in Quang Binh University, paraphrased it into English in her paper,

“Verb phrase is a free word phrase having main – subordinate relation and
containing a verb serve as the central element and many additive elements which
modify the meanings for the central element.”
Up to now, although a number of research topics about phrasal verbs with
reference to Vietnamese equivalents have been done. In this paper, I am especially
7


interested in researching about the syntactic and semantic features of ‘get’ phrasal
verbs because “Get” phrasal is one of common phrasal verbs. It is not easy for
learners to understand deeply and clearly. the manifold meaning of Get phrasal is
used shown the using in English. This research will be effective for us to teach
English verb phrase to Vietnamese learners learning English as a second language
as well.

2.2 A History of English phrasal verbs
Phrasal verbs have been presented for much of the history of the English
language; they are easily traceable back to early Middle English (McArthur, 1992,
p. 773). There are similar constructions in other Germanic languages, such as Dutch
(Neeleman & Weerman, 1993), but such constructions are less common in other
language families and can therefore be considered typologically unusual. Like the
phenomenon of preposition-stranding, phrasal verbs appear to occur only in the
Germanic languages (Newmeyer, 2005, p. 113).
(i) The Ancestors of Phrasal Verbs in Old English
According to Millward C.M.(1996). A Biography of the English Language. 2nd
edition Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace pointed out that the range and importance of
verb particle-constructions in the spoken language of the early stages of
development is hard to be dealt with. Still, Baugh Albert C. and Thomas C.
(1993). A History of the English Language. 4thedition Eaglewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice Hall., Traugott, and ElizabethC (1972). History of English Syntax. New

York: Holt Rinehard and Winston has shown that the Old English ancestors of
modern phrasal verbs were generally inseparable prefix verbs, although some
separable forms did exist. Millward states that the inseparable prefix verb was a
form in which the particle was attached to the beginning of the verb. These Old
English prefixed verbs are comparable to current phrasal forms. For example, in
present day English, there is the mono-transitive verb to burn and then the phrasal
mono- transitive to burn up. Old English had baerman (to burn) and forbaerman
(to burn up). The prefix for remained affixed to the verb and could not move as
modern particle can. Millaward, C.M.(1996). A Biography of the English
Language. 2

nd

edition Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace.

8


Such Old English compound verbs were also highly idiomatic, in that the
meaning of the compound form did not necessarily reflect the meaning of the root.
Denison , D. (1986). English Historical Syntax: Verbal Constructions. London and
New York: Longman provides beraedan as an example because it meant to
dispossess, while its root verb raedan meant to advice.
Akimoto M.(1999). Collocations and Idioms in Late Modern

English.

Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins suggests that Old English prefixes
often remained before the verb because the Old English had strong object-beforeverb tendencies, whereas present day English is largely a VO (verb + object)
language, which has made it possible for particles to travel to post verbal positions.

Some Old English verbs did function as modern phrasal verbs do. Referring to the
post-verbal particles in this period was still often very directional, in close
relationship with a prepositional meaning.
Therefore, applications of the particle up in Old English conveyed a sense of direction
upward, as in to grow up (ward), rather than the completive sense, as in to break up
(completely), that would become more common in Middle English and beyond.
(ii) Phrasal Verbs in Middle English
This section will deal with those forms of phrasal verbs that occur in Middle
English. Thus, the formation of prefixes verbs in Old English was no longer
productive in Middle English, and the loss of productivity was already evident in
Old English, in which certain authors added a post-verbal particle to prefixed verbs
possible because the prefix was losing meaning [Denison, D. (1986). English
Historical Syntax: Verbal Constructions. London and New York: Longman:47].
The rapid borrowings of French verbs into Middle English likely showed the
development of phrasal verbs because of competition in semantic fields of the Old
English prefixed verbs. [Baugh, A. C. and Thomas C. (1993). A History of the
th

English Language. 4 edition Eaglewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall :340] For
example, the French borrowing destroy could accommodate the meaning of the
Old English forbrecan (break up) [Smith, J. (1996). A Historical Study of English.
London and New York: Routledge:140]
French forms also likely hindered phrasal verbs because of lexical register. French
was the language of status in England after Norman Conquest, and phrasal verbs
9


were considered informal [Tanabe, H. (1999). Composite Predicates and Phrasal
Verbs in the Paston Letters, Amsterdam and Philadelphia:123].
Nonetheless, phrasal verbs regained strong productivity by the 15th century

Middle English underwent a shift in syntax from many instances of SOV to SVO
as it lost many synthetic inflections from Old English, becoming a much more
analytic, or word-order based language. The new VO word order, as Akimoto
claims, likely enabled adverbial particles.
In other words, Old English forbrecan became to break up. By late Middle
English, phrasal verbs could be divided into three categories such as Old English
style inseparable particle + verb, phrasal verbs including verbs + separable
particle and impounds derived from the first two.
(iii)Phrasal Verbs in Early Modern English
The incidence of phrasal verbs exploded in Early Modern English. Shakespeare
himself applied the form widely through the plays. Hiltuten explains that the
phrasal verbs were used extensively in Early Modern English dramatic texts
because of their variable shades of meaning and productive capacity “to be
expanded to form new idioms”. Akimoto also notes that “phrasal verbs occur more
frequently in letters and dramas than in essays or academic writing” in the 18th
and 19th centuries. This confirms that phrasal verbs occupied a lower social
position in Early Modern English than, perhaps, single Latinate verbs that could
fill their semantic fields, which gives rise, incidentally, to a syntactic test for
phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs in Early Modern English could be formed with a noun
+ particle, such as ‘to louse up’ [Millaward, C.M.(1996). A Biography of the
nd

English Language. 2 edition Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace: 319]. It was also in this
period that pronominal objects were firmly established before particles (for
example: She put it on. But not * She put on it) as a standard practice, while
nominal objects retained movement before and after the particle (for example: She
put the dress on or She put on the dress).
(iv)Phrasal Verbs in present-day English:
In present-day English, phrasal verbs are identifiable by particle movement (when
transitive), stressed particles, incapacity for adverb intervention in the verb phrase,

by translation and passivation. A phrasal verb in present-day English is a verb that
takes a complementary particle which is an adverb resembling a preposition,
10


necessary to complete sentence (for example: He fixed up the car).
Therefore, the earliest study that has been written about phrasal verbs dates
from the 16th century, when William Bullokar wrote The Brief Grammar for
English in 1586. Following the works of William Bullokar, two other studies have
been done one was A Treatise of the English Particles written by Walker Leeds in
1665 and the other was The English Grammar written by Michael Mattaire in 1729.
Further on, Henry Sweet entitled his study on phrasal verbs A New English
Grammar in 1892.
2.3 Theoretical framework
2.3.1 Definition of English phrasal verbs
A phrasal verb is a type of verb in English that operates more like a phrase
than a word. The expression phrasal verb refers, in English Grammar, to a
combination of a verb and a prepositional or adverbial particle, in which the
combination often takes on a meaning which is apparently not the simple sum of
its parts, for example turn up means ‘appear’.
Longman Dictionary of phrasal verbs defines phrasal verb as “idiomatic
combination of a verb and adverb, or a verb and preposition (or verb with both
adverb and preposition)”. A grammarian such as Eduard, Vlad (1998) [Eduard,
V(1998).English Group Grammar. Constanta: Tipografia : 93] describes phrasal
verb as “combination of a lexical verb and adverbial particle”. Verbs as ‘give up’,
‘fall out’ and ‘take in’ are considered by him to be multi-words verbs that are
equivalent to one lexical item.
Heaton considers that “phrasal verbs are compound verbs that results from
combining a verb with an adverb or a preposition, the resulting compound verb
being idiomatic”

Tom McArthur in the Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992)
notes that these verbs are also referred to by many other names such verb phrase,
discontinuous verbs, compound verb, verb-adverb combination, and verb-particle
construction. Crystal in the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English language
calls this linguistic phenomenon a “ Multi –word verb” that is the best described as
a lexeme, a unit of meaning that may be greater than a single word.
A phrasal verb is defined by Broukal and Woods as “the combination of a verb + an
adverb particle and sometimes the particle may be followed by a preposition”. They

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go on to say that “most of the particles look like prepositions but act as adverbs,
and usually change the meaning of the verb they are connected”. The same
definition is given by Kollin [Kollin, M. (1982). Easy Grammar Plus. Wanda
Phillips.: 12] when she states that “phrasal verbs are common structures in English.
They consist of a verb combined with a preposition like word, known as particle”.
She goes on to say that “phrasal verbs include both two-and three-word strings”.
Examples of such phrasal verbs are ‘give up’, ‘look after’, ‘hand in’ which include
two strings while ‘put up with’, ‘give in to’ and ‘put up for’ include three strings.
Phrasal verbs are considered by Graver as “semi-compounds” whereas
Palmer [Palmer, F. R.(1998). The English Verb. London, New York: Longman:
180] regards them as “single units in the grammar”. He gives reasons for naming
them like that by saying that “there are several collocation restrictions. We can give
up but not give down. We can look after someone but not look before him”. He
adds that phrasal verbs are “obviously semantic units” because ‘give in’ equals
‘yield’, ‘look after’ may be replaced by the literary ‘tend’, ‘put up’ has the
meaning of ‘invent’, and ‘put up with’ means ‘tolerate’. What has been stated by
Palmer concerning the treatment of phrasal verbs as single units is quite true and
has a solid basis simply because we have to place certain prepositions or adverbs

after certain verbs in order to convey meanings or concepts. All these definitions
lead to another aspect proposed for discussion, which is the classification of
phrasal verbs in English language In addition to this, it is necessary to distinguish
between phrasal and prepositional verbs.

2.3.2 Classifications of English phrasal verbs
According to Green Baum and Quirk (1990: 148) there are four different
types of verb particle combinations:
a. If the verb is intransitive, the particle is a prepositional-adverb, functioning as
adjunct. Thus, it is a phrasal verb.
b. If the verb is transitive, and the particle is not mobile it is a prepositional verb.
c. If the verb is transitive, but the particle is mobile, it is also a phrasal verb.
d. If two particles follow, then, it is a phrasal-prepositional verb.
Complex verbs are a variety of verbal compounds made up of a principal
verb and an adverbial particle (up, in, out) which usually modifies and sometimes
only determines the meaning of the former. For example ‘to bring about’ means ‘to

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determine, to cause’, ‘to bring up’ means ‘to educate’, ‘to fall out’ means ‘to
argue’. As it has been demonstrated in the first part of this chapter, since
Renaissance Period, complex verbs have gone a long way developing steadily
and giving rise to ever newer form as a rule on the basic of Old English onesyllable verbs. Many of these complex forms have developed an astonishing
polysemy.
A complex verb of the type ‘to give up’, ‘to take in’, ‘to take off’, ‘to bring
out’, though a variety of compound verbs proper (‘to broadcast’, ‘to whitewash’),
differs from the latter in that it behaves differently in a sentence the verb may be
separated from its adverbial particle by a direct object. Complex verbs such as ‘to
break loose’, ‘to leave alone’ behave like ‘to give up’, but they differ from them in

that loose, home, alone are not adverbial particles but adverbs and adjectives,
bearers of a far greater semantic weight than adverbial particles, although as
indissolubly linked with the verb proper.[Levitchi, D. Leon (1970), Limba Engleza
Contemperana-Lexicologie, Editura Didactica si Pedagogica, Bucuresti: 67]
An aspect related to compound verbs is that compounds, as hold off are not
to be confused with combinations as ‘to come in’ or ‘to go out’ or ‘to look up’, in
which in, out, up are adverbs forming answers to such questions as: ‘where?’,
‘where to?’, ‘in what directions?’.
Let’s see the following examples:
The boy went in. (Where did the boy go?)
The rain held off. (No such question is possible: What is said
about the rain or What did the rain do?)
The exemplifications support the fact that complex verb is a special category of
compounds [Levitchi, D.Leon (1970), Limba Engleza Contemperana-Lexicologie,
Editura Didactica si Pedagogica, Bucuresti: 69] So far, all these classifications and
comments have shown that phrasal verbs are considered and called ‘complex
verbs’ in Leon Levitchi’s point of view, but they are also called as ‘multi-word
verbs’ and ‘phrasal-prepositional verbs by Greenbaum, Sidney and Quirk,
Randolph Rosemary, [C. (1993). Longman Dictionary of Phrasal verbs. England:
Longman House.]
. Basing upon the origin of the particle that follows the main verb, Rosemary
Courtney distinguished three types of phrasal verbs.

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(i) Verb + adverb
The old lady was taken in (‘deceived’) by the salesman

(ii) Verb + preposition

She sat about (‘started’) making a new dress

(iii) Verb + adverb + preposition
I cannot put up with (‘bear’) him because he is always complaining.
On the other hand, the Oxford English Grammar distinguishes seven types of
phrasal verbs in English according to transitivity Intransitive phrasal verbs (give in)

(i) Transitive phrasal verbs (find out)
(ii) Mono-Transitive prepositional verb (Look after)
(iii) Doubly transitive prepositional verb (Put up with)
(iv) Copular prepositional verb (serve as)
(vi) Mono-transitive phrasal prepositional verbs (look up = ‘respect’)
(vii) Doubly transitive phrasal prepositional verbs (put something down
to someone = ‘attribute to’)
[Oxford English Grammar, 1983 London: Oxford University Press:145].
In short, phrasal verbs can be classified into 4 kinds: phrasal verbs
(intransitive and transitive), prepositional phrasal verbs, verbs with prepositional
adverbs, verbs with particles and preposition, and the ‘get’ phrasal verbs can serve
as all kinds.
So far, is the most comprehensive because other grammarians like Quirk, R.[ Quirk,
R. (1973). A University Grammar of English. Burnt Mill, Essex: Longman House]
Veres, Grigore Veres, Andriescu, Luliana, Cehan, Ancs (1998). A Dictionary of
English Grammar: Lasi: University of Al.L. Cuza. and V. Eduard,V.(1998).English
Group Grammar.Constanta:Tipografia divide phrasal verbs into transitive and
intransitive ones. I would like to use the following classification to analyze my
research because It is not only short but also coherent. Base on this theory, It is
easier for me to develop my thesis.
2.3.2.1. Intransitive phrasal verbs
According to J.B Heaton (2004), intransitive phrasal verbs (Vintr) cannot
be followed by an object. They have the structure as follows:

Intransitive phrasal verb = Verb + Particle (Vintr + Part.)

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Let’s see the following examples:
The students were standing up.
Sit down, please!
Drink quickly up!
The Jet has just taken off
Get up at once!
Did he catch on?
I agreed to meet Peter at the basketball game, but he never showed up.
“Grammar back 2004”
Most of the particles are place adjuncts or can function as such. Heaton claims that
normally, the particle cannot be separated from its verbs (Drink quickly up!)
though particles used as intensifiers or perfectives or referring to direction can be
modified by intensifiers (Go right on).
Some intransitive patterns can become transitive by the addition of a direct object.
Let’s see the following examples:
The driver slowed down. (Intransitive)
The driver slowed the car down. (Transitive)
Note however that the patterns are not always related in meaning, as with take off,
take something off and take someone off.
The Jet took off. (It left the ground)
My father took his hat off. (He removed his hat)
She took Mr. Bean off. (She imitated Mr. Bean.)
When the intransitive phrasal verb is in isolation, the stress is always on the
particle. Within a sentence the stress is also on the particle when the phrasal verb
stands alone at the end of a sentence (or clause) as in the following:

The lorry slowed down and came to a halt.
Do you and your girls get on?
When did your flight eventually take off?
In other cases, especially when an adverb follows the phrasal verb the usual rules
for sentence stress apply
The lorry slowed down immediately.
You and your girls get on well?
“Grammar back 2004”
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2.3.2.2. Transitive phrasal verbs
Transitive phrasal verbs (Vtr), in Heaton’s opinion, are those that always
take a direct object. The position of the direct object varies. They have the
structures as follows:
Transitive Phrasal verb = Verb + Direct object + Particle (Vtr + Od +
Part.) Transitive Phrasal verb = Verb + Particle + Direct object(Vtr+
Part. + Od)
A phrasal verb can be transitive when it takes a direct object.
Let’s see the following examples:
You need to fill out this form to register for the course. (fill out = complete)
I’m going to cut down on fast food this year.
(cut down on = reduce)
Check out that website – it’s really great!

(check out = look at, go to)

Transitive phrasal verbs can be separable or inseparable. If a phrasal verb
is separable, it means you can separate the two words and put the direct object in the
middle. If it is inseparable, then you can not do this.

Separable Phrasal Verb
Let’s see the following examples:
TURN OFF
Please turn off the TV.
Please turn the TV off.
Inseparable Phrasal Verb
Let’s see the following examples:
LOOK AFTER
I will look after your dog while you’re on vacation.
I will look your dog after while you’re on vacation – incorrect
When the direct object is the specific name of a thing or person, it can be
located after the phrasal verb or in the middle:
I threw away the old pizza.
= I threw the old pizza away.
However, when the direct object is a pronoun (me, you, him, her, us, them, it), then
it MUST go in the middle:
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