9. PROPERTIES OF PARTICLES AND VERBS WHICH
9.4 Syntactic properties
9.5.2 Aspectual/Aktionsart meaning
In addition, in a number of cases the particle, rather than serving as an adverbial with a spatial meaning, appears to modify the meaning of the verb and its function is apparently isolated. Several linguists, such as Kennedy (1920: 24), Poutsma (1926: 296), Curme (1931: 379), Jowett (1950/51:
156), Potter (1965: 297-8), Live (1965: 436), Bolinger (1971: 96-110), Lipka (1972: 182-184) and Fraser (1976: 6) pointed out that besides their lexical meaning (locative and Aktionsart meaning), most particles frequently function as markers of aspect, the historical development of which was discussed in Chapter 8. As mentioned in 8.2, the adverb (or adverbial particle) is said to contribute to the expression of aspect and mode of action
(Aktionsart), which is used for the distinction of several phases of the action or process, such as inchoative, ingressive, continuative, progressive, egressive, conclusive, resultative, terminative, iterative, frequentive vs.
durative, punctual vs. linear, and also intensive, or intensifying.
Analysing the meanings of particles up and out, the two most common particles in Modern English, traditional grammarians refer to the following aspectual/Aktionsart meanings:
UP
Kennedy (1920: 24-5) ‘locative idea’ and ‘perfective value’
combined
e.g. cage up, board up, lace up
‘perfective value’ meaning ‘bringing to or out of a condition’
e.g. heat up, clean up, light up Poutsma (1926: 296, 300-1) ‘ingressive aspect’
e.g. look up (to), stand up, sit up
‘terminative aspect’
e.g. finish up, drink up, dry up Curme (1931: 379, 381) ‘ingressive aspect’
e.g. hurry up, stand up, show up
‘effective aspect’
e.g. set up
‘durative effective aspect’
e.g. keep up
Jowett (1950/51: 156) ‘intensive force and the thoroughness and completeness of
the process’
e.g. shoot up, slip up, beat up Potter (1965: 287-8) ‘intensive adverb’
e.g. smash up, break up, wash up
‘instantaneous aspect’
e.g. cheer up, hurry up, wake up Live (1965: 436) ‘intensity or totality’
e.g. dry up, heal up, grind up
Bolinger (1971: 99-100) ‘perfective meaning as manifested in resultant condition’
e.g. shrivel up, break up, close up
‘perfective in the sense of completion or inception’
e.g. let up, give up, take up
‘perfective in the sense of attaining high intensity’
e.g. hurry up, brighten up, speed up Lipka (1972: 182, 183-4) ‘ingressive’ mode of action
e.g. take up, put up, sit up Fraser (1976: 6) ‘completive sense’
e.g. mix up, stir up, wind up
Mitchell (1979: 109) ‘terminative points of processes’
e.g. tear up
OUT
Kennedy (1920: 24) ‘completeness or finality’
e.g. feather out, carry out, map out
‘openness or publicity which does not necessarily imply completeness’
e.g. hatch out, blossom out, call out
‘exhaustion or extinction’
e.g. blot out, die out, wear out Poutsma (1926: 300) ‘terminative aspect’
e.g. wait out, starve out, search out
Curme (1931: 379, 381) ‘ingressive aspect’
e.g. come out
‘effective aspect’
e.g. turn out, give out, find out
‘durative effective aspect’
e.g. fight out, stand out, hold out Live (1965: 436) ‘thoroughness and culmination’
e.g. work out, think out, seek out
Potter (1965: 288) ‘intensive adverb’
e.g. find out
Bolinger (1971: 104-5) ‘resultant condition’ or more opaque aspectual meaning
e.g. lose out, help out, work out,
or ‘exhaustion’
e.g. talk out, play out
Lipka (1972: 182, 183-4) ‘ingressive’ mode of action e.g. set out
‘completive’
e.g. die out, write out, puzzle out
‘terminativeness’, ‘to an end’, or
‘until finished’
e.g. burn out, live out, wait out Fraser (1976: 6) ‘completive sense’
e.g. die out, fade out, spread out Mitchell (1979: 169) ‘terminative’
e.g. sell out, pass out, peg out, peter
out, give out, last out
‘inceptive’
e.g. set out, break out (in a rash), burst out (laughing)
‘extensive’
e.g. stretch out, spread out, string out,
roll out (carpet)
‘distributive’
e.g. mete out, deal out, hand out, give
out
‘abessive’
e.g. cast out, ferret out, pop out, pour
out
‘discriminative’
e.g. stand out, make out, point out,
find out, stick out
The aspect/Aktionsart meanings of some of the less common particles generally referred to are as follows:
DOWN: ‘a diminution or complete cessation of a state or action’
(Kennedy 1920), ‘ingressive aspect’ (Poutsma 1926, Curme 1931),
‘effective aspect’ (Curme 1931) and ‘intensive adverb’ (Potter 1965).
OFF: ‘orderliness or completion’, ‘riddance or extermination’ (Kennedy 1920), ‘ingressive aspect’ (Curme 1931, Poutsma 1926), ‘effective aspect’
(Curme 1931), ‘terminative slant’ (Live 1965), ‘intensive adverb’ (Potter 1961) and ‘terminative’ (Mitchell 1979).
AWAY: ‘ingressive aspect’ (Poutsma 1926; Curme 1931), ’effective aspect’, ‘durative effective aspect’ (Curme 1931), ‘iterative or the durative’,
‘inchoative in imperatives’ (Live 1965), and ‘without let or hindrance’, either iterative or inceptive’ (Bolinger 1971).
THROUGH: ‘terminative aspect’ (Poutsma 1926) and ‘effective aspect’,
‘durative effective aspect’ (Curme 1931).
ON: ‘continuative aspect’ with durative verbs’ (Poutsma 1926), ‘durative aspect’ (Curme 1931, Bolinger 1971) and ‘progressive-continuative’
(Mitchell 1979).
From the above comments concerning the aspectual/ Aktionsart nature of the particles, we can see that the particles often give the ingressive mode of action, a continuative and a completive sense to the phrasal verbs. The ingressive mode of action plays a great role in phrasal verbs with in and on, while up, out, down and off are mainly assigned completive, perfective force and away and on are very often the markers of continuity (cf. Kovács 2004c).
Analysing the meanings of particles given in Collins COBUILD Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs (2002: 448-492), I have found the following most common aspectual/Aktionsart meanings:
Inceptive, ingressive, which focuses on the initial phase of the situation
bring in (a new law, rule, system ~ introduce), set in (bad weather (begins) and phase in (a new product, method, idea ~ introduce gradually), etc.
kick off (a tour, a discussion ~ start), spark off (an event, conflict ~ causes to exist or happen), take off (a plane) and trigger off (an event, reaction ~ cause it to happen), etc.
bring on (an illness, pain ~ cause it to occur), catch on to, cotton on (a game, a system ~ understand) start on doing sth (begin doing it or dealing with it), enter on and embark on (start to do it), etc.
break out (war) and set out (for a place, to do sth), etc.
The words: to start, to begin, cause to happen, introduce in the definitions clearly show the inceptive meaning of in, off, on and out in the above examples.
Continuative/progressive, which involves the middle phase of the situation
beaver away (work very hard at a job), grind away (work very hard, but in an uninterested way), hammer away at (work at it continuously and with great energy), slave away (work hard at something for a long time), slog away (continue to work hard at it for a long time), toil away (work hard at something continuously over a long period of time, especially something that is unpleasant and physically very tiring), work away (continue working hard for a long time), plod away (at a particular job or task) ~ continue doing it without much enthusiasm), talk away (talk continuously for a period of time) type away (type busily and for a long time)
drag on (legal cases, meeting ~ progresses very slowly , take longer than seems necessary), ramble on about (a favourite topic ~ talk or write for a long time in a rather confused and disordered way), go on, carry on, keep on (doing sth ~ continue)
The continuative meanings of away and on are illustrated by words, such as: continue doing it, for a long time, continuously, for a period of time in the definitions.
Terminative, completive, which definitely marks the terminal phase of the situation
pass away (die), pull down (flats), clamp down on (trouble makers), break down (marriages) and close down (firms);
leave off doing (stop doing it), break off (relations, game end, stop), call off (strike), finish off, polish off (job) and pay off (debts) ~ give sb the total amount of money that you owe them);
wipe out (epidemics) ~ destroy get rid of them completely) and phase out (product, method system ~ stop using it);
give up (an activity, a task ~ stop doing it), clear up a problem, drink up (finish what you are drinking completely), finish up (complete it by doing the last part of it), end up, wind up (debate ~ finish or stop doing it) and use up ~ finish it so that none of it is left);
fall through (plan goes wrong before it can be completed) and go through with (decision, action continue to do what is necessary in order to achieve it or complete it)
In the definitions given above, the words finish, complete, stop, completely and total serve as evidence that down, off, out, up and through are common terminative aspectual markers.
Besides the above aspectual meanings, the particles can contribute several other lexical meanings to the verb. Let us just mention some of the categories of meanings referred to in Collins COBUILD Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs (1995: 448-492), e.g.
Decreasing, reducing
cut down (shopping), bring down (prices), narrow down (discussion), play down (importance) and fall off (number of students);
Increasing and improving
brush up (knowledge), bring up (children), build up (pressure), cheer sb up, dress up, pick up (economy), grow up (children) and speak up;
Disappearing slowly, becoming less intensive, frequent, common, or much quieter
fade away (rumour), calm down and die down (anger, laughter);
wear off (shock, effect of medicine), work off (stress) and cool off (love);
Creating, producing, happening
make up (a story), bring up (the matter), pick up (English), think up (a clever idea, ways) and come up (something);
put out (a press release), spell out (facts, ideas, and opinions) and come out (book);
Although up (526 phrasal verbs) and out (446 phrasal verbs), which are the most common particles in phrasal verbs, have aspectual meanings in many cases, there are also combinations with clearly idiomatic meanings.
For example, there is no ‘out’-ness discernable for out in idiomatic phrasal verbs, such as in fall out (quarrel), take my bad feelings out on sb, hang out somewhere (live somewhere and spend a lot of time there) and sort out (resolve). Or there is no up-ness for put up with (tolerate), make up for (compensate for), turn up (come, appear) and own up to sth (confess).
To complicate matters further, one must take into account collocation dependencies, thus to take only aspectually terminative examples: it is tracks, paths, streams, talks or an attack that peter out, candles, fires or a piece of machinery that burn out, batteries, engines that give out, money that both gives out or runs out, milk, beer, meat or fish that go off, or it is shapes,
visions, music, cheering, strength, vitality inventiveness and inspiration that fade away, etc. (cf. Oxford Phrasal Verbs Dictionary for Learners of English 2001)
Besides, as the above examples show, a lot of phrasal verbs are polysemous, i.e. they have more than one aspectual meaning as well, e.g.
away can indicate that a process or an activity continues throughout a period of time (beaver away, grind away, work away) but it can also indicate that something gradually disappears or is gradually destroyed until it does not exist at all (die away, eat away, fade away, pass away and rot away, etc).
As pointed out by Bolinger (1971: 102), while the literal ‘centrifugal‘
meaning of the particles is not restricted, some particles in their aspectual meaning, such as out is restricted to morphology and to native verbs, as illustrated by the following examples:
Can you fit out this expedition?
*Can you equip out this expedition?
I helped him out.
*I aided him out.
Furthermore, there can be subtle distinctions between related phrasal verbs depending on the particles they combine with. Let us compare clean out and clean up:
According to the authors of Macmillan Phrasal Verbs Plus (2005), if you clean something out, you make a place or container clean and tidy by removing objects that are not wanted and getting rid of any dirt or dust in it.
The Oxford Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs (1993) gives the following typical objects clean out collocates with: farmyard; cowshed; barn; wash-house;
latrine.
Clean up has the following meanings: make a place tidy (O: room, work-bench, desk); remove objects, dirt from a place (O: rubbish, debris, mess,);
wash sb; remove pollution (O: waste sites, beaches), get rid of crime (O:
corruption, vice, drug traffic) and make a lot of money, inf. (O: a small fortune, a cool thousand).
The difference in meaning is explained by Kennedy (1920: 37) like this:
out has a certain directional force which suggests the removal of debris or unnecessary articles, while up lends to the combination a ‘perfective force’.
Interestingly enough, when a new combination occurs, they fit into the broad patterns of choice and selection in English. Fraser (1976: 12), however, points out that ‘while we find bake up, cook up, fry up, broil up and brew up, we do not find roast up or braise up, although these latter two
verb-particle combinations are perfectly understandable and acceptable.’ In the same way, while dish out, feed out (the line), give out, hand out, lend out, pass out, pay out, pour out, serve out, throw out and toss out denoting the conveying of something to someone or some place exist, combinations like *grant out,* offer out, and *show out do not occur.
This observation of Fraser’s is justified by Kerry Maxwell in the Language Study of Macmillan Phrasal Verbs Plus (2005: LS26) when he notes that many new combinations of verb and particales arise from the creative use of English. The particle off is often used to express the idea of removing something (as in phrasal verbs like cut off and cross off). It is by analogy with this that the’new’ phrasal verb bin sb off (removing someone from a job or position) must have come into use. Similarly, another ‘new’
phrasal verb, google out (suggesting the idea of discovering information by means of a thorough search) might be related to find out or hunt out. The particle up is also often used creatively: the meaning ‘improving, making something seem more sophisticated, attractive, interesting or exciting’ is reflected in some ‘new’ phrasal verbs namely, sex up, big up or teched-up (provided with computers and internet access), just like in dress up and jazz up.