9. PROPERTIES OF PARTICLES AND VERBS WHICH
9.3 Morphological properties
First let us have a look at the morphological characteristics of the verb component in multi-word verbs and their combination possibilities with particles. The Collins COBUILD Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs (1995: vi, 2002: vii) gives thirty-eight common verbs which occur in a large number of combinations with different particles, and which have many non-transparent meanings. As pointed out, phrasal verbs which have literal meanings are not included. The thirty-eight verbs are:
break fall kick make put stay
bring get knock move run stick
call give lay pass send take cast go lie play set talk
come hang live pull sit throw
cut hold look push stand turn
do keep
As Live (1965: 430) points out, the verbs most active in this kind of combination are of the old, common monosyllabic or trochaic “basic English” variety (many of them of ‘irregular’ conjugation in modern English): bring, send, take, set, go, come and look, and many others, each occurring in combination with a considerable number of the particles, whereas many of the “more learned” (often polysyllabic) verbs of classic or French borrowing occur with none.
It is noteworthy that most of these verbs are dynamic and mainly denote motion. Stative verbs rarely occur in verb + particle constructions.
Whenever they do, they refer to actions and thus they have dynamic verb senses. Consider the following examples:
hear (sth) from (sb) ~ receive news or information from someone usually by letter or telephone
hear sb out ~ listen to someone until they have said everything they want to hear
see about ~ deal with something or organise something
see sb off ~ go somewhere such as a station or airport with someone in order to say good bye to them
see sb out ~ go with someone to the door when they are leaving in order to say goodbye to them
feel for ~ try to find something with your hands, especially because you cannot see clearly smell sb/sth up (AE) ~ cause a person or a place have an unpleasant smell
want in ~ to want to enter a place want out ~ to want to leave a place
have sth on ~ to be wearing particular clothes, shoes, etc.
have sb in ~ they have come to your house, office, factory etc. to do some work there
have sb over ~ they come to your house to visit you, usually for a meal or drink
The dynamic character of the verbs in the list above may be the reason why it does not contain the verb be. It seems to be missing from dictionaries as well, except for the Oxford Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs (1993), in which be combines with the following particles: about, around, above, after, against, along, around, at, away, back, behind, below, beneath, beyond, down, in, off, on, out, over, through, up and within, and it has kept its stative verb sense.
In addition to the traditional combination of verb of movement plus directional particle, phrasal verbs are commonly created from adjectives, nouns, and Latinate verbs.
In the case of the ones which are formed from adjectives, the verb basically takes the suffix –en, such as in brighten/ brighten up, broaden out, flatten/ flatten out, freshen up, harden off, loosen up, quieten down, sicken for, slacken off, smarten up, soften up, sharpen up, sweeten up tighten up and toughen up, etc. Where verbs in -en cannot be formed (i.e. from adjectives ending in n, ng, m, l, r, th, or a spoken vowel), the particle is added directly, such as in calm down (to become/ make calm), cool off (to become/ make cool), dry out /up (become too dry), even out (to become/
make even), empty out (make empty) hot up (become more lively or exciting), mellow out (become relaxed and calm), sober up (to become/make somebody sober) and tidy up (to make tidy), etc.
In a great number of cases, a noun is converted into a verb by telescoping an expression containing a phrasal verb and a special noun: hammer out encapsulating beat out with a hammer, channel off telescoping carry or run off by means of a channel, brick up meaning close up with bricks. Many phrasal verbs emerge in this way, such as bed down, board up, book out, button up, dish out, fog up, gang up, hose down, iron out, jack up, ladle out, magic away, mist up, saddle up, sponge down and wall in, etc. As pointed
S20-21) these phrasal verbs often come into the language first through American English where there seems to be more freedom for words to change grammatical class, or through informal spoken language. So from the noun luck, instead of ‘getting lucky’, we can luck out and cowards (‘wimps’
people who have no courage or ‘bottle’) might wimp out or bottle out.
Particles are sometimes added, usually as completives and intensives, to two- and three-syllable verbs of Latin origin, for example contract out, divide off/up, level off, measure off/out, select out, separate off/out, etc.
Such usages, however, are sometimes described as pleonastic, but such criticism does not affect their widespread use (cf. McArthur 1992: 774).
It is noteworthy that in polysyllabic combinations of foreign, i.e. Latin origin, there is a notable tendency to redundancy in that the associated particle in many cases reiterates or approximates the original connotation of the prefix (cf. Bolinger 1971: xii, Lipka 1972: 165 and Live 1965: 430):
de- ‘from’ co(n)/syn- ‘with’ in- ‘in’/’on’ a(d)- ‘to’
derive from coalesce with imbed in allude to resist from condole with involve in adhere to deter from comply with indulge in admit to detract from synchronize with infringe on attribute to deflect from sympathize with intrude on aspire to
Similarly, debar from, descend from, correlate with, adjourn to, attend to, alienate from, refer back, report back, impact on, immerse in, imprint on, provide for and include (sb) in also occur. This tendency to attach a
‘superfluous’ particle suggests that expansion of a verb constitutes a pattern-habit in English.
As for the occurrence of verbs in verb + particle constructions, it can be observed that there are quite a lot of verbs which form a verb-particle combination with almost every particle. The most productive of these are:
put (23), go (23), come (22), get (21), push (19), pull (16), take (15), bring (14), turn (14), look (12) and fall (11). There are other less productive verbs like lay (10), play (10), stand (10), run (10), set (10), call (10), keep (9), sit (9), break (8), and give (7).
The most productive ones occur with the following adverbial particles in the Collins COBUILD Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs (1995):
PUT: about, above, across, around, aside, away, back, behind, by, down, forth, forward, in, off, on, out, over, past, round, through, together, towards, up
GO: about, after, ahead, along, around, away, back, below, by, down, forth, forward, in, off, on, out, over, overboard, round, together, towards, under, up
COME: about, across, after, along, apart, around, away, back, by, down, forth, forward, in, off, on, out, over, round, through, to, up
GET: about, above, across, ahead, along, around, away, back, behind, beyond, by, down, in, off, on, out, over, round, through, together, up PUSH: about, ahead, along, around, aside, back, by, forward, in, off, on, out,
over, past, round, through, to, towards, up
PULL: about, ahead, apart, around, aside, away, back, down, in, off, on, out, over, round, through, to
TAKE: aback, along, apart, around, aside, away, back, down, in, off, on, out, over, round, up
BRING: about, along, back, down, forth, forward, in, off, on, out, over, round, together, up
LOOK: ahead, around, away, back, down, in, on, out, over, round, through, up
FALL: about, apart, away, back, behind, down, in, off, out, over, through In contrast, as pointed out by several linguists (cf. Lipka 1972: 165, Live 1965: 432 and Fraser 1976: 9), there are quite a number of verb-particle combinations which occur with one particular particle and no other.
Interestingly enough, most of the verbs in these verb + particle combinations are converted from nouns and some of them from adjectives. I have found the following five cases (cf. Macmillan Phrasal Verbs Plus 2005):
1. The verb element is converted from a noun and functions as a verb as well.
2. The verb element is converted from a noun, but it does not function as a verb.
3. The verb component does not function either as a verb or as a noun 4. The verb element is converted from an adjective and functions as a
verb as well.
5. The verb element is converted from an adjective, but it does not function as a verb.
Consider the following examples:
1. the verb element is converted from a noun and functions as a verb as well, e.g.
butter up (to be especially nice to someone so that they will help or support you)
bucket down (to rain very hard)
chill out (to relax and stop being angry)
clown around (to do silly things in order to make people laugh)
duck out (to leave a space, especially in a way that it is not noticed by other people; avoid doing sth)
hound out (to force someone to leave a place or job by being unpleasant to them over a period of time.)
hype up (to make something more interesting or impressive) lag behind (move or develop more slowly than others) lap up (enjoy something and be keen to get more)
loaf around (to spend time doing nothing, usually when you should be working)
lump together (to put people or things into the same group, although they do not really belong together)
mistake for (to think that a person or thing is someone else)
mouth off (to give your opinion about something in a very annoying way)
mug up (to quickly learn something, for example before an exam) notch up (to win or achieve something)
note down (write something down)
paper over (try to hide a problem or disagreement)
pig out (to eat an extremely large amount of food, much more than you need)
pilot through (to give someone advice or instructions that help them to do something)
shell out (to spend a lot of money on something)
shop around (to go to several shops before you decide what particular thing to buy)
skate over (to avoid talking or writing about a difficult or embarrassing subject in a detailed way)
swot up (to study something very hard, especially for an exam)
thumb through (to quickly turn the pages of something, such as a book, magazine or newspaper)
traffic in (to buy and sell things such as drugs and weapons illegally) trigger off (to make something happen suddenly)
weed out (to get rid of people or things that are not very good) wolf down (to eat something very quickly)
2. the verb element is converted from a noun but it does not function as a verb, e.g.
beaver away (to work very hard at something)
barge in (to enter a room suddenly and noisily, usually interrupting someone in a rude way)
beetle off (to go somewhere quickly)
chicken out (to not do something that you were going to do because you are too frightened)
cotton on (to begin to realize or understand something)
doll up (to make yourself look attractive for a special occasion)
egg on (to encourage someone to do something that they should not do) jot down (to write something down in an informal way)
fritter away (to waste time, money on things that are not necessary or important until there is none left)
keel over (fall usually because they feel ill) monkey around (to behave in a silly way)
pension off (to force someone to stop working and give them a pension) piece together (to learn the truth about something by considering all the
separate bits of information that you know)
potter around (to do things in a slow and enjoyable way)
rabbit on (to talk about something for a long time so that people feel bored and annoyed)
rat on (to tell someone in authority about something that someone has done wrong)
rifle through (to search quickly through something such as a drawer or pile of papers in order to find or steal something)
slag off (to criticise someone or something unfairly)
soldier on (to continue to do something even though it is difficult or unpleasant)
squirrel away (to put something away in a secret place, especially money over a long period of time)
tinker with (to make small changes to something in order to improve or repair)
toy with (to consider an idea in a way that it is not serious or definite) 3. the verb component does not function either as a verb or as a noun, e.g.
conk out (to suddenly stop working, to go to sleep suddenly)
eke out (to make something such as money or food last as long as possible)
fess up (to admit that something is true or that you have done something wrong)
futz around (spend time doing silly and unimportant things) glam up (to make someone or something glamorous)
gorge on (to eat or drink so much of something that you cannot eat or drink any more
jot down (to write something down in a quick informal way) lam into (to strongly attack or criticize someone)
max out (to reach the limit of something) mete out (to give a punishment to someone)
peter out (to gradually become smaller or weaker before coming to an end or disappearing completely)
sally forth (to leave a place in order to do something especially in a way that shows confidence and energy)
skive off (to not go to school or work when you should be there) veg out (to sit and relax and do nothing)
4. the verb element is converted from an adjective and functions as a verb as well, e.g.
calm down (to begin to feel more relaxed and less anxious)
empty out (to make something empty by taking everything out of it) idle away (to spend time relaxing and doing nothing important) warm up (to make something warm)
5. the verb element is converted from an adjective but it does not function as a verb, e.g.
hot up (to become more lively or exciting) sick up (to vomit)
single out (to choose one person from a group for special attention, praise, or criticism)
wise up (to learn or understand the unpleasant truth of something) Interestingly enough, most of the above phrasal verbs are informal.
Another observation I have made about the verb component of phrasal verbs is that in some cases the verb means the same as the verb-particle combination, with the particle giving very often an intensifying or completive sense to the verb, for example:
bolster - bolster up, button - button up, clutter up - clutter; coil up - coil; conjure up - conjure; crouch down - crouch; crumble away - crumble; curl up - curl; drone on - drone; fathom out - fathom; fatten
up - fatten; fog up - fog; freak out - freak; hatch out - hatch; jabber away- jabber; jumble out - jumble; prop up - prop; rev up - rev; rinse out - rinse; sand down - sand; scrunch up - scrunch; shrivel up - shrivel; wolf down - wolf and wrap up - wrap, etc.
In connection with what has been mentioned above, an interesting new tendency is pointed out in the Oxford Phrasal Verbs Dictionary for Learners of English (2001: S20-21), namely that sometimes a simple verb can turn into a phrasal verb without any real change of meaning. We now often hear something like ‘Professor Jones will head up an international team’ where before we would have said that he will head the team, and it is difficult to see any reason for this change, except that the particle ‘up’ seems to strengthen the meaning of the verb.
In sum, we can state that while some verbs may occur with only one particle and no others, others form a verb-particle combination with almost every particle. In some cases, the particle seems to be redundant, such as in derive from, involve in and in cases when the particle gives merely an intensifying or completive sense to the meaning of the verb, such as in rinse out and wrap up. We can raise the question whether or not we can predict which verbs combine with which particle(s) and in which relationship. As Fraser (1976: 13) points out, “we have no way of determining from any syntactic or semantic properties associated with a verb whether or not it will combine with a particle in one way or another”. To decide if this assumption is true or not, in the remaining part of this chapter, I will examine the syntactic, semantic and phonological properties of phrasal verbs.