Phrasal and Prepositional Verbs. An Introduction E-Book

Julia Holtrup

• Herausgeber: GRIN Publishing
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Grammar, Style, Working Technique, grade: 2,3, University of Münster, language: English, abstract: The term paper deals with analysing and distinguishing phrasal and prepositional verbs within different textual contexts. By starting with a short introduction regarding specific grammatical terminology, the necessary terms will be explained so that the reader will be able to follow the structure of dealing with the topic. The attributes of phrasal and prepositional verbs will then be examined and presented by mainly taking grammatical literature into account. To prove the grammatical standards, an empirical part will present examples, which were taken out of a novel. These examples will be used to observe specific grammatical phenomena as well as difficulties in distinguishing or recognizing phrasal and prepositional verbs respectively

Leseprobe

Impressum:

Copyright (c) 2015 GRIN Verlag / Open Publishing GmbH, alle Inhalte urheberrechtlich geschützt. Kopieren und verbreiten nur mit Genehmigung des Verlags.

Bei GRIN macht sich Ihr Wissen bezahlt! Wir veröffentlichen kostenlos Ihre Haus-, Bachelor- und Masterarbeiten.

Jetzt bei www.grin.com

Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. Particle verbs

2.1 What is a particle?

2.2 What are particle verbs?

3. Transitive vs. Intransitive verbs

3.1 Transitive verbs

3.2. Intransitive verbs

2.3 Ditransitive verbs

3. Phrasal Verbs

3.1 Transitive and intransitive phrasal verbs

3.2 How to recognize a phrasal verb

4. Prepositional Verbs

4.1 Prepositional verbs Type 1

4.2 Prepositional verbs Type 2

4.3 How to recognize a prepositional verb

4.4 Particle conversion in the prepositional phrase

5. Phrasal-prepositional verbs

6. Phrasal and Prepositional verbs: The Differences

7. Textual analysis

7.1 Analysis of phrasal verbs

7.2 Analysis of prepositional verbs

7.3 Analysis of phrasal-prepositional verbs

8. Conclusion

Bibliography

1. Introduction

The term paper deals with analysing and distinguishing phrasal and prepositional verbs within different textual contexts. By starting with a short introduction regarding specific grammatical terminology, the necessary terms will be explained so that the reader will be able to follow the structure of dealing with the topic. The attributes of phrasal and prepositional verbs will then be examined and presented by mainly taking grammatical literature into account. To prove the grammatical standards, an empirical part will present examples, which were taken out of a novel. These examples will be used to observe specific grammatical phenomena as well as difficulties in distinguishing or recognizing phrasal and prepositional verbs respectively.  By discussing the outcomes, a short conclusion will summarize the main results.

2. Particle verbs

2.1 What is a particle?

A particle is added to a verb to perform as an instrument of word formation. It helps to build up words with different meanings by the usage of the same basic verb by simply adding a particle to it. A good example is the verb “to get”. It can express totally diverse meanings by having different particles added, e.g. to get on, to get off, to get across, to get over etc. (Fenn, 2010: 302)

2.2 What are particle verbs?

Particle verbs are defined as verb particle constructions, which form verb phrases by adding an adverb or a preposition to the verb respectively. Particle verbs can therefore be subdivided into two main categories: first the phrasal verbs which have an adverb as the particle and second the prepositional verbs where the particle is a preposition. (Fenn, 2010: 301)

As adverb particles and prepositions are semantically equal but used in different syntactical ways, it is sometimes challenging to distinguish between those two forms (Fenn, 2010: 301). In chapter 3 and 4 the characteristics of phrasal and prepositional verbs will be observed and their differences will be presented afterwards.

3. Transitive vs. Intransitive verbs

3.1 Transitive verbs

As to Hurford (1994: 242), a transitive verb can be described as a verb, which takes a direct or indirect object. That implies that the transitive verb is normally followed by a noun phrase. There are lot of examples of transitive verbs as “to hear”, “to see”, “to kiss”, “to believe”, just to name a few. The transitive verb is complemented by two elements, which are the direct object and the object complement. (Fenn, 2010: 286)

Example:

In some cases of transitive verbs, it is possible to omit the object as for example in “I know.” The context will then provide the necessary information to understand the utterance. (Hurford, 1994: 242) Besides the above-mentioned examples, there are many transitive words, which consist of two words such as “to pick up”, “to find out” or “to give up”. The second word is then either an adverb or a preposition. (Hurford, 1994: 286).

3.2. Intransitive verbs

In contrast to the transitive verbs are the intransitive verbs. That implements that the intransitive verbs do not take objects. Intransitive verbs can either be complemented or not. In the case of complementation, it is an adverb or a subject complement, which follows the verb. (Fenn, 2010: 286)

Example:

1) Not complemented (i.e. no object)

2) Complemented by an subject complement or adverb

2.3 Ditransitive verbs

Transitive verbs, which take more than one object do have their own terminology. Ditransitive verbs, for example, are verbs, which are characterized by taking two forms of objects (indirect and direct), where the direct object is following the indirect object.

By converting the indirect object into a complement of a prepositional phrase, the ditransitive verb is automatically transformed into a monotransitive verb. (Fenn, 2010: 286)