About Phrasal Verbs-2

(first part: habr.com/en/post/495794 )

Those in the subject know how many copies English speakers themselves break on the Internet about phrasal verbs. Therefore, I ask you to take my articles on this topic simply as the reasoning of a stupid Russian-speaking teacher with serious experience in theoretical and practical work and the experience of a long stay in the language environment. Somewhere I may be wrong - correct. Preferably in the correct form.

To begin, we agree on the terms. English-English dictionaries contain verbs consisting of three parts (in the previous article I mentioned let in on). But, strictly speaking, the third small part in them is always just an ordinary preposition and is not included in the phrasal verb, we will analyze it later. We will proceed from the fact that the phrasal verb always consists of 2 parts: the verb itself and the second small part (in, up, off, etc.), which can be three different things: a preposition, an adverb, showing a direction or a particle . And by the role in which this second small part plays, phrasal verbs are divided into 3 types. (Different authors use different terminology and classifications, but let's focus on the proposed ones for now.)

I will start with the 3rd type, in which this small part is an excuse. Very many authors attribute to phrasal verbs what, in fact, is an ordinary verb with a certain control. Controlling the verb is how the verb is used: with a preposition, without a preposition, if with a preposition, then with which. Suppose one of the Russian verbs “watch” requires the preposition “on” after itself, and after “on” there must be an accusative case, because they are looking at someone / what. Another case will not work, otherwise proposals in the style of "I’m your pipe shook" will be received. They shake someone in Russian. Verbs usually have several controls. Suppose the verb “watch” has another control, which requires after itself the preposition “for” (for a child, for example, or an elderly person) and after the preposition “for” there should be an instrumental case,because they are watching who / what.

The verb depend (“depend”) requires after itself the preposition on. Depend on - “Depend On”. Here you can see quite understandable logic. Pend is the obsolete word for hanging. You can hang on something. Pend on - Hang On. The authors of the popular phrase-verb manual English Phrasal Verbs In Use consider dependent on the phrasal verb, while, in fact, it is a regular verb that requires the preposition “on” - such is its control. “On” here is just an excuse, not an adverb and not a particle. To consider it phrasal is the same as to call the Russian phrase “depend on” the phrasal verb. There are no phrasal verbs in Russian.

Or take a more complex example - look for. Look for means search. In fact, this is not a phrasal verb, but the usual verb look - “watch”, which in one of its controls requires the preposition for. For means "for." Those. not just look (you do not care - you sit, look), but watch FOR something, FOR ANY PURPOSE.

Or: Tesla runs on electricity - Tesla runs on electricity. The usual verb run with control on, and for some reason textbooks are often called run on phrasal.

The second type of verb, which is traditionally referred to as phrasal, is a verb in which the small part is also not a particle, but a complete adverb, indicating a position or direction. For example, bring up. Bring - “bring”, up - “up”. The family has dinner on the 2nd floor of the house, the child is ordered: bring the dishes up - bring the plates upstairs. Here, up literally means "up." Of course, bring up is used in figurative values. For example, bring up may mean "educate." But! “Educate” is simply an expanded, metaphorical meaning of the literal “bring up.” The child was small, parents through certain actions brought him upstairs, now large. So bring up in the meaning of "educate" is perhaps an idiom rather than a phrasal verb.

Same with the verb look forward. Look forward literally means “look forward,” its expanded, metaphorical meaning is “expect with impatience.” For example, I am looking forward to your visit - I look forward to your visit. Or "I look forward to the future in which your visit will take place." So we have to admit that look forward is probably also an idiom rather than a phrasal verb. So we assign it to the 2nd type of phrasal verbs.

And, finally, the 1st type is actually what should in the strict sense be called phrasal verbs. In them, the second part is not an excuse or an adverb, but in the strict sense a particle. And these particles already perform the very function that prefixes usually perform in Russian.

For many verbs, the concept of “direction” is simply not applicable. For example, drink. Do not drink forward or backward. The verb drink up has never had the literal meaning “drink up”, it is formed just like a phrase. Up in it is just a particle that carries the meaning “to the end, completely” (corresponds to the Russian prefix “do-” with the same meaning), therefore drink up means “do-drink”. This is exactly what Phrasal verbs differ from in STRICT MEANING from idiomatic combinations of a verb and an adverb (type 2) - the idioms initially had a completely literal meaning, and their modern meaning was just a metaphorical superstructure. Particles in the 1st type of phrasal verbs are not related to the movement in space.

- Listen, you study and work, and you still have time to do something in the Student Council! How do you get enough sleep?

- Where do I get enough sleep?

- Clear.

In exactly the same way, in one of its meanings, the phrasal verb can refer to the 1st type, and in the other to the 2nd.

The difference between the 1st and 2nd type of phrasal verbs is very subtle. In some cases, only professional linguists and native speakers can make out. And sometimes, perhaps, their opinions do not agree, as, for example, with some phrasal verbs, the origin and literal meaning of which has been lost for centuries.

In future articles I will consider only the 1st and 2nd types. 3rd — not phrasal verbs at all and students do not have any special problems (with rare exceptions like look for) with them.
continued: habr.com/en/post/497074