|
Phrasal
verbs ("verbi
sintagmatici")
are the main way new verbs enter the English language.
Phrasal verbs are not
stative, but dynamic: they usually
begin in casual speech where they become part of our everyday vocabulary and
eventually become recognized as standard usage.
A phrasal
verb
is a verb plus a preposition or adverb which produces a meaning indipendent of
the separate elements, different from
the original verb,
consequently it
can’t be derived from the dictionary meaning of their parts.
Many
phrasal verbs have more than one idiomatic meaning.
The difficulty
is
two-fold, the unpredictability of their idiomatic meaning and the rules
describing how they may be entered into the rest of the
sentence.
Phrasal verbs can be
distinguished between "Intransitive" (these don't take an object), "Inseparable"
(the verb and the preposition(s) are always connected), and "Separable" (the verb and the preposition(s) are not always connected and can be
split).
|
The Oxford English Grammar distinguishes seven
types of prepositional or phrasal verbs: |
| intransitive phrasal verbs
(e.g. give in); |
| transitive phrasal verbs
(e.g. find out [discover]); |
| monotransitive
prepositional verbs (e.g. look after [care for]); |
| doubly transitive
prepositional verbs (e.g. blame [something] on [someone]); |
| copular prepositional
verbs. (e.g. serve as); |
| monotransitive
phrasal-prepositional verbs (e.g. look up to [respect]); |
| doubly transitive
phrasal-prepositional verbs (e.g. put [something] down to [someone] [attribute
to]). |
All
the some,
the meanings of
phrasal verbs
are idiomatic and there is no logical pattern for learning them.
The distinctions are directly
embodied in the examples,
therefore
they can
easily be
understood by anyone who understands
the language.
Most Important Phrasal Verbs
BE and HAVE
DO and MAKE
BRING and TAKE
KEEP
and
GET
SET and PUT
COME and GO
LOOK and SEE
TALK and TELL
RUN
-
TURN
-
LET
-
BREAK
Other Phrasal Verbs
 | A
B C |
D E F
|
G H I J K
|
L M N O
|
P Q R S
|
T U V W Y Z
| | 
