PARTICLES & PREPOSITIONS; Phrasal and Prepositional verbs

OVERVIEW
(Source: http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/courses/6361lamont.html)

A phrasal verb in Present-Day English is a verb that takes a complementary particle, in other words, an adverb
resembling a preposition, necessary to complete a sentence. A common example is the verb to fix up: He fixed
up the car. The word up here is a particle, not a preposition, because up can move: He fixed the car up.
This movement of the particle up quickly distinguishes it from the preposition up. Because the forms of the
particle and the preposition are themselves identical, it is easy to confuse phrasal verbs with a very similar-looking
type of verb: the prepositional verb.

A prepositional verb takes a complementary prepositional phrase. Movement verbs are readily identifiable
examples. For example, the verb to go is intransitive, and without the benefit of context, it cannot operate in a
complete sentence only accompanied by a subject. One cannot say, I went, and expect to satisfy a listener without
including a prepositional phrase of place, such as I went to the store. Prepositional verbs are immediately
distinguishable from phrasal verbs in terms of movement, as prepositions cannot move after their objects. It
is not possible to say, I went the store to, and so went is a prepositional verb. There are, in fact, several syntactic
tests to distinguish phrasal from prepositional verbs

Syntactic Tests for Phrasal Verbs in Present-Day English

1. Particle movement: particles for transitive phrasal verbs can move either before or after the direct object,
and this will determine whether the word in question is a particle or a preposition. For example, I gave up the keys /
I gave the keys up. The up is a particle because it can move. If it were a preposition, up could not move: I
walked up the stairs, but not *I walked the stairs up. As a side note, particle movement is restricted with pronouns:
I helped her out, not *I helped out her. Particle movement is also unhelpful in analysing intransitive phrasal verbs
as there is no complementary noun phrase to facilitate movement.

2. Adverb intervention: Adverbs cannot be placed within the verb phrase, including verb, particle, and object,
but must be placed before the verb or at the end: I help out Sheila often / I help Sheila out often / I often help out
Sheila, but not * I help often out Sheila, I help out often Sheila, I help often her out. Adverbs can, however, be
placed between verbs and prepositional phrases: I went quickly into the room.

3. Spoken stress: particles are stressed in phrasal verbs, but prepositions are unstressed (unless stressed
emphatically in speech). Therefore, one says, I gave up the keys (up is stressed particle, transitive phrasal
verb) or the plane touched down (down is stressed particle, intransitive phrasal verb). A true preposition is
unstressed: I walked up the stairs (unstressed preposition, prepositional verb).

4. Translation / synonymy: Phrasal verbs can be translated with a single-unit verb of the same illocutionary
force. Therefore, give up can be translated as the clearly transitive relinquish or surrender, while touch
down can be translated by the clearly intransitive land. Translation, however, is not reliable as the sole or even
primary method of syntactic testing. Quirk et al. discuss the possibility of translating certain prepositional verbs with
single-unit transitive verbs.

5. Passivization: Transitive phrasal verbs can be rendered in the passive precisely because they are transitive
(and hence have the capacity for the inversion of logical subjects and objects) .Therefore, the sentence, I gave up
the keys can be rendered in the passive: The keys were given up by me. However, a prepositional verb at least
prescriptively resists rendering in the passive: I walked up the stairs would not traditionally be rendered thus in the
passive: The stairs were walked up by me, even though to walk up could be translated with the transitive verb
to ascend, which could easily be rendered in the passive. However, as Denison discusses at length, and as Quirk et
al. point out (1156-7), prepositional verbs have been rendered increasingly in the passive. Therefore, passivization is
also by no means a stand-alone syntactic test of phrasal verbs.
Double particle Verbs/ Phrasal-Prepositional Verbs: More recently, there has been the rise of a more complex
form, the three-part phrasal-prepositional verb, which includes a verb, a post-positioned particle, and a
complementary prepositional phrase.

The phrasal-prepositional verb and its terms explained

First, consider this sample sentence:

She puts up with her brother. (S V Prt Prep. Phrase)

Components of the sentence (what the terms mean):

1. Subject (the agent or doer of the action): She

2. Lexical verb (the verb-word that carries the meaning of the action): puts

3. Post-positioned particle (an adverb that looks like a preposition, and follows the lexical verb):
up. This particle isnt movable: *She puts ___ with her brother up. Its inability to move is the
result of the lack of an explicit direct object.

4. Complementary prepositional phrase (prepositional phrase necessary to complete the basic

sense of the sentence): with her brother. We know with is a preposition because it definitely
cannot move behind the object of the preposition (brother): *She puts up ___ her brother with.

5. Translation: using another single-word verb to replace a compound structure like this one. We
can translate the sentence from she puts up with her brother to she tolerates her brother.
Through translation, we can eliminate both the particle up and the preposition with,
suggesting that we can consider to put up with as a single lexical unit, a single, transitive verb
structure.

6. Prepositional object: nouns that follow prepositions are generally considered objects of
prepositions, not direct objects.

EXERCISES:

1. Study the following sets of examples and within each set specify which is a preposition and which
is a particle by writing Prep or Prt next to each sentence. Provide evidence for your choice (Particle
Movement, the constituency test, etc.):
1. a. He tried to squeeze in a lie
b. He tried to squeeze in a hole.
2. a. The DJ suddenly decided to turn on the CD player.
b. The lion suddenly decided to turn on its hunter.
3. a. They ran up the bill/Theyve been running up debts.
b. They ran up the hill./ Theyve been running up the hill.
4. a. He couldnt dig up the truth, it was too complicated for him.
b. He couldnt dig up the ridge, it was out of bounds.
5. a. He wanted them to speed up the application process.
b. She wanted him to speed up the motorway.
6. a. She ate up her sandwich.
b. The workers were eating up the stairs.
7. a. They wanted to play down the incident.
 b. They wanted to play down the street.
8. a. She stood up the poor boy.
b. She was standing up the hill, lost in thought.
9. a. Look out! Theres a stone coming down! > (Look out for the stone!)
b. Look out the window and youll see for yourself.
10. a. They resolved to trade in the car.
b. They resolved to trade in kind./ They resolved to trade in the High Street.
11. a. She was passing along the information whenever she had the chance.
b. She was passing along the street when the car ran her over.

2. Study the following sentences and discuss their ambiguity in terms of the interpretation of the
italicised item (particle or preposition), then read them out paying attention to the stress pattern:
1. He was struggling to squeeze in the closet.
2. The woman turned on her stalker.
3. They couldnt fit in the carriage.
4. He drove in the Mustang.
5. She tried to turn over the boat.
6. They wanted to pass over the next candidate.
7. Mother rolled over the carpet / Dad rolled down the (rope) ladder.
8. The children suddenly pushed out the door. / slid down the rope.

3. Specify whether the italicised items in the following sets of sentences are particles or prepositions
by applying the constituency test (Cleft constructions) on the subsequent DPs:
e.g. 1. They ran out the yard.> It was out the yard that they ran.> out is the head of
the noun phrase, so out is a preposition
2. They ran out the poor beggar but let the girl stay. It was the beggar they ran
out, not the girl. > out moves along with the verb, so out is a particle

1. a. They broke off the engagement.

b. He broke the twig off the bush.
2. a. He took off his jacket.
b. She managed to take the thorn off my sleeve.
3. a. She finally came in the house.
b. They brought in a new member.
4. a. A big multinational corporation took over our company.
b. They were walking over the bridge when it gave way.
5. a. After careful consideration, they turned down my offer.
b. After careful consideration, they climbed down the tree.

4. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate particle(s) or preposition(s). Choose from the ones
provided in the table:
for on across at in along off over
back with out up down away

1. He came in.. ..a lot of criticism when he announced the new policy.
2. This nasty stain just wouldnt come . I dont know what else to do.
3. When I came .him in the street, he looked terrible. He was coming down some sort
of a bug and the doctors didnt seem to have come .. any solution as yet.
4. He tiptoed .the alley and then suddenly knocked her . and made . her bag.
5. They fell with the neighbours because they just couldnt put .. the noise anymore.
6. When everybody let her , she fell .. me again.
 7. When the car broke he broke . as well and decided to write it
8. They decided to put the strike until further notice, but then the shop steward called it
altogether so the workers had to hold ..for a better deal by themselves.
9. We were cut .. in the middle of the conversation but thats perfectly fine, Im not cut .. ..
small talk anyway.
10. No matter what I tell him, he just keeps .. it! I dont know how much longer I can keep this ..!

5. Only some of the following sentences below can be passivized. Identify which ones and try to
explain why.
1. I gave up my favourite pen.
2. I went up the stairs.
3. He has taken off his shoes.
4. June is walking up the hill.
5. The vase fell off the table.
6. Lincoln did away with slavery years ago.
7. Susan came up with a brilliant solution.
8. They had already turned down his offer.
9. The wheel rolled down the hill.
10. The child rolled the wheen down the hill.
11. They cannot put up with such behaviour.
12. They put George up for two nights in a row.
13. The company is laying off all its employees.
14. He came across the treasure by accident.
15. He was walking across the field (when I saw him)