TOPIC 22 MULTI-WORD VERBS

INTRODUCTION: I will start by mentioning the justification of this topic. According to our current B.2.) Type II: the verb is followed by two NPs, DO and Prepositional Object, usually separated
legislation based on LOMLOE from 2020, the teaching of a foreign language must be based on the by the preposition (make a mess of the living room, catch sight of her) and there are two types
teaching through plurilingualism, interculturality and communication, for that reason, it is essential depending on their passive forms:
to achieve the proper communicative process through the teaching of grammar. This topic is essential - Regular passive (DO becoming the S of the passive clause): She was thanked for the flowers
for the development of the correct use of the English language. Once the justification is done, we are Other examples: rob something of, confine somebody to… which form an idiomatic combination rather
ready to start… than a semantic choice: “I accused him of the crime” but “I blamed him for the crime” In some cases,
the PP is optional; in others, it is not: “They cheated” or “They deprived him of his freedom” BUT *They
deprived him. And sometimes the PP is part of the idiom (lick something into shape, lull somebody to
1. MULTI-WORD VERB
sleep).
English word combinations with no fixed pattern or predictable meaning are usually derived from
- Two possible passives (regular passive, and one in which the PO becomes the S): “Amess has been
cultural factors, proverbs and current events. However, multi-word verbs usually carry a specific
made of the bedroom” or “The bedroom has been made a mess of” “Care has been taken of him” or “He
preposition, but their meaning does not vary much.
has been taken care of” The head noun of the DO is part of the idiom, and it can be modified, being
According to Palmer: compound verbs consist of a verb + one or more particles (number-restricted):
easier to separate the object by a regular passive construction:
down, in, off, on, out… Some verbs, such as put, take, get or make combine most freely, although they
Made a terrible mess of > A terrible mess was made of
are generally subject to collocations. E.g. give out does not mean the same as give in, even if the
- Only irregular passive where PO becomes S: “The boat was caught sight of” or “An agreement was
combination is similar.
given way to” The object is typically invariable and not augmented by an Adj or a Det *keep fast pace
They can be replaced by single word verbs: put off by delay, run away by escape. Transitive examples
with
usually have passive forms.
- Marginal type of transitive Prepositional Verb (idiomatic): it has no passive and the DO is a
According to Quirk: multi-word verbs consist of a lexical verb + one or more morphologically
reflexive pronoun: He prided himself on his craftsmanship.
invariable units (particles) following the verb and closely related to it. Regarding their functions,
particles are divided into three classes:
C) PHRASAL-PREPOSITIONAL VERBS: a lexical verb + an Adverb + a Preposition. Most of them are
─Prepositions only, requiring a following noun phrase (Prepositional. Complement.): The dog went
found in informal English (look forward to (formal), put up with). We must distinguish them from
for me
phrasal verb + preposition, e.g.: You can put up with Jim when you visit London (lodge; Phrasal V +
─Prepositions or Spatial Adverbs, which can be used for both phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs:
Prep) I cannot put up with you (stand; PPV)
He fell down the hill (preposition) He fell down (adverb)
The prepositional passive with PPV is not usual, but there are some examples which sound normal
─Spatial Adverbs only, which do not admit a prepositional construction: *We mustn’t look back the
and acceptable: Death penalty has been recently done away with.
past.
There are intransitive and transitive PPVs, the regular passive being only admitted with transitive
ones: Our success was put down to careful planning.
1.1. QUIRK’S CLASSIFICATION OF MULTI-WORD VERBS
D) OTHER MULTI-WORD VERB CONSTRUCTIONS: less usual.
D.1. Verb-Adjective combinations: similar to Phrasal Verbs (cohesive units), but some of them allow
A) PHRASAL VERBS: a lexical verb + an Adverb.
comparatives: “Anne did not put the cloth as straight as Peter” vs *Peter did not blow the house as up
A.1.) Intransitive phrasal verb (Type I phrasal verbs): usually informal (play around, go astray).
as John (PV blow up). They may be either copular or complex transitive.
Some common particles are: about, in, on, off, over, away…, which cannot be separated from the verb:
D.2. Verb-Verb combinations: the second verb is non-finite, either an infinitive (let something go) or
*He played distractedly around
a participle with or without a preposition (get rid of, leave me standing).
A.2.) Transitive phrasal verb (Type II phrasal verbs): they may take a direct object (set up a unit,
D.3. Verbs governing two prepositions: either one or both PPs can be omitted (The gang developed
hand in a copy).
from a small organization into a big drug-dealing cartel> It developed into a big drug-dealing cartel).
Some combinations can be either type I or II: “The house blew up” or “They blew up the house”
1.2. CRITERIA FOR DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN DIFFERENT SUB-TYPES
The particle can either precede or follow the DO: “They gave in the papers” or “They gave the papers
A) DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN MULTI-WORD VERB AND QUIRK’S “FREE COMBINATION”:
in” Most can be turned into passive: The papers were given in. But some cannot, in cases in which the
“He came across a problem” vs “He went past the shop” “He turned him down” vs “He sent him away”
object is idiomatically restricted to a specific noun or pronoun: *Speed was picked up by the train.
Multi-word verbs are idiomatic (meaning is not predictable from the meaning of its parts). The
difference is gradual and there are 3 categories:
B) PREPOSITIONAL VERBS: a lexical verb + a Preposition semantically/ syntactically related (call
A.1. Free non idiomatic constructions: individual meanings remain and the sum of meanings is one
for, deal with…). There two types:
of movement + direction (the particle shows the direction and the verb, the manner: call up the stairs
B.1.) Type I: the preposition precedes its complement: He approved of her action. Syntactic
and wake the children). An adverb can be inserted between both elements and placed before the verb
analysis in two different ways: He approved of her action (“her action” is the complement of the
with inversion: walk right up; Up he walked.
preposition, not a DO, and so, intransitive interpretation). SVA structure (A, Prepositional Object). It
A.2. Semi-idiomatic constructions: multi-word verbs, variable but limited (the verbs keeps its
is justified by the option of inserting an adverb before the verb, whereas inserting it between the V
meaning, but the meaning of the particle is more difficult to isolate, e.g.: I’ll cut up the meat). An
and the DO is usually avoided: He really approved of her action. *He opened carefully the tin.
adverb cannot be inserted and the particle adverb is rarely placed before the verb with inversion: *cut
He approved of her action (the verb includes the preposition, so the following NP is a DO. Transitive
right up; *Up cut I the meat.
interpretation). SVC structure. A passive structure is possible and the prepositional verb can be
A.3. Fully idiomatic constructions: an adverb cannot be inserted (*run right up), there is no
replaced by a single verb: Her action was approved of “He approved of her action” and “He consented
contrastive substitution (bring up is not the opposite of bring down), their meaning cannot be inferred
her action”
from its parts and the particle adverb cannot be placed before the verb with inversion (*up he turned).
B) DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN PREPOSITIONAL VERBS AND VERB + PREPOSITION: “He
called on him” vs “He called after lunch” Prepositional verbs admit turning the PO into the S in CONCLUSION, It is important to highlight the idea that learning a L2 is learning the practical usage of
a passive sentence and make questions with who(m) and what. Verbs + Prep do not accept it, for that reason, this topic is very important as it gives the students the use of the grammatical
passives and they make questions with when, how and why. Passives are also acceptable with aspects to have an effective communicative competence. In this case we have made a study about
prepositions with a locative meaning, so there is an overlap between both question types (die of multi-word verbs which may seem difficult for the Spanish speaker, as they complicate the
admits “How did he die?” and “what did he die of?”). communication process (semantically speaking) and their correct use is difficult from a syntactic
point of view. Besides, new combinations are created and new meanings attached to existing
C) DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN PHRASAL VERBS AND PREPOSITIONAL VERBS: “He called up combinations.
the man” vs “He called on him” Syntactic and phonological differences:
C.1. Word order: with transitively used phrasal verbs, the position of the particle depends on
the nature of the object. E.g.:
“The studio will blow them up” (pronoun as object-particle after it)
“The studio will blow the photographs up” (noun as object-particle after it)
“The studio will blowup the photographs” (noun as object-particle before it)
“The studio will blow up those wonderful photos you took yesterday” (long NP/ clause as object-
particle before it)
But some transitively used phrasal verbs do not allow to place the particle after a noun as object:
My parents had given up hope.
Some transitive phrasal verbs do not allow to place the particle before the noun as subject,
because of ambiguity and collocational restrictions:
Get that parcel off right away/ Get off that parcel right away BUT I was laughing my head off/ I
was sobbing my heart out.
With intransitively used phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs and PPV, the particle comes
immediately after the verb.
C.2. Adverb position: an adverb can be inserted between verb and preposition, but not between
verb and adverb: “They called angrily on the dean” BUT *They called angrily up the dean
C.3. Relative and interrogative words: the particle of the phrasal verb cannot precede either
of them: *The man up whom they called/ *Up which man did they call?
C.4. Stress: the particle of a phrasal verb is usually stressed, carrying the nuclear tone in final
position, whereas the particle of a prepositional verb is normally unstressed and has the tail of
the nuclear tone, which falls on the lexical verb. Remarks (Palmer):
─Contrastive stress (This is the hill he ran up, not down)
─Two-syllable prepositions may be stressed (Which man did they call after?)

2. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS.
The different multi- word verbs dealt with in this study are so relevant to the learning of a foreign
language since differences between the vocabulary related to multi-word verbs of the learner's
native language (L1) and that of the foreign language (L2) may lead to several problems, such as
the incorrect use of their structures and that foreign learners seldom master them under current
teaching conditions.
For instance, the most common mistakes for Spanish students, is to use incorrectly some phrasal
verbs (i.e. When does he lunch? instead of When does he have lunch?). Often, they make serious
BIBLIOGRAPHY
grammatical mistakes. In the Spanish curriculum, the use of multi-word verbs is envisaged at all
levels. For instance, in earlier stages of ESO the use of simple verbs is reflected in the use of
everyday life or any other specific topic. • Kearns, K. Semantics. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. 2005.
Up to higher stages of Bachillerato, we are dealing with more complex verbal forms, such as the • Tortora, C. Understanding Sentence Structure. An Introduction to English Syntax.
cooccurrence of patterns, whereby idiomatic phrasal verbs may be substituted by synonyms (i.e.
'die out=disappear', 'bring up=educate', 'turn down=refuse', etc; prepositional verbs (i.e. depend Wiley Blackwell. 2018.
on, believe in, speak to, agree with, etc); verb + noun+ preposition (i.e. take care of, give advice on, • [Link]
catch sight of, have control of, etc);verb + adjective (i.e. get asleep, get married, go blind); and • The Oxford English Dictionary
above all, idiomatic expressions in certain multi-word verbs (i.e. to be fed up with, to get on with,
to give on to, etc.).