There’s no such Thing as a “Phrasal Verb”: Insights for Teachers
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Abstract
Phrasal and prepositional multi-word verbs are a thorny topic, rife with semantic and structural obscurities, both theoretical and in teaching-learning. A survey of the history of the topic provides evidence that the very concept of “multi-word verb” is often based on misanalyses. Cognitive Linguistics considerations in particular show that neither verbs nor prepositions functioning as particles lose or change meaning in combinations with each other, making independent contributions to clause-wide meaning, be this idiomatic or literal. Prepositions refer to their subjects’ pathway and/or positioning, while verbs show how those subjects move along pathways, get into position, what they do there, or what happens to them there. In this paper, I argue that students, teachers, and analysts need to identify the meaning content of verbs and prepositions separately from each other, as well a as exploring how they work as part of the whole clause across all contexts to gain a full understanding of their communicative force. My argument leads me to conclude that a cognitive-based approach—one that focuses on verb and preposition meaning domains and semantic networks—appears to be the most effective means of analysing, understanding, teaching, learning, and using verbs and prepositions.
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