CHAPTER II THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK. Grammar has been taken an important part of how to write or speak something.

Transcription

1 CHAPTER II THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1 Grammar Grammar has been taken an important part of how to write or speak something. One study of grammar is Verb. However, there are many different kinds of verbs, including lexical auxuliary verbs, different semantic classes, single-word verb, and multiword verb. (Biber, Conrad, and Leech 2002:103). Multi-word verbs fall into: Phrasal verbs Prepositional verbs Phrasal-prepositional verbs Phrasal verbs consist of a verb followed by an adverbial particle (for examples: carry out, find out, or pick up). When these adverbial particles are independently, they have literal meanings signifying location or direction (for examples: out, up, down, over,around, off). However, in phrasal verbs they are commonly used with less literal meanings. For example, the meaning of find out does not include the place meaning of out. Prepositional verbs consist of a verb followed by a preposition, such as look at, talk about, listen to. Phrasal-prepositional verbs contain both an adverbial particle and a preposition, as in get away with.

2 2.2 Phrasal Verb The Defenition of Phrasal Verb To get more information about phrasal verbs, here are definitions from some linguists: Trask, (1977:169) says, Phrasal verb: a verb consisting of a simple verb plus one or more particles, the meaning is no generally predictable from the meaning of the component part. Wishon, Burks (1980: 319) says: Phrasal verb consists of a simple verb + 1 or two particle where the meaning of the compound is often different from the meaning of the individual parts. Crowell (1964: 401) says: Phrasal verb is combination of a verb and a particle which together have a meaning different from the customary meaning of the two words. Kollin, Martha, and Rober Funk (1998:35) says: Phrasal verb only form a idiom, a phrase whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meaning of its parts. Allosop (1982: 210) says; A phrasal verb consists of a simple verb + 1 or two particles where the meaning of the compound is often different from the meaning of the individual parts Downing and Locke (1992:335) stated: Phrasal verbs examined so far display a high degree of semantic cohesiveness and idiomaticy. This statement and explanation from this book help me to give more information about the meaning of phrasal verbs clearly.

3 Geoffrey Leech (1975:263) in his book A Communicatice Grammar of English stated: Some phrasal verbs retain the individual meaning of the verb and the adverb, whereas for other phrasal verbs the meaning of combinations can not be built up from the meanings of the individual verb and adverb. This book helps me to know about the differences between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs and how to use phrasal verbs effectively in a sentence Meaning of Phrasal Verb Some phrasal verbs retain the individual meaning of the verb and the adverb (for example: sit down) whereas for other phrasal verbs the meaning of the combination can t be built up from the meanings of the individual verb and adverb. The meaning of a verb may be no clue to its meaning in an idiomatic verb-adverb combination. We will notice that phrasal verbs are mostly made up of popular words. They are used in both formal and informal speech. First,we have to know the meanings and structures of phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs, and free combinations differ in many ways. However, just two criteria are usually sufficient of distinguishing among the types of multi-word conbinations, they are: Whether or not there is an idiomatic meaning Whether or not particle movement is possible 1. An idiomatic meaning is especially useful when there is no following noun phrase to distinguish between an intransitive phrasal verb and a free combination. Intransitive phrasal verbs usually have an idiomatic meaning while the words in free combinations retain their own meanings. For examples, the intransitive phrasal verbs, come on, shut up, get up, get out, break down, and grow up. All have idiomatic meanings beyond the

4 separate meanings of the two parts (for examples: grow up means to act/ become more mature, not literally to grow in an upward direction). In contrast, both the verb and the adverb have separate meanings in free combinations like come back, come down, go back, go in, look back. In sentences: Intransitive phrasal verbs: Shut up you fool! Come on! Tell us then! Intransitive free combinations: If this was new, I wouldn t let people go in. Come back, or I ll fire. He was afraid to look back. When following noun phrase, tests using structure are more important than those involving idiomatic meaning. The first important test is particle movement: that is, whether the adverbial particle can be placed both before and after the object noun phrase. Transitive phrasal verbs allow particle movement. In the following examples the object noun phrase is shown in brackets. I went to Eddie s girl s house to get back [my wool plaid shirt]. I ve got to get [this one] back for her mom. K came back and picked up [the note]. He picked [the phone] up. When the object of a transitive phrasal verb is a pronoun, the adverbial particle is almost always after the object:

5 I ll pick them up. So I got it back. 2. Particle movement is not possible with prepositional verbs. Instead, the particle (actually, a preposition) always comes before the noun phrase that is the object: Well those kids are waiting for their bus. <compare: *Well those kids are waiting their bus for.> It was hard to look at him. <compare: *It was hard to look him at.> Availability depends on their being close to the root. <compare: *Availability depends their being close on to the root.> Studying phrasal verbs is like studying vocabularies. They form and take an essential part of the general vocabulary of English. It is the individual items of vocabularies. A description of how the vocabulary of the language is growing and changing will help to place phrasal verbs in perspective. According to Biber, Conrad, and Leech (2002:123) the meanings of phrasal verb are usually idiomatic meanings. The meaning of idiomatic is not clear. The words in them do not mean what they ought to mean. According to Angela Downing and Philip Locke (1982:234) phrasal verb examined so far display a high degree of semantic cohesiveness and idiomaticy. They can be divided into three degrees, they are: non-idiomatic, semi-idiomatic, and fully idiomatic.

6 In non-idiomatic combination, the lexical verb and the adverbial particle each keeps its own meaning. For examples Go down : Temperature went down last night. Put up : Put up your umbrella, it s starting to rain. The meaning of these verb-adverb combinations can be predicted easily. The particle indicates the direction of movement, while the lexical verb indicates the manner. In semi-idiomatic combination, the lexical verb generally speaking, keep its meaning while the particle is used as an intensifier or as an aspectual marker of perfectively in the sense of completion. 1. I ll cut up the meat for the child. Cut up means cut into pieces. 2. The sound of thunder died away. Died away means gradually disappear. 3. We never found out who sent the anonymous letter. Found out means discover. In fully idiomatic combination, the meaning of the whole cannot be deduced from the parts, For examples 1. He can run up the cake in an hour. Run up means make. 2. The students catch on quickly. Catch on means understand. 3. The police came and broke up the mass. Broke up means disperse.

7 Properties of Phrasal Verbs Traditional grammarians define a phrasal verb as a verb followed by a particle (variously described as a preposition, adverb, or some the combination of the two). I put back the book. Put back means replace. We will look into the problem. Look into means investigate. She will talk over the case later. Talk over means discuss. I got up at 5 a.m yesterday. Got up means arise. Certain particles such as up, down, on, off, and back can be readily for phrasal verbs combining with common verbs such as come, go, do, make and give. (For these particles and verbs, we will discuss them in the characteristics of phrasal verbs) According to Wishon and Burks (1980:320) the properties of Phrasal verbs are: 1. Tense formal and verbs Phrasal verbs operate with all auxiliaries, that is, all the tenses and other constructions, like any other verbs. They occur in verbal (participle, infinitive, and gerund) form. 1. Has Mr. Liberti looked into the coats of boat travel? (present perfect) 2. She can t find out the sailing dates. (with modal auxiliary)

8 3. Anyone else would have given up long ago. (with modal auxiliary) 4. Looking up phone numbers takes all her time. (gerund) 5. She wants to line up my different offerings, than compare them. (infinitive) 6. Soon she will have been told off by all the travel agencies in town. (future perfect tense) 2. Sentences patterns Like other verbs, some phrasal verbs are in certain sentence patterns and some in others. Verbs not followed by + a/an objects (intransitive verbs) occur in the noun + verb + adverbial pattern. Phrasal verbs in this pattern are not separated. They tend to be combinations that can not be separated without a change in meaning. 1. We get up at five o clock every morning. 2. Did Rubin get off on time? 3. Did the monster get away? Verbs followed by an object (transitive verbs) occur in the noun + verb + noun pattern. Not many phrasal verbs (and not many verbs in general) are used in the noun + verb + noun + noun pattern. When a phrasal verb occurs, its parts tend to be separated by the indirect object. 1. Mix me up a large salad. 2. The police gave him back his wallet.

9 Phrasal verbs are not found in the sentence patterns using linking verbs, noun + linking verb + noun/ adjective (honey is sweet) and noun + linking verb + adverbial (the honey in on the shelf), nor in there transformation of this pattern (there is a jar of honey on the table). The description that can be taken from explanations and examples above is that phrasal verbs occur primarily in the noun + verb + noun pattern. A small number of verbs can be used in the noun + verb + noun + noun pattern The Characteristics of Phrasal Verbs In learning phrasal verbs, we have to know the characteristic of phrasal verbs. An important fact which must be stressed is that phrasal verbs are not only colloquial expressions, as many people believe. They can appear in formal style and slung. Crowell (1964:402) says phrasal verbs are extremely frequent in conversation and in all but the most formal writing. Phrasal verb that almost all of the words which make them up are very common. The verbs are usually these: Give go get pass see do Take carry call pick catch stand come Break put hold bring try throw Particles are usually these: About around back over down off Through across away forward on up

10 The way in which the words are put together is often odd, illogical or even grammatically incorrect. These are the special features of phrasal verbs. It is difficult to identify those phrasal verbs. So to recognize them, whether they are phrasal verb or prepositional phrase, it is important to recognize the characteristics of phrasal verbs firstly. According to Downing and Locke (1982:234) classified the characteristics of phrasal verbs by put them in sentences, and how to identify them clearly. Sentence 1: We have already set up the database. Sentence 2: Something sparkled at the bottom of the trunk. 1. Put them in Question: In sentence 1: The particle and the noun group could not answer a question about circumstances. Where you have already set? Answer: Up the database (unrelated answer) In sentence 2: The preposition + noun group could answer a question about circumstances Where did something sparkle? Answer: At the bottom of the trunk.

11 2. In sentence 1: The particle and the noun group cannot be omitted both without either producing an ungrammatical clause or changing the basic meaning of the verb. We have already set. (?) In sentence 2: Both preposition and noun group can be omitted and the clause will still be grammatical and the basic meaning of the verb will not change. Something sparkled. 3. In sentence 1: The particle and the following noun group cannot be moved as one constituent to the beginning of the clause. Up the database we have already set. In sentence 2: The preposition and noun group can be moved to the beginning of the clause. At the bottom of the trunk something sparkled. 4. In sentence 1: The particle can be moved to a position following the noun group and in fact must be moved to this position when the noun group is pronoun. We have already set the database up. We have already set it up. In sentence 2: The particle can t be moved to a position following the noun group. Something sparkled the bottom of the trunk at.

12 5. In Sentence 1: The noun group following the particle could become the subject of a passive version of the clause. The database has been already set up. In sentence 2: The noun group following the preposition cannot become the subject of a passive version of the clause. The bottom of the trunk was sparkled at. (incorrect) 6. In sentence 1: The constituent of verb plus particle can be replaced by a single word verb with similar meaning. We have already established the database. In sentence 2: There is no similar meaning for sparkled at for at is a preposition. By explanation above, we can see that the characteristics of phrasal verbs clearly found in sentence 1, whereas sentence 2, it is not phrasal verb. Other examples: The boys are called up the stairs. The boy called up his friends. The verb call in the first sentence has customary meaning of speak loudly, and up has its customary meaning of from below to a higher point. However, the second sentence, the words call and up have the meaning of the verb telephone. So in the first sentence, the combination of call and up is not classified as phrasal verbs, but in the second sentence, the combination of call and up is classified as a phrasal verb.

13 2.2.5 Kinds of Phrasal Verb After discussing about the properties of phrasal verbs, now we will discuss the following chapter that is about kinds of phrasal verbs. According to Biber (1999:403) Phrasal verbs in English fall into one of two categories: transitive or intransitive. Transitive phrasal verbs are those that occur with a direct object. In semantic terms, the direct object is the entity or thing that is affected by the action described by the verb. Intransitive phrasal verbs are those that do not. There are two kinds of phrasal verbs, they are: 1) Separable phrasal verbs 2) Inseparable phrasal verbs Separable Phrasal Verbs According to Wishon (1980:321) define that when phrasal verbs are transitive, they usually can be separated. The object is placed between the verb and the particle. Phrasal verbs are used in the same way as normal verbs. we put back the book verb particle noun object It can be: We put the book back or We put it back. The point to keep in mind is that when a two-word verb is followed by an object noun, we have the option of separating the verb and the adverb, but when the phrasal verb is followed by object pronoun, we must separate the verb and the adverb. More examples;

14 a) We took apart the bicycle. We took it apart. Took apart means disassemble b) He promised to help me, but then he let me down. Let (someone) down means disappoint (by failing to act as expected/promised) c) We found out the truth. We found it out. Found out means discover. d) We talked over the situation. We talked it over. Talked over means discuss Inseparable Phrasal Verbs Intransitive phrasal verbs are inseparable. Come on, tell me about Nick. Hold on! What are doing there? But some transitive phrasal verbs are inseparable. The object is placed after the particle. Transitive Inseparable Phrasal verbs are marked by placing a/an after the preposition / adverb (Wishon and Burks, 1980:320). I run into an old friend yesterday. <Incorrect: I run an old friend into yesterday.> Run into means meet. We made up a story about a poor girl. <Incorrect: We made a story up.>

15 Made up means create. I came across an interesting article. <Incorrect: I came an interesting article across.> Came across means find. The difference of separable and inseparable phrasal verbs are, in speech, the particle separable phrasal verb usually receives more stress than the verb, but the particle of an inseparable verb does not. Another difference between the two kinds of phrasal verbs arises when a short, one syllable pronoun like me, you, him, and them is used as an object. The pronoun object is placed before a separable particle, and it is placed after an inseparable particle, for examples : The man will call them up. Compare with The man call up them (incorrect).