Abstract
The Phrasal Verb
This hopefully to be a handy paper deals with the phrasal verb as a grammatical and thematic reality in the sense that its grammatical reality of v + adverbial particle forms a semantic unit. The paper works hard to employ certain tests to establish whether the construction of a verb + particle is a phrasal verb or not. It makes use of T.G. (ie Transformational Grammar) to operate a rule called particle movement that applies to phrasal verbs. The paper also tries to stipulate that topicalisation (= bringing the particle at the beginning of the sentence) is the proper test to isolate a phrasal verb. The paper adroitly makes use of Systematic Grammar to pin down phrasal verbs. It also tries to enlarge on the two types of phrasal verbs and also to distinguish between phrasal verbs and free constructions. The latter show some combinations of verbs and particles that are not phrasal verbs.
Keywords
phrasal verb; T.G.; particle movement; topicalisation; systemic grammar; free constructions
