A STUDY ON ENGLISH TWO – WORD VERBS

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, VNU HA NOI VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE Semantics End of term Assignment A STUDY ON ENGLISH TWO – WORD VERBS Lecturer Dr Hà Cẩm Tâm Student Dao Thi Sang Group K18C Hanoi, June 2010 Acknowledgement I would like to express my gratitude to Dr Ha Cam Tam, my supervisor for her enthusiastic guidance throughout my semantics course as well as her suggestions for semantic.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF POST- GRADUATE

Semantics End-of-term Assignment

A STUDY ON ENGLISH TWO – WORD VERBS

Lecturer: Dr Hà Cẩm Tâm Student:Dao Thi Sang Group: K18C

Hanoi, June 2010

I would like to express my gratitude to Dr Ha Cam Tam, my supervisor for her enthusiastic guidance throughout my semantics course as well as her suggestions for semantics topics

My special thanks also go to my friends and classmates who have been with me during the MA course for their encouragement

Finally my heart- felt gratitude goes to my family especially my mother for their help and encouragement during the course

Tables of content

Acknowledgement

Tables of content

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Rationale

1.2 Aims of the study

1.3 Scope of the study

Chapter 2: Development

2.1 Theoretical background

2.1.1 An overview of two – word verbs in English

2.1.1.1 Definition

2.1.1.2 Classifications and characteristics of two- word verbs in English

2.1.1.2.1 Phrasal verbs

2.1.1.2.2 Prepositional verbs

2.1.1.2.3 Phrasal – prepositional verbs

2.2 Some implications for teaching English two – word verbs to Vietnamese learners

Chapter 3: Conclusion

References

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Rationale

It is a fact that more and more people learn English for different reasons Many people learn English easily but others have encountered many difficulties mastering the language because of great deal of linguistic differences between the Vietnamese and English people And also the differences in culture, ways of thinking, lifestyle etc The learners have faced many problems in learning English especially when they learned two- word verbs and simultaneously made a great deal of errors in using them Two- word verbs are considered to be one of the most difficult for learners of English because they have various meanings and sometimes it is very difficult to guess the meanings of these verbs Generally those verbs are so numerous, so various and so difficulties that learners very often tend to avoid using them as far as possible

Under those circumstances, in this assignment an attempt has been made to review the two- word verbs of English Consequently, my final semantic assignment is entitled “A study on English two- word verbs”

1.2 Aims of the study

The aims of this assignment are:

- To give a background of two – word English verbs

- To give some teaching implications for teaching and learning two- word English verbs

1.3 Scope of the study

Murphy (1983) states that two- word verbs add a great to the force, colour and flexibility of the English language and, if a learner’s vocabulary and use of English is not always to appear “foreign”, it is essential that he or she masters a large number of these verbs However, as discussed above two- word verbs are numerous, various and difficult so it would be too ambitious for me to cover all

aspects of English two word verbs This is the reason why in this assignment, I only focus on reviewing English two word verbs

Chapter 2: Development

2.1 Theoretical background

2.1.1 An overview of two – word verbs in English

Learners of English often identify two- word verbs as one of the most important and difficult features of English A lot of them often fail to understand the meaning of two – word verbs whenever they can and they consider this to be a thoroughly reasonable “coping strategy” that other people should respect Other learners may welcome help and encouragement to use what they have learned Some learners find it helpful to analyze the form of two- word verbs and to classify them under syntactic or semantic types Others refer to learn them as individual items of vocabulary From this fact, an overview of two- word verbs

is examined in this chapter partially to help all the learners get general ideas about this kind of verbs to be confident enough to use them

2.1.1.1 Definition

According to Alexander (1988:152) and Seidl (1990:7), one of the most common characteristics of the English verbs is that they can combine with prepositions and adverbs particles Broadly speaking, in this paper, we call these combinations two – word verbs to describe any commonly- used combination of verb + preposition or verb + adverb particle

Parrot (2000:108) and Richards (1992), in narrow view, state that two- word verbs are made up of a verb (e.g come, get, give, look) and one particle, one preposition or one particle and one preposition to make combinations For example: come across, give up ( V+ particle); look after ( V+ preposition); get

on with ( V + particle + preposition)

The combination is essential to the use of the verb For example, the verb listen, (which can occur on its own in e.g Listen!) must be followed by to when it has an object like in “ she likes listening to pop music” However, the combination is sometimes not essential but reinforces the meaning of a verb, for

example the verb drink, in Drink your milk! can be reinforced by up to suggest “ finish drinking it” or “ drink it all”

Beaumont and Granger (1989:281), from their semantic point of view, define that two- word verbs are verbs which change their meaning in some way by adding particles

For example, the verb look can combine with a large number of prepositions or particles to form new verbs: look after (= take care of), look down on ( = regard someone/ something as inferior), look into (= investigate), look out (= be careful), etc Also, a single combination can have different meanings, depending

on the words which accompany it, i.e “Collocations” Here are some of the collocations and meaning of take off:

The plane took off

The boy/ thief (persons or animals) took off

The sales took off

2.1.1.2 Classifications and characteristics of two- word verbs in English

According to Seidl (1990), there are three basic combinations of verb, adverb particles and preposition These combinations have the structures as followed:

Verb + particle = phrasal verbs

Verb + preposition = prepositional verb ( Vprep)

verb + particle + preposition = phrasal – prepositional verbs ( V phr prep) John called up the man ( Vphr)

John called on the man ( V prep)

John put up with the man ( V phr.prep)

(Quirk 1972: 811)

Each of the groups of verbs has its own characteristics that teachers and learners

of English are supposed to bear in mind to distinguish and to use them correctly

According to G.Leech (1992 :1993), phrasal verbs are all the verbs which are made of the combination of a verb and an adverb particle

They are standing up near the window

When I touched him on the shoulder he turned round

These verbs have the structure:

Phrasal verbs = verb + Particle ( V + Part)

Sometimes phrasal verbs are used non- idiomatically This means the meaning

of the verbs is the combination of the two words used: e.g come + out ( i.e it is the same as the meaning of its separate parts.) The verb and the particle keep their individual lexical meanings so the meaning of its separate parts so the meaning of these verbs is often deducible from their parts, for example, find out ( discover), look over ( inspect) However, sometimes, a combination of verb + particle results in a separate unit of meaning which idiomatic or highly idiomatic The total meaning of the combination may bear no relationship to the meaning of the individual words combined Those verbs have a special meaning which cannot be easily guessed from the meaning of separate words For instance, the non- idiomatic meaning of fall through is clear in the sentence:

“The ice was thin and Jimmy fell through” i.e he fell through the ice into water.( Seidl, 1990:7) nevertheless, in the sentence “ Sue had plans to go to Africa, but they fell through the meaning of fall though is “ fail” And any combination may have several idiomatic meanings depending on the words around it Take the verb put and the particle out as an example:

Put out your cigarettes ( = extinguish)

We put out a request for volunteers ( issued)

They’re putting the programme out tomorrow ( = broadcasting)

This stuff will put you out in no time ( = make you unconscious)

Martha’s put out her hip again ( = dislocated) ( Alexandra, 1988:153)

Basing on the types of complementation, phrasal verbs are put into two groups, transitive and intransitive phrasal verbs Transitive phrasal verbs are those that take a direct object while intransitive phrasal verbs can not be follow by an object They have the structures as follows:

Transitive phrasal verb = verb + direct object + particle

Transitive phrasal verb = verb + particle + direct object

Intransitive phrasal verb = verb + particle

Most of transitive verbs are separable, this means the particle of the verb can be separated from its verb It can either precede or go immediately after the direct object

(a) She packed her job in

(b) She packed in her job

When the noun phrase is long (as a guideline four words or more), choice ( b) is preferable so that the particle is not placed too far away from the verb

She packed a well – paid job that was well – paid but stressful However, the particle cannot precede pronouns ( him, me, her, etc) as a direct object

She brought six boys up or She brought up six boys

But she brought them up not she brought up them ( Seidle, 1990:20)

Transitive can be seen in their acceptance of passivization, whereas passive constructions are impossible with intransitive verbs because they do not take an object

All the lights in the house have been turned off ( Alexander, 1988:156)

Besides, transitive phrasal verbs can be used with questions with the pronominal form with who(m) for people and with what for things

Whom did you call up?

What did John look for?

( Quirk, 1972:813)

Both transitive and intransitive verbs can be formed into nouns with questions

with e.g a climb- down , a dropout, an outbreak, an onlooker, etc ( Alexander,

1988: 175)

I’ve never heard such a carry- on

When there is an adverb in the sentence with a phrasal verb, the adverb cannot

be placed between verb and particle “ I looked eagerly up the road ( Chalker,

1984:233)

Next, some combinations of this group can be used transitively or intransitively

without a difference of meaning (Quirk, 1973: 348) Drink up quickly!

( intransitive) and Drink up your milk quickly (Transitive), or they can be transitive with one meaning: We have to turn out our essay in/turn in our essays

by Friday, and intransitive with another meaning: I feel sleepy, so I think I’ll turn in (= go to bed)

An additional characteristic is about the phonological one The particle of the verb is stressed when it comes at the end of the sentence or when the direct object is a pronoun

He took off his coat

What time did the flight eventually take off?

He took him off beautifully ( = imitate)

In other cases, especially when an adverbs follows the phrasal verb, the usual rules for sentence stress apply:

The lorry lowed down immediately

The flight took off later than scheduled ( Seidl, 1990: 11)

What is more, the particles of these verbs sometimes can strengthen the effect of the verb as in, Write down their names; hurry up/ or extend the meaning of a verb,e.g Give out these leaflets (= distribute) In some cases, the particle can be omitted like Write their names: Hurry!

2.1.1.2.2 Prepositional verbs

Prepositional verbs are the combinations of a verb and a particle which functions

Sometimes, it is very difficult for learners of English to distinguish prepositional verbs and prepositional phrases Let’s take the sentence “ He looked at the girl” into consideration This sentence can be given two analyses In one, there is an intransitive verb “ looked” followed by a prepositional verbs “ looked” is transitive with ( the girl) as prepositional object The two analyses can be regarded as different but equally valid ways of looking at the same structure The particles of the prepositional verbs cannot be separated from the verbs She looks after it carefully

However, the separation is sometimes possible in relative clauses and questions The picture at which you are looking was bought at an auction

At which pictures are you looking?

2.1.1.2.3 Phrasal – prepositional verbs

Phrasal – prepositional verbs are the combinations of a verb with two particles The first particle is classified as an adverbs and the second as a preposition and the particles are inseparable

You should look up to teachers ( = respect)

not: You should look up teachers to.

The verbs of this group are transitive and must therefore be followed by an object

I don’t know how you put up with these conditions (Alexander, 1988: 158) Some verbs can go into the passive but others cannot

All the old regulations were done away with

I find it difficult to keep up with you

Adverbs cannot be inserted immediately before the object of these verbs but can

be placed between the particles

He puts up with willingly that secretary of his

He puts up willingly with that secretary of his ( Quirk, 1973:351)

In relative clauses and questions, the particles positioned after the verbs

Some of these verbs can form two – word nouns: e.g Come down from, drive

on to, hurry over to, run along to, stay away from, walk up to, etc or they vary

in their idiomatically like: put up with ( tolerate), run out of ( use up) With these verbs we cannot choose the preposition to use after the particle Each verb conveys a single, indivisible meaning

The stress of phrasal – phrasal – prepositional verbs often falls on the particle when the verb is in isolation or when the object is a pronoun “Who put Jim up

to it?” When the object is a noun, the stress applied as followed “Who put Jim

up to telling “lies”?

In summary, English two – word verbs have been described and classified into phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs and phrasal prepositional verbs with their own syntactical, semantic- structural and phonological features

2.2 Some implications for teaching English two – word verbs to Vietnamese learners

One of the essential thing is when materials for phrasal verbs are put forward, a great attention should be paid to the difficulty levels: the lowest difficulty level, normal difficulty level and the most difficult level Highly idiomatic phrasal verbs in the early process of learning English phrasal verbs may confuse intermediate students

Once learners have acquired certain phrasal verbs, we should encourage them to practise using them as much as they can in their speech and writing (Although phrasal verbs are marked as colloquial, they can still use in writing depending on what we wish to say, how we wish to say and to whom we wish to say.)

With the aim of enabling the learners to comprehend and correctly use two word verbs, the teacher, when introducing any case, should provide examples as illustrations For example, when distinguish the difference between transitive phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs, the following example may be given: (1)They called on the man (V + prep + NP)

(2) They called up the man (V + Part + NP)