THE COMMON TWO WORD VERBS DENOTING MATERIAL AND MENTAL PROCESSES IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OFLANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES BÙI THỊ DIỆU QUYÊN THE COMMON TWO-WORD VERBS DENOTING MATERIAL AND M

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF

LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

BÙI THỊ DIỆU QUYÊN

THE COMMON TWO-WORD VERBS DENOTING MATERIAL AND MENTAL PROCESSES IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE

EQUIVALENTS

(CÁC ĐỘNG TỪ HAI THÀNH TỐ PHỔ BIẾN QUI CHIẾU TIẾN TRÌNH VẬT CHẤT VÀ TINH THẦN TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ

NGHĨA TIẾNG VIỆT TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15

HA NOI – 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF

LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

BÙI THỊ DIỆU QUYÊN

THE COMMON TWO-WORD VERBS DENOTING MATERIAL AND MENTAL PROCESSES IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE

EQUIVALENTS

(CÁC ĐỘNG TỪ HAI THÀNH TỐ PHỔ BIẾN QUI CHIẾU TIẾN TRÌNH VẬT CHẤT VÀ TINH THẦN TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ

NGHĨA TIẾNG VIỆT TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Lingguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Bích Ngọc, M.A.

HA NOI – 2010

DECLARATION

I certify that all the material in this study which is not my own work has been identified and acknowledged, and that no material is included for which a degree has already been conferred upon me.

Bui Thi Dieu Quyen

Date:

department-Last but not least, I would like to send my thanks to my family and friends for their understanding, encouragement, and support over time and distance.

Abstract

English multi-word verbs are special, important and/ but difficult They promise to bring learners nearer to native-speakers, and simultaneously discourage patient learners by its quantity Scholars tackle this problem by seeking for the highest frequently used multi- word verbs or finding ways of systemize them so that they become digestible for learners Following this direction, this study attempts to look at multi-word verbs which consist of two elements (two-word verbs) under the light of systemic-functional grammar Two-word verbs of seven selected verbs are collected from dictionaries and grouped into material processes and mental processes based on their meanings The discrimination between PVs and PreVs is also made.

The findings of the study though support the idea that a verb denoting one process can have its two-word verbs belonging to different processes, also indicate that most of those two-word verbs tend to denote the process that the single word verb denotes Moreover, a two-word verb of a realizing-material processes-verb can denote both material and mental processes, but the meanings belonging to material processes are still more prominent than those of mental processes Besides, the meanings of a two-word verb within one process somehow connect to one another The study finally suggests how learners and teachers can utilize the findings of the study to improve learning and teaching

of two-word verbs in English language education.

PART A: INTRODUCTION

"There is another kind of composition more frequent

in our language than perhaps in any other, from which arises to foreigners the greatest difficulty."

Samuel Johnson

Preface, Dictionary of the English Language, 1755

1 Rationale of the study

The two-word verbs, including phrasal verbs (PVs) and prepositional verbs(PreVs), are an interesting linguistic phenomenon in the English language Many Englishteachers have realized the importance of this multiword knowledge in helping theirlearners use English more fluently and naturally Paradoxically, these structures are nevereasy for non-native learners to acquire, mostly because the semantic, grammatical andstylistic peculiarities that they possess

The meanings of a two-word verb are not always

likely guessed from its individuals Many non-native speakers

of English must, therefore, memorize them to be able to

understand and use them in the right context However,

thousands of two-word verbs and many more times of their

meanings make the massive learning unfruitful Consequently,

pages are spent to find out which PVs to teach and in what

sequences For example, Liu (2003) suggests 302 items to be

most frequently used idioms, with 104 of them are PVs

Gardner and Davies (2007) propose a smaller number - 100

frequent PVs, which the authors claim to be a manageable

number to deal with The problem is two-word verbs are very

polysemous, and corresponding with 100 frequent PVs proposed

by Gardner and Davies (2007 ) , it is n ot 100 but up to 559

potential meanings (5.6 meanings per PV on average) learners

have to deal with

I f we focus on senses that are used more often than the

others, the load of learning English two-word verbs would be

reduced This is also what this current study is aiming at Biber

et al (1999) suggest that we classify multiword verbs

according to their core meaning called semantic domains:

activity verbs, communication verbs, mental verbs,

Deleted: Dilin

Deleted: , Deleted: From this view,

the number

100 is getting less manageable.

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3

causative verbs, verbs of simple occurrence, verbs of existence or relationship, and

aspectual verbs Halliday (1985; 2004) approaches the matter with different term but the

same nature Instead of ‘semantic domains; Halliday has term ‘processes’ (See section

1.2.1 for types of processes); and what Biber (1999) names ‘activity verb’ is labeled

‘material process’ This study uses Halliday’s terms for their clarity and systematic nature;

and attends to material and mental processes since they are considered most common by

both Halliday (1985; 2004) and Biber (1999)

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2 Aims of the study

The primary aims of this paper are:

1 to study English two-word verbs, specifically distinguish two kinds of two-

word verbs: PVs and PreVs;

2 to study English processes, focusing on material and mental processes;

3 to investigate some common English two-word verbs denoting material and

mental processes and find their Vietnamese equivalents;

3 Scope of the study

Deleted: <#>to suggest some

recommendations for teaching and learning two-word verbs.¶

As far as structural aspects of two-word verbs are concerned, the current study

includes both PV (transitive and intransitive) and PreVs ‘Phrasal-prepositional verbs’

would be beyond the scope of this paper

Two-word verbs are rich in both number and meanings For example, in Oxford

Phrasal verbs Dictionary, 6000 common British and American P Vs are recorded; the

verb

‘go’ solely has 31 two-word verbs with 209 different meanings So, we are not ambitious

to cover all of them Although some verbs have no single correct classification or have

multiple meanings belonging to different semantic domains, Biber (1 9 99) affirms that

activity verbs and mental verbs are of most common Among the 12 most common lexical

verbs that all occur over 1000 times per million words in the LSWE Corpus (Biber e t al .,

1999: 373), six are activity verbs (get, go, make, come, take, give), five are mental verbs

(know, think, see, want, mean) Also by means of corpus, Biber proposes lists of the most

common lexical verbs in each semantic domain, including all verbs that occur over 300

times per million words in at least one register (cf Biber et al., 1999: 367-369) In domain

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of ma t er i a l verbs, we see the notable common of “make, go, give, come, put”, and “take”;

while “see, think, know, want, feel, like” are distinguished representatives of mental verbs.

Therefore, having claimed to be the study of the common two-word verbs denoting

material and mental processes in English though, in the frame of a small paper, we only

focus on four outstanding representatives of material verbs: COME, GIVE, GO, MAKE

(all are in the top 10 most prolific PVs of British National Corpus), and three of mental

ones: HEAR, SEE, THINK Moreover, only two-word verbs with idiomatic and

semi-idiomatic meanings used in material and mental processes are concentrated on

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4 Method of the study

The study aims to find out, in the limitation of seven lexical verbs, “how many”

and ”how often” two-word verbs belong to material and mental processes there ar e ,

comparing with the other four processes Thus, quantitative research methods, which give

much focus on the collection and analysis of numerical data and statistics, appear to be

appropriate

5 Design of the study

This study is designed in three parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion

The Introduction gives an overview of the study The Development consists of three

chapters: Chapter 1 - Theoretical Background, provides the fundamental concepts used in

the paper; Chapter 2 - Methodology, describes thoroughly the methodology acquired in the

study; Chapter 3 presents lists of two-word c o m bin a tio n s of seven common verbs

belonging to material and mental processes with their particles/ prepositions and their

Vietnamese equivalents Finally, the Conclusion offers the review of the study with its

implication and application concerning teaching and learning English two-word verbs in

general

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT

This chapter represents the issues of two-word verbs and Processes of Material and

Mental in details Section 1.1 examines some aspects of PVs and PreVs such as their

definitions and their semantic and syntactic aspects Particles - the vital component of PVs,

are also defined and classified Section 1.2 looks into the matter of process types with the

focus is on Material and Mental processes, their definition and characteristics

1.1 Two word verbs

Quirk et al (1972) clarify that multi-word verbs consist of PVs, PreVs, and

phrasal-prepositional verbs Biber et al (1999: 403) add other multi-word verb constructions like V

+ noun phrase (+ preposition); V + prepositional phrase or V + V to complete the

classification of four major kinds of multi-word combinations that comprise “relatively

idiomatic units and function like single verbs”

In this study, we focus on multi-word verbs which comprise two elements

Though Taka (1960, cited Waibel 2007) and Meyer (1975, cited Waibel 2007) use term

“two-word verb” to mean PV, and Celce-Murcia et al (1999) note that PVs are sometimes

called two- word verbs, both PVs and PreVs are taken into consideration when we refer to

Dixon, R.M.W (1991: 274) s a y s : “Phrasal verb is a combination of verb plus

preposition that has a meaning not inferable from the individual meanings of verb and

preposition(s)”1

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1 It is noted that the author mentions to prepositions, but particles There is possibility that the so-call PreVs

by most of linguists is defined by Dixon as PVs, or he uses the name PVs to refer to both.

Biber et al., (1999: 403) a ss er t : “PVs are multi-word units

consisting of a verb followed by an adverbial particle” which all have

spatial or locative meanings and “commonly used with extended

meanings”

Halliday (1985: 207; 2004: 351) s e es PVs as “lexical verbs which

consist of more than just the verb word itself”, which can be verb + adverb,

verb + preposition, and verb + adverb + preposition David (2002) seems to

meet Halliday when this author insists the existence of two definitions of

PVs, the broad sense and the narrow sense The broad sense includes both

PreVs and PVs, spatial or figurative, transitive or intransitive while

the narrow sense excludes PreVs This study prefers looking at PV from its

narrow sense

Before turning to PreVs, it is necessary to clarify that the term

‘phrasal verb’ is not favored by all linguistics Said as Waibel (2007: 15),

“the very name for this type of verb is controversial” For example, Fraser

(1947) calls it “verb-particle combination”, Zandvoort (1962) talks about

it as “verb-adverb combination”, Live (1965) “discontinuous verb”,

Lipka (1992) labels them “verb-particle construction”, Francis (1958)

“separable verb”, etc However, Mc Arthur (1989: 38, cited Waibel,

2007: 15) notes that “the term ‘phrasal verb’ appears (…) to be the

winning term”, and Rot (1988: 183, cited David, 2002: 112) remarks that

the term PV is the most appropriate for verb-particle combinations because

“it expresses the linguistic essence of this lexical-grammar collocation, and

it has its terminological parallels in the location ‘phrasal prepositions’ ”.

And the term familiar with both teachers and students is also used in this

study

1.1.1.2 PreVs

About PreVs, the matter of term and definition is less controversial

than that of PVs Scholars seem to be satisfied with the term ‘PreV’, which

refers to the kind of verb that “consists of a verb followed by a preposition”

(Biber e t al ., 1999: 403) and that “forms a semantic and syntactic unit”

(Leech, 1992: 264) The problem, if it has, is whether or not to see PreV as

a subtype of PV or an independent kind of verb fr o m P V This study

would like to look at PreV as an independent item that e xis t s parallel with

1.1.1.3 Particles

1.1.1.3.1 Definition and classification

The term ‘particle’ refers to a word that has a grammatical function but does not fit

into the main parts of speech like noun, verb, or adverb, etc (Longman Dictionary of

Applied Linguistics, 1985) The exact status of the particle is still being debated; scholars

are being divided on whether it is an adverb, preposition, postpositional prefix, special part

of speech, etc Encyclopedia Wikipedia (2010) provides seven types of word serving as

particle: ‘Articles’ (the), ‘Infinitival’ (to), ‘Preposition’ (in, on), ‘Adverbial particles’ (off,

down), ‘Interjections‘(oh, wow), ‘Sentence connectors’ (so, well), Tags (…, did they?) and

‘Conjunctions’ (and, or, nor) However, dictionaries like Longman Dictionary of

Contemporary English (2006) or MacMillan Phrasal Verbs Plus (2005) just consider

adverbs and prepositions to be particle; and some scholars (e.g Celce-Murcia, 1999; Quirk

et al., 1985) even narrow term particles to adverbs2 In this study, particles are also seen in

its adverbial nature and some differences between particles and prepositions will be noted

in section 1.1.1.3.3

1.1.1.3.2 Characteristics of particles

Particles are typically found in PVs where most of them are place adjucts or can

function as such (Quirk & Greenbaum, 1973) Particles form cohesive units with verbs and

normally cannot be separated from the verb by another adverb Moreover, they play an

important role in complementation by completing the meaning of the head-phrase, and

creating a dominant conceptual meaning for PVs

Particles have pragmatic meaning and obviously have impact on the meaning of the

verb they follows even if the meanings of the verb are not necessary destroyed or lost

Briton (1988: 4, cited David, 2002: 127) claims that the addition of a particle to a verb

produces the following three meanings: perfective meaning (drink up, calm down, wait out,

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2 While Celce-Murcia ( 199 9 ) explains the author’s selection is to show the close association of particle

with the verb, and to distinguish it from preposition as well as other adverbs, other scholars who consider

solely adverbs to be particles argue, “particles are commonly treated either as adverbs or else assigned to a

special class” because of their distinct behaviour, especially their variable position and the lack of an object

of their own (Langacker , 1987: 243, cited David , 2002: 125).

die off, put over), ingressive meaning (doze off, go away, set out), or continuative/iterative meaning (drive on, hammer away) (See aspectual PVs, section 1.1.2.1)

1.1.1.3.3 Particles vs prepositions

Particles look like prepositions and actually have some common features withprepositions Both of them are invariable in form, i.e they do not change their form inaccordance with words they accompany Particles can sometimes be considered a specialtype of prepositions3, but they are still distinctive terms Certain syntactic features separatethem from each other A great deal of differences is about their position, the sentenceconstituents they are linked to4, and their function5, etc Moreover, particles usually affectthe meanings of their proceeding verbs while prepositions usually do not and evenindependent of them (See section 1.1.2.3.1)

To separate adverbial particles from prepositions, objects might be helpful AsSwan (1980: 95, cited David, 2002: 115) points out, prepositions must have objects whileadverbs particle need not Celce-Murcia (1999: 429) proposes syntactic tests (adopted fromO’Dowd, 1994: 19) to set apart particles and prepositions Accordingly,

Only prepositions allow:

 Adverb insertion (e.g We turned quickly off the road, but not we turned quickly off the light)

 Phrase fronting (e.g Up the hill John ran, not Up the bill John ran)

 Wh-fronting (e.g About what does he write?, not Up what does he write?)

Only particles in separable PVs allow:

 Passivization (e.g The light was turned off, not The road was turned out)

 Verb substitution (e.g The light was extinguished (= turned off))

 NP insertion (e.g We turned the light off, not We turned the road off )

Many words can be used both as adverbs and prepositions except back and away

(they are only adverb), while other words like from and during can only be treated as

prepositions (David , 2002: 115- 116).

4 A preposition denotes a semantic relationship between two entities as to place, time,

instrument or cause etc

(Quirk et al , 1972) while a particle is part of the verb.

5 A dverbial particles function as adverbs and modify the preceding verb.

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1.1.2 Syntactic and semantic characteristics of PVs and PreVs 2.1.2.1 Syntactic and semantic characteristics of PVs

Regarding syntactical aspects of PVs, PVs’ subcategories and PVs’ separation need

to be dealt with In MacMillan Phrasal Verb Plus by Rundell and Fox (2005), PVs are

divided into three types: transitive, intransitive, and those which is both transitive and

intransitive But it seems to be simpler to set PVs into intransitive and transitive like the

way Quirk and Greenbaum (1973), Biber et al (1999), or Celce-Murcia et al (1999) do;

noting that some combinations can have “dual function” (Celce-Murcia e t al ., 1999: 427),

i.e., they can be either transitive or intransitive, with or without a difference of meaning

(Quirk & Greenbaum, 1973) Most of the challenge is assumed to fall into transitive PVs

because of its peculiar syntactic characteristic, its separability As Celce-Murcia (1999)

puts it, in spite of being part of the PV, particle does not have to be adjacent with it Listed

here are three subcategories of separation:

 The largest, most productive category is optional separable PV, where

particle can stand either before of after direct object except when the direct

object is a pronoun6

E.g put on = wear: Anne put on her coat and went out.

or Anne put her coat on and went out.

 The smaller category is inseparable phrasal verb In this kind, the particle

is forced to follow right after the verb7

E.g I came on (= encounter) this beautiful vase in the attic.

 Sometimes, the separation is obligatory and we will name this obligatory

separable PV In this kind, the particles are always separated8

E.g put through = test: We put the machines through a series of tests.

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6 If the direct object is not a pronoun or if it is a long and complicate noun phrase, it would prefer the position

after the particle or as ( C e l c e - Murcia , 1999: 435) put it, “the conventional position for new, discourse salient

information” The insertion of complex noun phrase between verb and the particle is believed to interrupt the

cognitive unity of the verb and particle and make it difficult to understand.

7 C el c e - Murcia (1999) said this phenomenon is because what we are calling a particle is actually a

preposition and thus would naturally go before its object

8 The obligatory separation is presumed to avoid the ambiguity with the inseparable phrasal verbs, which

have the same form but different meaning ( C e l c e - Murcia e t a l , 1999).

From s ema ntic view, we see three important aspects: the polysemy, productivity,

and idiomaticity

Like single-word verbs, PVs are polysemous in that one form of PVs can have

various meaning, and simultaneously, one meaning can also be expressed by more than

one form Additionally, English continually generates new PVs9 as well as new meanings

of existed PVs Celce-Murcia (1999: 431 ) describes PV as “a highly productive lexical

category in English” , while Bolinger (1974: xi, cited Celce-Murcia, 1999) comments the

phenomenon as “an outpouring of lexical creativeness that surpasses anything else in our

language” Explaining the popularity of PVs in English, Bolinger (1971 xi: i , cited

Stephens, 2008) said,

"They are words The everyday inventor is not required to reach for elements

such as roots and affixes that have no reality for him It takes only a rough

familiarity with other uses of head and off to make them available for head off,

virtually self-suggesting when the occasion for them comes up, which is not

true of learned formations like intercept"

Yet it seems impossible to know exactly which verb will join with which particle to

form a new PV There usually needs a semantic coordination between verbs and particles

In other words, verbs limit their choice of adverbial particle by their semantic content

Nevertheless, it does not mean PVs cannot be systematized Supported by the idea that the

semantic of PVs is not as “arbitrary” as it is often held to be (Smclair, Moon et al., 1939,

cited David, 2002), Celce-Murcia (1999) claims the existence of some systemeticity in

how meaning is represented in PVs; and to understand that systematicity, we familiarize

ourselves with three semantic categories of PVs: literal, aspectual, and idiomatic (See

Quirk et al., 1972, Celce-Murcia et al., 1999)

 Literal PVs: comprise a verb and a directional preposition, function

syntactically like verb-particle constructions, except that particle keeps its

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9 Mc Arthur and Atkins (1974: 6, cited David , 2002: 128) claim 6 types of verbs that can be phrasalized,

including: a/ verbs of movement (go, come); b/ verbs of invitation and ordering (invite, let); c/ the so-called

‘empty verb’, verbs of indefinite meaning (get, make); d/ verbs formed with or without the suffix –en, from

simple monosyllabic adjectives (brighten); e/ verbs formed unchanged from simple, usually monosyllabic

nouns with such paraphrase patterns as chalk up = mark up with chalk; f/ a random scattering of two-syllable

verbs of Latin origin, with which some kind of direction or emphasis is required (measure (up), level (off)).

prepositional meaning and the result is a PV whose meaning is fully

compositional (e.g sit down).

 Aspectual PVs10: certain particles can add consistent aspectual meaning to

the verb without changing the origin meaning of that verb Thus, the

meaning of the whole is neither literal nor idiomatic F or Celce-Murcia

(1999: 432- 433), four main types of aspectual PVs are distinguished:

- Inceptive PVs (signal a beginning state): take off, set out, start up

- Continuative: (show that the action continues) Activity verbs + on/

along (come along, keep on), away (sleep away), around (mess around), through ( think through)

- Iterative PVs (activity verbs + over show repetition ): think over

- Completive PVs (show complete action with up, out, off and down):

wear out, mix up, cut off, check over, etc

 Idiomatic PVs: are those that we cannot infer their meaning from their

components11 For instance, in the sentence I hope you will get over your

operation quickly, the literal meaning of ‘get over’, in sense of ‘to climb

over st to get to the other side’ no longer applies to explain the subject’s

enduring an operation

2.1.2.2 Syntactic and semantic characteristics of PreVs

Syntactically, PreVs always has its preposition followed by a nominal object (Biber

et al 1999) They, however, do not coincide with inseparable transitive PVs because the

object still follows the preposition when it is a pronoun Moreover, the verb can have its

own object which usually precedes the preposition Two structural patterns for PreVs are:

 V + preposition + NP

E.g I’ve never ever thought about [it]

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10 Some authors suggest grouping PVs based on the particle instead of the verb element as we usually do We

think it is applicable for aspectual PVs only Moreover, aspectual particles do not go with every verb Certain

aspectual particles co-occur with certain verbs That is why we have fade out but do not accept fade up.

11 The meaning of this kind is believed to have relation with underlying logic of the language and cultural

traditions Langacker (1991, cited David , 2002) defend that the vast majority PVs rely at least in part on the

literal or aspectual meaning of the particle and thus they can help to figure out figurative meaning.

 V + NP + preposition + NP

E.g He blames all faults on me

Linguists, such as Quirk & Greenbaum (1973), Biber et al (1999), tend to agreethat there are two ways to approach PreVs: the first one is that PreVs can be treated as asingle lexical verb followed by a prepositional phrase functioning as an adverbial.Arguments supporting this view are based on the fact that we can insert another adverbialbetween the verb and the preposition In the second approach, both the verb and thepreposition are seen as a single unit followed by a noun phrase which acts as the object ofV+ preposition Supporters of this idea count on the fact that the combination verb pluspreposition functions as a single semantic unit that has idiomatic meaning and, therefore, isreplaceable by a simple transitive verb

Semantically, PreVs are also polysemous, idiomatic and productive

1.1.2.3 Comparison of PVs and PreVs

12 The rationale for many of these tests is the fact that a preposition makes a natural unit with the NP object that follows it, whereas a particle makes a natural unit with the verb that precedes it ( C e l c e - Murcia e t a l ,

1999: 430)

Table 1: PVs and PreVs dissimilarities

Spoken stress Stress is on the particles The stress is on the verb, not

on the prepositionAdverb insertion/

intervention

Adverb cannot enter between particle combinations It must be placedbefore the verb or at the end

verb-PreVs allow insertion ofadverb into verb-prepositioncombination

Preposition must precedethe noun phrase

Particle cannot be placed before arelative pronoun Preposition canParticle cannot precede a relative

pronoun or the interrogative word at thebeginning of a Wh-question

Preposition can

Pronoun-object

replacement Particle must go after pronoun

Preposition must precedepronoun

1.2 Process types

1.2.1 Overview of process types

As Martin et al (1997: 102) says, “Process type is the resource for sorting outhuman experiences of all kinds into a small number of types These differ both with respect

to the Process itself and the number and kind of participants involved.”

In the view of Halliday (1985; 2004) and systemic-functional linguists such asBloor, T & Bloor, M (1995), Martin et al (1997), there are 6 types of process in English:

Material, Mental, Relational, Behavioural, Existential, and Verbal.

13

This test, however, is restricted with pronoun, gerund and unhelpful with intransitive PVs as there is no complementary noun phrase to facilitate movement.

Material processes denote doings and happenings They represent our ‘outer

experiences’: those we pick up from the life when we do or observe other people do things,

or see things happen

Mental processes involve conscious processing They express our ‘inner

experience’, or our consciousness of the world around us Members of metal processesinclude perception, cognition and affection

Relational processes are processes of being which denote our logical link between

the new to the old experiences They have two different modes: attribution andidentification

Behavioural processes construe (mental and verbal) behaviour Like the active

version of verbal and mental processes, they represent the acting out of processes ofconsciousness (like laughing), and physiological states (like sleeping) They havesimilarities to both material and mental processes Like mental processes, one of theirparticipants must be human consciousness (in mental we call it ‘Senser’ while inbehavioural, it is known as ‘Behaver’) They resemble material processes in: (i) they preferpresent-in-present tense, and (ii) they cannot occur with a reported clause in a projectingclause complex

Existential processes are concerned with existence - things recognized to be, to

exist, or to happen They appear like the relational processes in that they construe aparticipant which involves a process of being But what separates them is that existentialprocesses have only one participant

Verbal processes, which stand between mental and relational processes, cover

saying of different modes (asking, commanding, offering, stating) and semiotic processesthat are not necessary verbal (showing, indicating) They symbolize relationshipsconstructed in human consciousness and enacted in the form of language like saying andmeaning ‘Sayer’ can be human or human-like speaker or any other symbolic source.Among the six processes, material, mental and relational are primary; behavioural,existential, and verbal are said to be secondary processes which lie on the border of thethree major ones However, Halliday (2004: 171) said: “there is no priority or domination

of one kind of process over another” For this reason, he used a circle but not a line to

demonstrate the relation among types of process in English (see Halliday, 2004: 172, fig5.2) In that figure, process types are represented as a semiotic space with different regionsrepresenting different types The regions have core areas and these represent prototypicalmembers of the process types, but the regions are continuous, shading into one another.That is why Halliday (2004: 172) asserts: “the process types are fuzzy categories”, whichbase on ‘the principle of systemic indeterminacy’14.

Now we have a general picture of six processes in English systemic- functionalgrammar As mentioned above, material and mental processes are among basic processesand account the largest proportion in 6 processes They are also subject investigated in thispaper and will be looked closely in the next sections

1.2.2 Material processes

Material processes cover doings and happenings Prototypically, these are concretechanges in the material world that can be perceived But such concrete material processeshave also come to serve as a model for construing our experience of change in abstract

phenomena For instance, the verb ‘fall’ realizing material processes can construe motion

in space as in Lizzie fell down and hurt her knee or motion in an abstract, space of measurement as in London share process fell sharply yesterday.

Typical verbs realizing material processes are: happen, create, make, set up, give, get, etc (See Halliday, 2004: 187- 189, table 5(5))

Material processes have participants of ‘Actor’, ‘Goal’, ‘Range’, and ‘Beneficiary’,

“the functions assumed by the participants in any clause are determined by the type ofprocess that involved”, noted Halliday (2004: 1997)

 ‘Actor’ is the ‘Who’ doing the action

 ‘Goal’ is the ‘What’ brought to existence by the doing (build the house) or

impacted by the doing (fix the car).

 ‘Range’ or ‘Scope’ is a participant specifying the scope of happening and isthe only one being out of the influence of the performance of the process It

14 This principle has influence over six processes It says that “the world of our experience is highly indeterminate” and the grammar describe it in the system of process types in the same way Thus, one and the same text may offer alternative models of what would appear to be the same domain of experience , construing, for example, the domain of emotion both as a process in a mental clause, and as a participant in a relational one.” (Halliday , 2004)

typically occurs in ‘transitive’ processes where there is solely one participant(Actor).

 ‘Beneficiary’ is the ‘Whom’ getting benefit from the doing It has two

subtypes: the ‘Recipient’- marked by preposition to and signs the transfer of

existing goods; and the ‘Client’- marked by preposition for, indicates aprovision of service

E.g (1) She gave a t e apot to h is aun t

Actor Goal Beneficiary (recipient)

(2) She made a c up of t e a for m e

(3) They crossed the hall

Material processes are distinguished into transitive and intransitive processes(Halliday, 1985; 2004) Usually, if there is only one participant in a clause, the process issaid to represent happening and is named intransitive material clause If the processextends to another participant, say, the ‘Goal’, the process represents a doing and is known

as transitive material clause For example, ‘Oil is coming down in price’ is intransitive material processes with intransitive PV ‘come down’; ‘Mary put on her coat’ is transitive clause with the phrasal verb ‘put on’ serving as transitive process Furthermore, if there is

‘Goal’, the represent may have 2 forms: operative (active) and receptive (passive)

E.g (1) T he l ion c aught tou the r is t

Actor Process: active Goal

(2) T he tourist w as c aught by the lio n

About the subtypes of doings and happening, Halliday (2004) clarifiestransformative and creative In the former, the goal does exist before the process beginsand is transformed in the course of the unfolding This subtype is often indicated by the

particle of a PV (use u p , turn do w n ), or has separate element representing the outcome as

in She painted the house red, where red serves as attribute specifying the resultant state of the goal Creative subtype, on the other hand, has the outcome brought into existence by

the doing

E.g (1) She painted a portrait of the artist (is ‘creative’ since the outcome is

the creation of the portrait)

(2) She painted the house red (is ‘transformative’ since the outcome is the

transformation of the colour of the house)All types of processes change form though time and so do material processes.However, process types are varied in ways of unfolding Material processes prefer

‘present-in-present’ (or present continuous) (e.g is going) to simple present (e.g does).

1.2.3 Mental processes

Mental processes construe sensing and concerned with the world inside our mind.

”Think, know, hear, look, see, feel, like” are typical verbs which can be served as mental

personified to be human or treated as conscious

‘Phenomenon’ is the participant being sensed Unlike ‘Senser’, ‘Phenomenon’covers a wide range of units It can be things (any kind of entity created by consciousnesssuch as a conscious being, and object, a substance, an institution, or an abstraction), macro-

things (acts) like getting up early, and meta-things (facts) like the information that people can travel to outer space.

Mental processes differentiate mental processes of perception, cognition, andemotion with their distinctive features A perceptive verb is often accompanied by a modal

verb (e.g can feel, can see) Verbs like ‘remember’, ‘remind’ or ‘think’ often indicate

cognitive mental processes and are able to begin another clause or a set of clause as the

content of them (I think that, I remember that…) Meanwhile, property owned by mental

clause construing emotions is that the verb serving as process are gradable in lexical and

grammar (detest- loathe- hate- dislike- like- love) In general, all subtypes follow the

principle of indetermination in that different types of sensing can shade into each other

Therefore, “I see” not only means ‘I perceive visually’ but also is interpreted as ‘I understand’.

When the clause refers to present time, the tense of the verb realizing mental

process is the simple present rather than the ‘present-in-present’ (E.g I see the stars, not I

am seeing the stars)

1.2.4 Material vs mental processes

Halliday et al (2004: 201- 207) suggests three criteria to distinguish materialprocesses from mental processes, including: the participants, the tense of process or verbserving as process, and the substitute of verb

 Participants: the two typical participants of material are ‘Actor’ and ‘Goal’whereas the two distinctive participant roles for mental are ‘Senser’ and

‘Phenomenon’ Moreover, if ‘Senser’ is highly constrained, there is nolimitation for what can act as ‘Phenomenon’ of mental processes Meanwhile,

all participants in material processes must be a ‘thing’ (person, object, substance, abstraction)

 Tense: material processes are present-in-present unmarked while mental processes tend to use simple present tense15

 Substitution: material processes can be substitute by verb do, whereas mental processes do not allow this

This chapter has already supplied the key concepts acquired in the study: two-wordverbs and process types, in respect of how they are defined, their characteristics and how toseparate them from one another The next chapter represents the details of how theresearch is implemented

15 Both tenses are still used with these two processes, but in those cases, they will carry special interpretation The simple tense with a material process is general or habitual; while the present-in-present tense with a mental process is rather highly condition kind of inceptive aspect (See Halliday , 1985; 2004).

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter covers issues regarding to data collection instrument, corpus chosen,data analyses, as well as two-word verbs’ selection and extraction

2.1 Data collection instrument

The study used three sources of dictionaries on PVs to collect data of English word verbs: (1) Chambers of Dictionary of Phrasal Verb

two-(2) Oxford Phrasal Verbs Dictionary for Learners of English

(3) MacMillan Phrasal Verbs Plus

These dictionaries contain thousands of (B.E and A.E) PVs with clear explanations,corpus-based examples, make them easy to use and to be stimulus for natural-soundingEnglish The third source even claims to have original extra features that help to make it anideal reference to help learners lose their fear of PVs and start using them with confidence.The study also employed WordNet 3.0 (Miller, 2003) to recognize distinctive

senses of the same word forms Type ‘make out, for instance, WordNet results 10 different senses (to recognize, issue, comprehend, manage, complete, try to establish, etc), from

which we choose the appropriate ones

2.2 Corpus choice

The following are lists of frequent PVs (2 A.E based and 2 B.E based) put forth by different authors They are sources that were accessible at the time ofconducting this research

corpus- Liu (2003) analyzed three spoken A.E corpora to establish the author’ lists of themost frequently used idioms Only idioms and semi-literal or non-literal PVs are chosen.Selected items must have at least 2 occurrences in all three corpora combined (i.e., 2tokens per million words)

- Professional (Corpus of Spoken Professional American English (Barlow, 2000))consists of speeches at professional meetings and white house press conferences

- Miscase (Michigan corpus of Academic Spoken English (Simpson, BriggsOvens, & Swales, 2002)) comprises academic speech events (lectures, colloquia)

- Media (Spoken American media English (Liu, 2002)) involves speakers with diverse social and educational background

 Waibel uses LOCNESS, which consists of essays by American university students from Marquette University, Indiana University at Indianapolis

 Gardner & Davies analyses BNC, which contains about 4000 samples (both spoken and written) from the widest possible range of linguistic productions

 Biber analyses LSWE Corpus and includes all PVs and PreVs that occur over 40 times/ millions word in at least 1 register

Table 2: Number of two-word verbs and meanings in three sources of dictionary

Verbs Chambers Dictionaryof Phrasal verbs MacMillan Phrasalverbs Plus Oxford Phrasal verbsDictionary

Note: 32 —152: 32 combinations and 152 meanings In which,

(24/8) (126/26) 24 PVs (with 126 meanings) and 8 PreVs (with 26 meanings)

The three sources differ somewhat in the numbers of two-word verbs and their meanings as we can see in table 3 Some figures are approximate Total is not the sum of

PVs and PreVs If a two-word verb can be both PV and PreV (come off, go off, etc), it is counted one form For example, 31 two-word verbs with Come are recorded, but it is not

the sum of 22 PVs and 17 PreVs Furthermore, if there is more than one form for a

meaning due to the difference between A.E and B.E, e.g come around/ come about or come round, it is also counted one form.

Second, the long lists of frequently used idioms and PVs are filtered to PVs andPreVs concerned in the following table

Table 3: Frequent two-word verbs in studies of Gardner & Davies (2007), Liu

(2003), Waibel (2002), and Biber (1999)

Professional Media Miscase LOCNESS BNC PVs PreVs

Give up

give away give in

Give in

give out give back