Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. Vol. 2. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Éva Kovács: Identification of phrasal verbs in the literature

2 Phrasal verbs in recent grammar books and dictionaries At the outset, I will be concerned with identifying the phrasal verb and I will compare their interpretations in recent grammar books and dictionaries. I will concentrate on the two dictionaries I use as the main source of my corpus in my analysis (Oxford Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs and Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs), The Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language written by Quirk et al. and The English Verb by Palmer, which are generally used at colleges and universities as the main bibliographic sources of a verb phrase course. The Collins Cobuild Dictionary (1995) regards combinations of verbs with adverbial and prepositional particles as phrasal verbs. They point to four main types of combination of verbs with particles: 1. Combinations where the meaning of the whole cannot be understood by knowing the meanings of the individual verbs and particles. E.g.: put off = postpone, turn down = reject 2. Combinations where the verb is always used with a particular preposition or adverb, and is not normally found without it. E.g.: refer to, rely on 3. Combinations where the particle does not change the meaning of the verb, but is used to suggest that the action described by the verb is performed thoroughly, completely, or continuously. E.g: in spread out, the verb spread has its basic meaning, and the adverb out adds ideas of direction and thoroughness. In link up, the particle up adds an idea of completeness to the idea of connection. These combinations are sometimes called 'completiveintensives'

. 4. Combinations where the verb and particle both have the meanings which may be found in other combinations and uses, but where there is overwhelming evidence that they occur together. E.g.: in the combination fight back, the verb fight has the same meaning that it normally does in isolation, and back is used in a similar way in other combinations such as phone back and strike back. Such combinations are sometimes called 'literal phrasal verbs'. The Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English Volume 1: Verbs with Prepositions & Particles (1976: xxxv-Ivii), the earlier edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs (1993) gives the following basic patterns: [ Al ] intransitive pattern with a particle E.g. The electricity supply went off. The pilot took off smoothly. [A2] intransitive pattern with a preposition E.g. 114