For the remainder of my essay, I will abide by Downing and Locke’s (2002) and Greenbaum and Nelson’s (2002) definitions of phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs. I have found them to be the clearest, simplest and most complete. I will now go into the rules for distinguishing between prepositional and phrasal verbs.
I have already mentioned one of those rules: with a phrasal verb, the particle can come before or after the verb, but with a prepositional verb, the particle must stay where it is, immediately after the verb. This means that since the sentences He kept putting off the project and He kept putting the project off are both grammatically correct, the verb put off must be a phrasal verb. Here is an example of a grammatically correct sentence containing a prepositional verb: He approves of this project. If one tries to move the particle of this prepositional verb, one will get a sentence that is not grammatically correct: *He approves this project of. This proves that approve of is indeed a prepositional verb.
Another way to check whether a verb is prepositional or phrasal is to try to insert an adverb between the verb and its particle. If one tries to do so with a prepositional verb, one will get a grammatically correct sentence: Mary looked carefully at the map. Inserting an adverb between a phrasal verb and its particle will result in a grammatically incorrect sentence: *Peter switched always on the television. Downing and Locke (2002) comment that it is not always possible to insert an adverb between a prepositional verb and its particle. Indeed, “the more cohesive and idiomatic a prepositional verb is, the less likely it is to admit discontinuity by an adverb.” (Downing and Locke 2002: 335)
Using a wh- question or relative pronoun (such as what, which, and whom) will help distinguish between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs. The preposition of a prepositional verb can follow such a question or relative, but the adverbial particle of a phrasal verb cannot. In other words, if one wants to know whether the verb in the sentence Mary thought about this boy is prepositional or phrasal, one can try to rearrange the sentence in the following way: About whom did Mary think? The boy about whom she thought. Both these sentences are grammatically correct, and therefore, the verb think about is prepositional. If one tried the same test with a phrasal verb, one would undoubtedly get ungrammatical results. For example, the sentence The students handed in their essays cannot be rearranged so that it becomes *In what did the students hand? *The essays in which they handed.
A fourth rule is that a personal pronoun will always come before the adverbial particle of a phrasal verb and will always follow the prepositional particle of a prepositional verb. Therefore, a sentence like *The rules allowed it for is ungrammatical. The verb allow for is prepositional, and the sentence must be rearranged: The rules allowed for it. With a phrasal verb, the situation is opposite: the sentence They took it back is grammatically correct, whereas *They took back it is not.
These four rules are of a syntactic nature. The fifth rule is of a phonological nature: it has to do with word stress. Words that are in focus in a sentence will often sound louder than the other words. In sentences containing phrasal verbs, the adverbial particle, if in final position, is stressed because it is the sentence’s main focus. For example, in the sentence Diane turned the radio off, off is stressed. If the particle had been in a different position, i.e. Diane turned off the radio, it would not have been stressed: in this sentence, the main focus is the radio, not off. With sentences containing prepositional verbs, the verb’s particle is never stressed, even if it is in final position. So, in a sentence like What problems did you deal with? the particle with is not stressed: the sentence’s main focus is the lexical verb, deal.
It is worth mentioning that some verbs can be both phrasal and prepositional, but will not have the same meaning in both cases. Downing and Locke (2002: 336) give the verb get over as an example. In the sentence She’ll never get over the shock, the verb get over means recover from, and in the sentence I want to get my operation over, it means have [the operation] done. The same five rules apply to these verbs: it would be impossible, for example, to say *She’ll never get the shock over, and retain the same meaning.
In the next part of this essay, I will discuss whether prepositional verbs and phrasal verbs can be transitive and intransitive. Prepositional verbs can only be transitive: the reason for that is that their particle, the preposition, is the first part of a prepositional object. The particle cannot be on its own, it needs a noun phrase so that the prepositional object is complete. A sentence like I looked at the clock would be ungrammatical without the noun phrase the clock. A prepositional verb must have a complete prepositional object, and therefore, it can never be intransitive. Possible clause patterns containing a prepositional verb are SVOp (I looked at the clock) and SVOdOp (Peter reminded Mary of their date).
With phrasal verbs, the situation is more complex. Some phrasal verbs are always intransitive. Such is the case with the verb pass away, as in The woman passed away. It would be impossible for this sentence to have a direct object. Other phrasal verbs can be both intransitive and transitive, like the verb burn down. The sentences The house burned down and The man burned down the house are both grammatically correct. In the second sentence, the verb burn down could have been replaced by set fire to, whereas in the first sentence, one would have had to substitute it with something like was destroyed by fire. Finally, some phrasal verbs can only be transitive, such as take back: the sentence *Jane takes back is ungrammatical, and needs a direct object, for example Jane takes the car back.
Now, I will try to find out if the Grammar Checker in Microsoft Word 2003 can differentiate between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs, using the syntactic rules I have outlined earlier. First, I will test out whether I can move the particle of a prepositional verb: as I have mentioned before, the particle of a prepositional verb is unmovable. I will start by writing a grammatically correct sentence containing a prepositional verb, and then I will move its particle to make it ungrammatical.
He approves of this project.
*He approves this project of.
The Grammar Checker fails to see the second sentence as ungrammatical: in fact, if I only let it check for errors in grammar, it does not detect anything wrong with the sentence. If I make it look for errors in grammar and style, it detects a stylistic error. It says: ‘End-of-sentence preposition (consider revising)’. I decided to test it further, using a phrasal verb that has a particle that can be an adverb or a preposition: look after.
She looked after her young cousins.
*She looked her young cousins after.
As expected, the Grammar Checker failed to detect anything incorrect with any of these sentences. Since the word after can also be an adverb, there is no stylistic error: an adverb is often the last word of a sentence.
Next, I will try to insert an adverb between a phrasal verb and its adverbial particle. According to the second rule I wrote about earlier, this should not be possible.
*Peter switched always on the television.
The Grammar Checker sees nothing wrong with this sentence.
With a phrasal verb, sentences made using wh- questions and relative pronouns are ungrammatical. I will now find out if the Grammar Checker sees them as incorrect.
The students handed in their essays.
*In what did the students hand?
*The essays in which they handed.
According to the Grammar Checker, only the last sentence is ungrammatical. It says: ‘Fragment: consider revising’. This means that the Grammar Checker fails to find a main verb in the sentence. I wanted to test whether the results would be the same with a sentence containing a wh- relative pronoun and a prepositional verb.
Mary thought about this boy.
About whom did Mary think?
The boy about whom she thought.
Indeed, the results were exactly the same. The Grammar Checker describes the last sentence as a ‘fragment’ and marks it as grammatically incorrect. It appears as if it does not make a difference to the grammar checker whether the verb is prepositional or phrasal.
One last test remains: putting a personal pronoun after the particle of a phrasal verb, and putting a personal pronoun before the particle of a prepositional verb. Both things are ungrammatical.
They took it back.
*They took back it.
The rules allowed for it.
*The rules allowed it for.
The Grammar Checker deemed the three first sentences as grammatically correct. The last one is ungrammatical because of the same stylistic error I made before: ‘End-of-sentence preposition (consider revising)’.
The Grammar Checker in Microsoft Word 2003 cannot help with distinguishing between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs. It barely detects any errors, and the one it does detect are quite irrelevant and more stylistic in nature. Now, I will investigate whether it does any better with transitive and non-transitive clauses using prepositional and phrasal verbs. I will also use single-word verbs for comparison purposes.
As I have mentioned before, prepositional verbs cannot be intransitive. It is grammatically incorrect to write a sentence containing a prepositional verb that has no object.
I looked at the clock. (transitive)
*I looked at. (intransitive)
The Grammar Checker does not see a problem with the second sentence.
Some phrasal verbs can only be intransitive, such as pass away.
The woman passed away.
*The woman passed away the house.
Once again, according to the Grammar Checker, the second sentence is fully grammatically correct. I will now compare pass away to its intransitive, single-word equivalent, die:
The woman died.
*The woman died the house.
The Grammar Checker fails to see anything wrong with the second sentence.
Some phrasal verbs can only be transitive, such as take back.
Jane takes the car back.
*Jane takes back.
Both these sentences are, according to the grammar checker, grammatically correct. I will now compare take back to a transitive single-word verb: name.
The parents named their baby Mark.
*The parents named.
It does not make a difference whether the verb is phrasal, prepositional, or single-word: the Microsoft Grammar Checker cannot distinguish between transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. It does not detect any errors. It can therefore not be used in finding out if multi-word verbs can be intransitive and/or transitive.
In conclusion, there are five rules that make it relatively easy to distinguish between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs. Four of them are of a syntactic nature, and the last one is of a phonological nature. To use these rules and test them out, one should under no circumstances rely on the Grammar Checker in Microsoft Word 2003. It is seriously lacking in this area and failed to detect errors that would have been obvious to any English-speaking human being. Only phrasal verbs can, in some instances, be intransitive. The Grammar Checker let me build intransitive sentences with prepositional verbs, something that is entirely ungrammatical. This goes to show that the human brain still easily beats a computer, at least when it comes to grammar!
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Reference list
Berk, L. (1999) English syntax: from word to discourse. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Downing, A. & P. Locke (2002) A University Course in English Grammar. London: Routledge
Greenbaum, S. & G. Nelson (2002) An Introduction to English Grammar. London: Longman
Huddleston, R. (1988) English grammar: an outline. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Huddleston, R. & G. Pullum (2005) A student’s introduction to English grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
