Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang

Particles as grammaticalized complex
predicates
Bettelou Los
Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
This paper argues that English phrasal verbs represent a grammaticalization,
from Phrase to Head, of a complex predicate construction. Predicates and the
particles of phrasal verbs share a number of striking quirks: syntactically, both
may appear with “unselected objects” and, semantically, both may form idioms of
which the meaning cannot be predicted from its separate parts. Particles cannot
be analyzed as predicates synchronically, however, because they allow two word
orders: V – NP – particle and V – particle – NP, whereas predicates only allow the
first of these, and not the second; furthermore, the particle appears to “bleach”
much more easily than predicates, probably because the prototypical predicates,
adjectives, express properties, whereas particles (prepositions) express paths.
EModE marks a significant point in the development of the particle verb system
in that the verbs participating in the combination are no longer restricted to
‘light’ verbs but include deadjectival and denominal verbs, unergatives, and
‘manner-of-motion’ verbs.
1. Introduction
This paper investigates the origins of English phrasal verbs. These verbs consist
of a verb and an adverbial or prepositional element traditionally referred to as
a particle. The observation that particles share many characteristics with complex
predicates has a long history in the literature from at least the early fifties
onwards (Anthony 1953: 86). It has been observed, for instance, that the two
orders famously exhibited by phrasal verbs, V – NP – Particle (as in (1a)), and
V – Particle – NP (as in (1b)), are also found with complex predicates (cf. (1c)
with (1a), and (1d) with (1b)).
(1) a. He threw the remains of his dinner away.
b. He threw away the remains of his dinner.
c. He threw the documents in the dustbin.
d. *He threw in the dustbin the documents.