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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Verbal phrases = one word in your language?
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Date: Sat, 20 May 1995 15:38:15 GMT
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In article <D8vJLL.ELr@discus.technion.ac.il>,
Jody Underwood <jody@techunix.technion.ac.il> wrote:
>
>In English there are prepositional phrases, also called verbal
>phrases.  In trying to teach these phrases I realized, and I don't
>know how true it is, that there is one "complicated" word that is
>equivalent to the phrase.

German has this feature, too.  The class of "verbs with separable
prefixes" includes those verbs who meaning is modified by a pre-
fixed particle (usually homophonous with a preposition) which often 
appears separated from the verb.  Some parallel examples: 

>turn up   = increase (volume)   aufdrehen ("Dreh den Radio auf!")
>come back = return              zurueckkommen ("Kommt sie gleich zurueck?")
>go off    = leave               abgehen ("Sie ist schon abgegangen.")

(The translations of the example sentences are "Turn the Radio up!",
"Is she coming right back?", and "She's already left," respectively.)

In some cases (the verbs with *in*separable prefixes), the particle
has become bound to the verb.  Sometimes, two verbs (one from either
class) will have the same orthography.  In this case, they are distin-
guished by stress.  E.g.:

uebersetzen ['yb@`zEts@n] "to ferry across"
uebersetzen [`yb@'zEts@n] "to translated"

I.e., "Sie setzt ihn ueber," "She's ferrying it/him" vs. "Sie uebersetzt
ihn" "She's translating it."

Note that the form with a separable prefix often has a more literal
meaning than that with an inseparable.

It was my impression that this was a pan-Germanic feature.  Anyone care
to post some Low Saxon, Netherlandic, or Scandanavian examples?

-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
