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From: stevemac@bud.indirect.com (Steve MacGregor)
Subject: Verbal phrases = one word in your language?
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Date: Sun, 21 May 1995 03:05:26 GMT
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According to jody@techunix.technion.ac.il (Jody Underwood):
>
>In English there are prepositional phrases, also called verbal
>phrases.  

BREAK-BREAK-BREAK  a "prepositional phrase" is a preposition plus a noun 
phrase, such as "with unintended ferocity" or "of no earthly use".  The 
term could be just "verbal phrases", but I'm not completely happy with 
this term either.  But I'll use it till I see a better one.

>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.  For example:
>
>turn off  = deactivate
>turn on   = activate
>turn up   = increase (volume)
>look for  = search
>come back = return
>go off    = leave
>go off    = explode
>go on     = continue

  Excellent analysys.  Note that it exaplains such constructions as "was 
turned on", "was turned up", "was looked for", etc.

>My question is this: Do other languages have verbal phrases?  Please
>provide an example or two.

  I don't know of any that work precisely as English does, but German 
does something similar.  Many German verbs have what are called 
"seperable prefixes".  The verbs appear in the dictionary with the 
prefix, but in most grammatical constructions, the prefix is separated, 
and goes at the end of the clause.

  fangen = to catch
  anfangen = to begin

    "Sie fangen an, die Musik zu spielen" = 'They begin to play the music'

  hoeren = to hear
  zuhoeren = to listen to {needs the apparent preposition in English!}

    "Wir hoeren die Musik zu" = 'We listen to the music'

  hoeren = to hear
  aufhoeren = to stop

    "Nun hoeren sie auf, die Musik zu spielen" 
    = 'Now they stop playing the music'

  I believe the English usage is related to the German usage, and so am 
inclined to call the apparent preposition in such constructions the 
"prefix", because of the grammatical similarity, even though it is never 
prefixed to the verb in English.

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