The book traces the evolution of the English verb-particle
construction (‘phrasal verb’) from Indo-European and Germanic up
to the present. A contrastive survey of the basic semantic and
syntactic characteristics of verb-particle constructions in the
present-day Germanic languages shows that the English construction is
structurally unremarkable and its analysis as a periphrastic
word-formation is proposed. From a cross-linguistic and comparative
perspective the Old English prefix verbs are identified as preverbs
and the shift towards postposition of the particles is connected to
the development of more general patterns of word order. The interplay
of phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic factors in the
loss of the native prefixes in the history of English is investigated.
In this context the question is discussed to what extent the older
prefixes were replaced by particles and borrowed prefixes, how the
characteristic etymological and semantic properties of the Modern
English phrasal verbs can be explained and what role they play in the
lexicon. The author argues that their common perception as
particularly ‘English’, ‘colloquial’ and ‘informal’ has
its origin in the eighteenth-century normative tradition.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9783110257038
Publisert
2015
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
De Gruyter Mouton
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter