Rationale of the study
The two-word verbs, including phrasal verbs (PVs) and prepositional verbs (PreVs), are an interesting linguistic phenomenon in the English language Many English teachers have realized the importance of this multiword knowledge in helping their learners use English more fluently and naturally Paradoxically, these structures are never easy for non-native learners to acquire, mostly because the semantic, grammatical and stylistic peculiarities that they possess
The meanings of a two-word verb are not always likely guessed from its individuals Many non-native speakers of English must, therefore, memorize them to be able to understand and use them in the right context However, thousands of two-word verbs and many more times of their meanings make the massive learning unfruitful
Consequently, pages are spent to find out which PVs to teach and in what sequences For example, Dilin Liu (2003) suggests 302 items to be most frequently used idioms, with 104 of them are PVs Gardner and Davies (2007) propose a smaller number - 100 frequent PVs, which the authors claim to be a manageable number to deal with The problem is two-word verbs are very polysemous, and corresponding with 100 frequent PVs proposed by Gardner and Davies, (2007), it is not 100 but up to 559 potential meanings (5.6 meanings per PV on average) learners have to deal with From this view, the number 100 is getting less manageable
What ifIf we focus on senses that are used more often than the others? So, the load of learning English two-word verbs would be reduced This is also what this current study is aiming at Biber et al (1999) suggest that we classify multiword verbs according to their core meaning called semantic domains: activity verbs, communication verbs, mental verbs, causative verbs, verbs of simple occurrence, verbs of existence or relationship, and aspectual verbs Halliday (1985,; 2004) approaches the matter with different term but the same nature Instead of ‗semantic domains; Halliday has term ‗processes‘ (See section 1.2.1 for types of processes); and what Biber (1999) names ‗activity verb‘ is labeled
‗material process‘ This study uses Halliday‘s terms for their clarity and systematic nature; and attends to material and mental processes since they are considered most common by both Halliday (1985,; 2004) and Biber (1999).
Aims of the study
The primary aims of this paper are:
1 to study English two-word verbs, specifically distinguish two kinds of two- word verbs: PVs and PreVs;
2 to study English processes, focusing on material and mental processes;
3 to investigate some common English two-word verbs denoting material and mental processes and find their Vietnamese equivalents;
4 to suggest some recommendations for teaching and learning two-word verbs.
Scope of the study
As far as structural aspects of two-word verbs are concerned, the current study includes both PV (transitive and intransitive) and PreVs ‗Phrasal-prepositional verbs‘ would be beyond the scope of this paper
Two-word verbs are rich in both number and meanings For example, in Oxford Phrasal verbs Dictionary, 6000 common British and American PVs are recorded; the verb
‗go‘ solely has 31 two-word verbs with 209 different meanings So, we are not ambitious to cover all of them Although some verbs have no single correct classification or have multiple meanings belonging to different semantic domains, Biber (1999) affirms that activity verbs and mental verbs are of most common Among the 12 most common lexical verbs that all occur over 1000 times per million words in the LSWE Corpus (Biber et al., 1999: 373), six are activity verbs (get, go, mzake, come, take, give), five are mental verbs
(know, think, see, want, mean) Also by means of corpus, Biber proposes lists of the most common lexical verbs in each semantic domain, including all verbs that occur over 300 times per million words in at least one register (cf Biber et al , 1999: 367-369) In domain of activity material verbs, we see the notable common of “make, go, give, come, put”, and
“take‖; while ―see, think, know, want, feel, like‖ are distinguished representatives of mental verbs
Therefore, having claimed to be the study of the common two-word verbs denoting material and mental processes in English though, in the frame of a small paper, we only focus on four outstanding representatives of material verbs: COME, GIVE, GO, MAKE (all are in the top 10 most prolific PVs of British National Corpus), and three of mental ones: HEAR, SEE, THINK Moreover, only two-word verbs with idiomatic and semi- idiomatic meanings used in material and mental processes are concentrated on.
Method of the study
The study aims to find out, in the limitation of seven lexical verbs, ―how many‖ and ‖how often‖ two-word verbs belong to material and mental processes are there are, comparing with the other four processes Thus, quantitative research methods, which give much focus on the collection and analysis of numerical data and statistics, appear to be appropriate.
Design of the study
This study is designed in three parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion
The Introduction gives an overview of the study The Development consists of three chapters: Chapter 1- - Theoretical Background, provides the fundamental concepts used in the paper; Chapter 2 - Methodology, describes thoroughly the methodology acquired in the study; Chapter 3 presents lists of two-word combinationcombinations of 8seven common verbs belonging to material and mental processes with their particles/ prepositions and their Vietnamese equivalents Finally, the Conclusion offers the review of the study with its implication and application concerning teaching and learning English two-word verbs in general.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Two word verbs
Quirk et al (1972) clarify that multi-word verbs consist of PVs, PreVs, and phrasal- prepositional verbs Biber et al (1999: 403) add other multi-word verb constructions like V + noun phrase (+ preposition); V + prepositional phrase or V + V to complete the classification of four major kinds of multi-word combinations that comprise ―relatively idiomatic units and function like single verbs‖
In this study, we focus on multi-word verbs which comprise two elements Though Taka (1960, cited Waibel 2007) and Meyer (1975, cited Waibel 2007) use term “two-word verb‖ to mean PV, and Celce-Murcia et al (1999) note that PVs are sometimes called two- word verbs, both PVs and PreVs are taken into consideration when we refer to two-word verbs
1.1.1 Definition of PVs and PreVs 1.1.1.1 PVs
There is a disputation as to how PVs are defined Following here are some ways of defining PVs:
Dixon, R.M.W (1991: 274)) says: ―Phrasal verb is a combination of verb plus preposition that has a meaning not inferable from the individual meanings of verb and preposition(s)‖ 1
1 It is noted that the author mentions to prepositions, but particles There is possibility that the so-call PreVs by most of linguists is defined by Dixon as PVs, or he uses the name PVs to refer to both
Biber et al., et al (1999: 403)) assert: ―PVs are multi-word units consisting of a verb followed by an adverbial particle‖ which all have spatial or locative meanings and
―commonly used with extended meanings‖
Halliday (1985: 207; 2004: 351) seesees PVs as ―lexical verbs which consist of more than just the verb word itself‖, which can be verb + adverb, verb + preposition, and verb + adverb + preposition David (2002) seems to meet Halliday when this author insists the existence of two definitions of PVs, the broad sense and the narrow sense The broad sense includes both PreVs and PVs, spatial or figurative, transitive or intransitive while the narrow sense excludes PreVs This study prefers looking at PV from its narrow sense
Before turning to PreVs, it is necessary to clarify that the term ‗phrasal verb‟ is not favored by all linguistics Said as Waibel (2007: 15), ―the very name for this type of verb is controversial‖ For example, Fraser (1947) calls it ―verb-particle combination‖, Zandvoort
(1962) talks about it as ―verb-adverb combination‖, Live (1965) ―discontinuous verb‖, Lipka (1992) labels them ―verb-particle construction‖, Francis (1958) ―separable verb‖, etc However, Mc Arthur (1989: 38, cited Waibel, 2007: 15) notes that ―the term ‗phrasal verb‘ appears (…) to be the winning term‖, and Rot (1988: 183, cited David, 2002: 112) remarks that the term PV is the most appropriate for verb-particle combinations because ―it expresses the linguistic essence of this lexical-grammar collocation, and it has its terminological parallels in the location ‗phrasal prepositions‟ ‖ And the term familiar with both teachers and students is also used in this study
About PreVs, the matter of term and definition is less controversial than that of PVs
Scholars seem to be satisfied with the term ‗PreV‘, which refers to the kind of verb that
―consists of a verb followed by a preposition‖ (Biber et al., 1999: 403) and that ―forms a semantic and syntactic unit‖ (G Leech, 1992: 264) The problem, if it has, is whether or not to see PreV as a subtype of PV or an independent kind of verb from PV This study would like to look at PreV as an independent item that existexists parallel with PV
The term ‗particle‘ refers to a word that has a grammatical function but does not fit into the main parts of speech like noun, verb, or adverb, etc (Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics, 1985) The exact status of the particle is still being debated; scholars are being divided on whether it is an adverb, preposition, postpositional prefix, special part of speech, etc Encyclopedia Wikipedia (2010) provides seven types of word serving as particle: ‗Articles‘ (the), ‗Infinitival‘ (to), ‗Preposition‘ (in, on), ‗Adverbial particles‘ (off, down), ‗Interjections‗(oh, wow), ‗Sentence connectors‘ (so, well), Tags (…, did they?) and
‗Conjunctions‘ (and, or, nor) However, dictionaries like Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2006) or MacMillan Phrasal Verbs Plus (2005) just consider adverbs and prepositions to be particle; and some scholars (e.g Celce-Murcia, 1999,;
Quirk et al , 1985) even narrow term particles to adverbs 2 In this study, particles are also seen in its adverbial nature and some differences between particles and prepositions will be noted in section 1.1.1.3.3
Particles are typically found in PVs where most of them are place adjucts or can function as such (Quirk & Greenbaum, 1973) Particles form cohesive units with verbs and normally cannot be separated from the verb by another adverb Moreover, they play an important role in complementation by completing the meaning of the head-phrase, and creating a dominant conceptual meaning for PVs
Particles have pragmatic meaning and obviously have impact on the meaning of the verb they follows even if the meanings of the verb are not necessary destroyed or lost
Briton (1988: 4, cited David, 2002: 127) claims that the addition of a particle to a verb produces the following three meanings: perfective meaning (drink up, calm down, wait out,
2 While Celce-Murcia (1999) explains the author‘s selection is to show the close association of particle with the verb, and to distinguish it from preposition as well as other adverbs, other scholars who consider solely adverbs to be particles argue, ―particles are commonly treated either as adverbs or else assigned to a special class‖ because of their distinct behaviour, especially their variable position and the lack of an object of their own (Langacker, 1987: 243, cited David, 2002: 125) die off, put over), ingressive meaning (doze off, go away, set out), or continuative/iterative meaning (drive on, hammer away) (See aspectual PVs, section 1.1.2.1)
Particles look like prepositions and actually have some common features with prepositions Both of them are invariable in form, i.e they do not change their form in accordance with words they accompany Particles can sometimes be considered a special type of prepositions 3 , but they are still distinctive terms Certain syntactic features separate them from each other A great deal of differences is about their position, the sentence constituents they are linked to 4 , and their function 5 , etc Moreover, particles usually affect the meanings of their proceeding verbs while prepositions usually do not and even independent of them (See section 1.1.2.3.1)
To separate adverbial particles from prepositions, objects might be helpful As Swan (1980: 95, cited David, 2002: 115) points out, prepositions must have objects while adverbs particle need not Celce-Murcia (1999: 429) proposes syntactic tests (adopted from O‘Dowd, 1994: 19) to set apart particles and prepositions Accordingly,
Adverb insertion (e.g We turned quickly off the road, but not we turned quickly off the light)
Phrase fronting (e.g Up the hill John ran, not Up the bill John ran)
Wh-fronting (e.g About what does he write?, not Up what does he write?)
Only particles in separable PVs allow:
Passivization (e.g The light was turned off, not The road was turned out)
Verb substitution (e.g The light was extinguished (= turned off))
NP insertion (e.g We turned the light off, not We turned the road off )
3 Many words can be used both as adverbs and prepositions except back and away (they are only adverb), while other words like from and during can only be treated as prepositions (David, 2002: 115- 116)
4 A preposition denotes a semantic relationship between two entities as to place, time, instrument or cause etc (Quirk et al , 1972) while a particle is part of the verb
5 A dverbial particles function as adverbs and modify the preceding verb
1.1.2 Syntactic and semantic characteristics of PVs and PreVs 2.1.2.1 Syntactic and semantic characteristics of PVs
Process types
As Martin et al (1997: 102) says, ―Process type is the resource for sorting out human experiences of all kinds into a small number of types These differ both with respect to the Process itself and the number and kind of participants involved.‖
In the view of Halliday (1985; 2004) and systemic-functional linguists such as Bloor, T & Bloor, M (1995), Martin et al (1997), there are 6 types of process in English:
Material, Mental, Relational, Behavioural, Existential, and Verbal
13 This test, however, is restricted with pronoun, gerund and unhelpful with intransitive PVs as there is no complementary noun phrase to facilitate movement
Material processes denote doings and happenings They represent our ‗outer experiences‘: those we pick up from the life when we do or observe other people do things, or see things happen
Mental processes involve conscious processing They express our ‗inner experience‘, or our consciousness of the world around us Members of metal processes include perception, cognition and affection
Relational processes are processes of being which denote our logical link between the new to the old experiences They have two different modes: attribution and identification
Behavioural processes construe (mental and verbal) behaviour Like the active version of verbal and mental processes, they represent the acting out of processes of consciousness (like laughing), and physiological states (like sleeping) They have similarities to both material and mental processes Like mental processes, one of their participants must be human consciousness (in mental we call it ‗Senser‘ while in behavioural, it is known as ‗Behaver‘) They resemble material processes in: (i) they prefer present-in-present tense, and (ii) they cannot occur with a reported clause in a projecting clause complex
Existential processes are concerned with existence - things recognized to be, to exist, or to happen They appear like the relational processes in that they construe a participant which involves a process of being But what separates them is that existential processes have only one participant
Verbal processes, which stand between mental and relational processes, cover saying of different modes (asking, commanding, offering, stating) and semiotic processes that are not necessary verbal (showing, indicating) They symbolize relationships constructed in human consciousness and enacted in the form of language like saying and meaning ‗Sayer‘ can be human or human-like speaker or any other symbolic source
Among the six processes, material, mental and relational are primary; behavioural, existential, and verbal are said to be secondary processes which lie on the border of the three major ones However, Halliday (2004: 171) said: ―there is no priority or domination of one kind of process over another‖ For this reason, he used a circle but not a line to demonstrate the relation among types of process in English (see Halliday, 2004: 172, fig 5.2) In that figure, process types are represented as a semiotic space with different regions representing different types The regions have core areas and these represent prototypical members of the process types, but the regions are continuous, shading into one another
That is why Halliday (2004: 172) asserts: ―the process types are fuzzy categories‖, which base on ‗the principle of systemic indeterminacy‘ 14
Now we have a general picture of six processes in English systemic- functional grammar As mentioned above, material and mental processes are among basic processes and account the largest proportion in 6 processes They are also subject investigated in this paper and will be looked closely in the next sections
Material processes cover doings and happenings Prototypically, these are concrete changes in the material world that can be perceived But such concrete material processes have also come to serve as a model for construing our experience of change in abstract phenomena For instance, the verb „fall‟ realizing material processes can construe motion in space as in Lizzie fell down and hurt her knee or motion in an abstract, space of measurement as in London share process fell sharply yesterday
Typical verbs realizing material processes are: happen, create, make, set up, give, get, etc (See Halliday, 2004: 187- 189, table 5(5))
Material processes have participants of ‗Actor‘, ‗Goal‘, ‗Range‘, and ‗Beneficiary‘,
―the functions assumed by the participants in any clause are determined by the type of process that involved‖, noted Halliday (2004: 1997)
‗Actor‘ is the ‗Who‘ doing the action
‗Goal‘ is the ‗What‘ brought to existence by the doing (build the house) or impacted by the doing (fix the car)
‗Range‘ or ‗Scope‘ is a participant specifying the scope of happening and is the only one being out of the influence of the performance of the process It
14 This principle has influence over six processes It says that ―the world of our experience is highly indeterminate‖ and the grammar describe it in the system of process types in the same way Thus, one and the same text may offer alternative models of what would appear to be the same domain of experience , construing, for example, the domain of emotion both as a process in a mental clause, and as a participant in a relational one.‖ (Halliday, 2004) typically occurs in ‗transitive‘ processes where there is solely one participant (Actor)
‗Beneficiary‘ is the ‗Whom‘ getting benefit from the doing It has two subtypes: the ‗Recipient‘- marked by preposition to and signs the transfer of existing goods; and the ‗Client‘- marked by preposition for, indicates a provision of service
E.g (1) She gave a teapot to his aunt
(2) She made a cup of tea for me
Actor Range Material processes are distinguished into transitive and intransitive processes (Halliday, 1985; 2004) Usually, if there is only one participant in a clause, the process is said to represent happening and is named intransitive material clause If the process extends to another participant, say, the ‗Goal‘, the process represents a doing and is known as transitive material clause For example, ‗Oil is coming down in price‘ is intransitive material processes with intransitive PV ‗come down‘; ‗Mary put on her coat‘ is transitive clause with the phrasal verb ‗put on‟ serving as transitive process Furthermore, if there is
‗Goal‘, the represent may have 2 forms: operative (active) and receptive (passive)
E.g (1) The lion caught the tourist
(2) The tourist was caught by the lion
Goal Process: passive Actor About the subtypes of doings and happening, Halliday (2004) clarifies transformative and creative In the former, the goal does exist before the process begins and is transformed in the course of the unfolding This subtype is often indicated by the particle of a PV (use up, turn down), or has separate element representing the outcome as in She painted the house red, where red serves as attribute specifying the resultant state of the goal Creative subtype, on the other hand, has the outcome brought into existence by the doing
E.g (1) She painted a portrait of the artist (is ‗creative‘ since the outcome is the creation of the portrait)
(2) She painted the house red (is ‗transformative‘ since the outcome is the transformation of the colour of the house) All types of processes change form though time and so do material processes
However, process types are varied in ways of unfolding Material processes prefer
‗present-in-present‘ (or present continuous) (e.g is going) to simple present (e.g does)
Mental processes construe sensing and concerned with the world inside our mind
‖Think, know, hear, look, see, feel, like” are typical verbs which can be served as mental processes
Mental processes involve participants of ‗Senser‘ and ‗Phenomenon‘ Senser is the one that senses, feels, thinks, wants or perceives which is always human or human-like It is said to be born with consciousness, hence, it is often substituted by pronoun he/ she rather than it Besides, creatures like pets or domestic animals and entities can be personified to be human or treated as conscious
‗Phenomenon‘ is the participant being sensed Unlike ‗Senser‘, ‗Phenomenon‘ covers a wide range of units It can be things (any kind of entity created by consciousness such as a conscious being, and object, a substance, an institution, or an abstraction), macro- things (acts) like getting up early, and meta-things (facts) like the information that people can travel to outer space
METHODOLOGY
Data collection instrument
The study used three sources of dictionaries on PVs to collect data of English two- word verbs: (1) Chambers of Dictionary of Phrasal Verb
(2) Oxford Phrasal Verbs Dictionary for Learners of English
These dictionaries contain thousands of (B.E and A.E) PVs with clear explanations, corpus-based examples, make them easy to use and to be stimulus for natural-sounding English The third source even claims to have original extra features that help to make it an ideal reference to help learners lose their fear of PVs and start using them with confidence
The study also employed WordNet 3.0 (Miller, 2003) to recognize distinctive senses of the same word forms Type ‗make out, for instance, WordNet results 10 different senses (to recognize, issue, comprehend, manage, complete, try to establish, etc), from which we choose the appropriate ones.
Corpus choice
The following are lists of frequent PVs (2 A.E corpus-based and 2 B.E corpus- based) put forth by different authors They are sources that were accessible at the time of conducting this research
Liu (2003) analyzed three spoken A.E corpora to establish the author‘ lists of the most frequently used idioms Only idioms and semi-literal or non-literal PVs are chosen
Selected items must have at least 2 occurrences in all three corpora combined (i.e., 2 tokens per million words)
- Professional (Corpus of Spoken Professional American English (Barlow, 2000)) consists of speeches at professional meetings and white house press conferences
- Miscase (Michigan corpus of Academic Spoken English (Simpson, Briggs Ovens, & Swales, 2002)) comprises academic speech events (lectures, colloquia)
- Media (Spoken American media English (Liu, 2002)) involves speakers with diverse social and educational background
Waibel uses LOCNESS, which consists of essays by American university students from Marquette University, Indiana University at Indianapolis
Gardner & Davies analyses BNC, which contains about 4000 samples (both spoken and written) from the widest possible range of linguistic productions
Biber analyses LSWE Corpus and includes all PVs and PreVs that occur over 40 times/ millions word in at least 1 register.
Data Analyses
First, all two-word verbs and their potential meanings were counted The grammar pattern in Oxford Phrasal verbs Dictionary is used to decide whether a two-word verb is
PV or PreV With sources of dictionaries, together with the help of Wordnet 3.0, the raw number of two-word combinations with seven selected verbs is set out as followed:
Table 2: Number of two-word verbs and meanings in three sources of dictionary
Verbs Chambers Dictionary of Phrasal verbs
Note: 32 —152: 32 combinations and 152 meanings In which, (24/8) (126/26) 24 PVs (with 126 meanings) and 8 PreVs (with 26 meanings) The three sources differ somewhat in the numbers of two-word verbs and their meanings as we can see in table 3 Some figures are approximate Total is not the sum of
PVs and PreVs If a two-word verb can be both PV and PreV (come off, go off, etc), it is counted one form For example, 31 two-word verbs with Come are recorded, but it is not the sum of 22 PVs and 17 PreVs Furthermore, if there is more than one form for a meaning due to the difference between A.E and B.E, e.g come around/ come about or come round, it is also counted one form.
Second, the long lists of frequently used idioms and PVs are filtered to PVs and PreVs concerned in the following table
Table 3: Frequent two-word verbs in studies of Gardner & Davies (2007), Liu (2003),
Professional Media Miscase LOCNESS BNC PVs PreVs
Come about come across come by come on come up
Go on go through go with go over go for go after
Come about come across come by come on come up
Go on go through go ahead go over go for go off go with go along go with
Come across come by come up come on come off
Go on go through go with go over go for go after
Come about come across come along come around come by come forth come in come off come out come up come together
Give up give away give in
Go on go through go back go out go down go by go off go along go ahead go forward go around go ahead go up go in
Come about come back come along come round come on come in come down come off come out come up come over come through
Give in give out give back
Go on go through go back go out go over go down go up go off go in go round go along
Come on come over come along
From the table, the first thing to see is that two-word verbs realizing mental processes are not as common as material ones There is even no two-word verb with ‗See‟ in the list of these authors (the other two are recorded with small proportion) Second, there is coincidence in the lists of two-word verbs despite the differences in criteria of selecting them For instance, up to 4-5 out of 6 lists have come up, come about, come on, give up, go on, make up, go through, go off, etc) The biggest difference may lie in the number of two- word verbs that the authors consider frequent Waibel suggests number 14 for common two-word verbs with ‗Go‟, while Liu gives 9 and Biber says 4 Thence, we decide not to count on any single list of frequent PVs, but search all of two-word verbs relating to concerned verbs in dictionaries on hand Though, comparing with the numbers in table 2, we understand that these authors really got achievement in reducing the workload from learners‘ mind
Last, Vietnamese equivalents are taken from English- Vietnamese dictionaries about PVs and idioms Meanings of PVs or PreVs that are not available in these dictionaries will be translated All examples are also from different sources of dictionaries.
The selection and extraction of two-word verbs
Many linguists regarded only idiomatic verb-particle combinations as ‗proper‘
PVs 16 Dixon (1991) excluded literal meaning from his definition about PVs Longman dictionary of contemporary English (2006: 974) even emphasizes ―If a verb still keeps its ordinary meaning, even though it is followed by several different prepositions, it is not a phrasal verb‖ However, McArthur (cited Stephens, 2008) assesses this is the ―holistic or semantic view‖, which focuses mainly on the meaning of the verb combination In his treatment of PVs, he states that PVs cover both the literal and figurative/idiomatic uses
Waibel (2007: 63) also argues that ―a clear-cut differentiation between what is literal and what is idiomatic or figurative is in many cases unfeasible (…) in part due to the polysemous meanings PVs which often fade into one another‖ Admitting both literal and figurative meaning as the property of PVs and PreVs though, this study attends to idiomatic/ semi-idiomatic meaning of PVs and PreVs; because it is proved to cause biggest
16 C ombinations where each element retains its distinctive meaning are seen as ‗free combinations‟ (Quirk et al , 1985,; Biber et al., 1999) challenge to ESL/EFL learners 17 (see Liao & Fukuya, 2004; David, 2002) In addition, meanings appearing in all sources or in one source are both taken into account, but those which do not belong to material and mental processes was removed
So, this chapter has described method of doing this research, in terms of tools used to collect data, way to analyze data, and criteria of selecting data The next chapter will display the results of the study specifically
17 The commonly accepted reason is that the figurative uses are deeply rooted in cultural traditions which are also tightly linked with what is believed about the physical world itself In most cases, this ‗rather opaque meaning‘ cause problems for learners (David, 2002: 131) There are also studies proving that second language learners struggle more with figurative PVs than literal PVs (Liao & Fukuya, 2004).
ENGLISH TWO-WORD VERBS DENOTING MATERIAL AND
Conclusions
English two-word verbs are advantageous and challenging, even with learners whose language is closed to English (See Waibel, 2007) Having a knowledge of this type of verb may help learner produce a more natural English, help them understand (especially) spoken English and to be understood But the challenge of two-word verbs often lies in grammatical and semantic characteristics they own Together with numerous number and diverse meaning, the combinations of verb plus particle/ preposition usually take on figurative meanings For these reasons, even though the structure of a verb followed by a particle or preposition does exist in Vietnamese (e.g verb+ vào (in)/ra (out)/lên (up)/xuống (down) as in dựng lên (make up), nghĩ về (think about) (See Tran H
Manh, 2007: 150- 151) English two-word verbs is always a difficult problem for Vietnamese learners
To ease the process of learning English two-word verbs‘ meanings, in this study, we narrow the meaning to idiomatic and semi-idiomatic, and to group two-word verbs with seven common verbs into two processes or semantic domains Biber et al (1999:408) said it is not unusual for activity verbs (or material processes) to have secondary meanings in some other domain, and an activity verb tends to refer to both physical and mental activities But looking into the tables, we see that most meanings of material verbs are physical activities The ones with meaning in both material and mental domain are not as many as we expect Interestingly, in both material and mental processes, meanings of a two-word verb in one process tend to be related to one another We consider this facilitate learners in remembering the meanings of two-word verbs Moreover, though the number of two-word verb does not seem to reduce much, the number of their meanings does indeed
For example, instead of 122- 126 meanings of PVs with ‗Come‟, we only have to deal with
69 ones We hope that it will partially answer the ―which-meaning(s)-should-we- remember-first‖ that is often asked by English language learners.
Suggestions for teaching and learning two-word verbs
1 Learners should be cleared up about these special type of English verbs, so that they might pay (though little) attention to them when they come across them in reading or listening
2 The polysemy of two-word verbs really make learners confused, therefore, though most studies ever known suggest we teach multiword verbs by putting them in context; we emphasize the importance of providing Vietnamese equivalents for English two-word verbs, before or after the context given Furthermore, the context of dialogue or paragraph will be better than the sentence-context
3 Learners should memorize two-word verbs that occur much more frequently than others such as two-word verbs with come, go, make, etc
4 Learners should be made aware of, and have sample exposure to, the multiple meanings that are characteristics of high-frequency English two-word verbs The noted multiplicity of PV senses also confirms the need for language learners to be exposed to these structures in multiple and varied contexts
5 Because the literal meanings of two-word verb can be deduced from its components, and material and mental meanings seem to be over the others, we suggest learners focus their learning on semi- and idiomatic meanings that fall into two major processes: material and mental.
Suggests for further studies
The study suffers from several limitations of which, most are of the method Due to Wordnet 3.0 does not work with PreVs, and does not contain all combination with a particle of a verb (e.g see into, give up, come across…), we have to count all of the two- word verbs ourselves Moreover, it would be better to find more sources of dictionary, especially those of idiomatic meanings only Further studies, therefore, are suggested to employ more effective methodologies to study two-word verbs realizing material and mental processes as well as other processes Besides, we find that in some cases like come from or go ahead, material and mental processes are not as common as relational or behaviour processes How to deal with this could be an interesting matter for anyone interested in English multi-word verbs
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Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English London: Pearson Education
2 Bloor, T., & Bloor, M (1995) The Functional Analysis of English London: Arnold
3 Bullon, S., Fow, C., Manning, E., Murphy, M., Urbom, R., Marwick, K C., et al
(Eds.) (2005) Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (4th ed.) England:
4 Celce-Murcia, M., Larsen-Freeman, D., & Williams, H (1999) The Grammar Book:
An ESL/EFL Teacher's Course (2 ed.) Boston-USA: Heinle Cengage Learning
5 Cullen, K., & Sargeant, H (Eds.) (1996) Chambers of Dictionary of Phrasal Verb (3rd ed.) Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Limited
6 David, G (2002) Spatiality Underlying the Conceptual System of Figurative English
7 Dixon, R M W (1991) A New Approach to English Grammar on Semantic
Principles New York: Clarendon Press Oxford
8 Gardner, D., & Davies, M (2007) Pointing out Frequent Phrasal Verbs: A Corpus- Based Analysis Tesol Quarterly, 41(2), 339-359
9 Halliday, M A K (1985) An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd ed.) London:
10 Halliday, M A K., & Matthiessen, C M I M (2004) An Introduction to Functional
Grammar (3rd ed.) London: Hodder Arnold
11 Lamont, G J M (2005) The Historical Rise of the English Phrasal Verb Retrieved 5th March, 2010, from http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/courses/6361lamont.html
12 Leech, G (1992) Introducing English Grammar London: Penguin, pp.124
13 Liao, Y D., & Fukuya, Y J (2002) Avoidance of Phrasal Verbs: The Case of Chinese Learners of English Second language studies, 20(2), 71-106
14 Liu, D (2003) The Most Frequently Used Spoken American English Idioms: A Corpus Analysis and Its Implications Tesol Quarterly, 37, 671-700
15 Makkai, A., Boatner, M T., & Gates, J E (1994) Từ điển thành ngữ Anh- Việt hiện đại (Ninh Hùng & Đào Minh Dũng, Trans.) Cà Mau: NXB Mũi Cà Mau
16 Martin, J R., Matthiessen, C M I M., & Painter, C (1997) Working with Functional
Grammar London: Arnold & Oxford University Press Inc
17 Parkinson, D (2000) Oxford Phrasal Verbs Dictionary for Learners of English (8th ed.) New York: Oxford University Press
18 Quirk, R., & Greenbaum, S (1973) A University Grammar of English England:
19 Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J (1972) A Grammar of
20 Richards, J., Platt, J., & Weber, H (1985) Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics (1st ed.) London: Longman Publishing Group
21 Rundell, M., & Fox, G (2005) MacMillan Phrasal Verb Plus (1st ed.) London:
22 Seidl, J., & McMordie, W (1992) Oxford Pocket English idioms New York: Oxford University Press
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24 Từ điển Anh-Việt (1992) Hà Nội: NXB Khoa hoc xã hội Hà Nội
25 Waibel, B (2007) Phrasal Verbs in Learner English: A Corpus Based Study of
German and Italian Students Unpublished M.A
26 Weiss, D., & Chamielec, G z (2008) Modeling the Frequency of Phrasal Verbs
Paper presented at the Proceedings of the International multiconference on computer science and information technology
1 http://www.towson.edu/ows/prepositions.htm
2 http://www.eflnet.com/pverbs/particles.php
3 http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAParticle.htm
4 http://www.orau.gov/cdcynergy/demo/Content/activeinformation/tools/toolscontent/qu antiativemethods.htm
COME Material Process Mental Process COME Material Process Mental
Intrans Trans Intrans Trans Trans Trans
The flood came about as a result of the heavy rains
2 (tàu) chuyển hướng, (gió) đổi chiều
The wind has come about to the south
We ran away but he came after us
She came across well in the interview
- cung cấp, hỗ trợ (tiền)
They eventually come across with another $250 000
While Lee was cleaning the attic, he came across some old coins
1 đến, xảy ra, xuất hiện
If the chance of being posted abroad ever come along, take it
How your new project coming along?
We‟re going to a show Why don‟t you come along?
Come at - Xông vào (tấn công)
The dog suddenly came at me
- tiếp cận, suy nghĩ (vấn đề)
Let‟s try coming at the problem from different angle
1 lại đến (theo chu kỳ)
Before we knew it, Christmas had come around again
Larry fainted, but he soon came around
- Ra trước toà (nghị viện, uỷ ban…) were offering him
The plaster had started come away from the wall
2 ra về (với cảm xúc, ấn tượng gì đó)
It‟s was a great party We didn‟t come away until after midnight
3 tránh xa khỏi (ai, cái gì)
The man looked drunk, so we came away
She sat on the wall and watched as the parade came by
I‟ll come by later on my way home
Money easily come by is often easily spent
Oil is coming down in price
It‟s coming down in torrents outside
3 (máy bay) rơi, hạ cánh
The pilot was forced to come down in a field
The ceiling looked ready to come down any minute
5 (màn sân khấu) được hạ xuống/ khép vào
When the curtain came down, we all
- hạ nhiệt (bớt hào hứng)
The party was so good I haven‟t really come down yet
1 quyết định ủng hộ/ phản đối
I knew my parents would come down on my sister‟s side
2 đồng ý với giá thấp hơn
I wasn‟t prepared to pay 1500$ but they
1 đến đón/ bắt ai, đến lấy cái gì
- The police came for him this morning
- Have you come for the parcel?
The dog was coming for me
The tide was coming in fast
My horse came in third
4 tham gia vào (dự án kinh doanh…)
Are you ready to come in now or do you need more time to think about it?
We‟ve just got enough money coming in each month to pay the bill
6 (luật) được ban hành và có hiệu lực
New legislation coming in next month will tackle low pay
He‟s ill to come in today
8 đắc cử, lên nắm quyền
When the Tories came in, unemployment stood at over a million
1 bắt đầu xuất hiện, ra đời
- The cherry trees are coming into blossom
- The band only came into being in 1995
She came into a lot of money after her father died
Fred was riding his bike when he came off
2 bung ra, bật ra (vết bẩn)
I pulled at the drawer, and the handle comes off
3 rời sân (để ai đó vào thay)
Beckham had to come off after five minutes of the second half
It‟s time she try to come off sleeping pills
Julie‟s arriving today and David‟s coming on tomorrow with the luggage
Does the heating come on automatically?
4 (mưa, tuyết) bắt đầu rơi
The snow came on pretty heavily, so we decided to go home
My favourite programme comes on at eight o‟clock on Tuesday
6 vào sân (thay người), ra sân khấu
- Ronaldo came on in place of Wilkins
- When are Westlife coming on?
7 xuất hiện trên truyền hình, đài báo
Then the president comes on and tells everyone to spend more money groceries at the supermarket came to fifty dollars
The farm will come to you when I die
We‟d great plans for expanding the business, but they didn‟t come to anything came to me when we were on holiday
- Her name will come to me in a minute
1 rơi ra, long ra, bong ra
Her tooth came out when she bit into the apple
The first of the spring flowers had already come out
3 (mặt trời, mặt trăng, sao) hiện ra
The sun come out and bathed the whole garden in its summer light
- tỏ thái độ, ra mặt (chống đối/ ủng hộ)
The party leader came out for an acceptable candidate
1 chịu sự điều hành, quản lý của
The prisons now come under central government control
2 chịu tác động, áp lực, chỉ trích
8 xếp vị trí (trong một kỳ thi)
Jonathan came out bottom in social studies and top in maths
9 kết thúc, có kết quả
How did the story come out?
Everything depends on how you come over at the meeting
Her great-grandparents came over from Ireland in the nineteenth century
Her son comes over to see her occasionally
- (cảm giác) đột nhiên xuất hiện, choán lấy
A wave of anger came over him
1 tình cờ gặp, bắt gặp
We turned a corner and came upon an old church
2 bắt ai chịu trách nhiệm
He came upon me for damages
- chợt nảy ra, chợt xuất hiện
A feeling of great excitement suddenly comes upon me
- (tài liệu, tín hiệu ) được chuyển đến
The call to the police came through at
Most of the students come through the exam with flying colour
Her disbelief comes through in the questions she asks
1 tiếp cận, tiến gần tới
A woman came up and started complaining about the noise
2 đột ngột xảy ra, sắp xảy ra
I‟m going to have to cancel our concert for something‟s come up
If my number comes up in the lottery,
He could feel his breakfast coming u
GIVE Material Process Mental Process GIVE Material Process Mental
Intrans Trans Intrans Trans Trans Trans give in 1 đầu hàng
Completely surrounded by our soldiers, the enemy finally gave in
We mustn‟t give in to terrorist demands
She gave in her homework a week later
4 nộp đơn thôi việc (give in your notice)
He‟s waiting until the end of the week to give in his notice give away
He decided to give most of his money away
We‟ve asked Mrs Andrews of the PTA to give away the prizes
3 để lộ, để mất (thông tin, bí mật) do sơ xuất
It seems he had given away all sorts of valuable trade secrets
Nobody knows I‟ve done this, so please don‟t give me away
5 đưa dâu (trong lễ cưới) về nhà chồng
The bride was given away by her uncle because her father died and couldn‟t give her away give off
1 toả ra, phát ra (nhiệt độ, mùi hương)
Burning leaves give off thick smoke
2 tạo ấn tượng (qua vẻ ngoài/ thái độ)
She gave off an air of confidence give of - cống hiến (thời gian, sức lực, tiền bạc)
She‟s always to willing to give of her time to help the homeless give out 1 cạn kiệt 1 phân phát
- One of the plane‟s engines gave out
- His heart gave out just before his eightieth birthday
That lamp doesn‟t give out a lot of light
Children rarely give up their seats to older people on buses now
2 chấm dứt mối quan hệ (bạn bè, tình yêu)
I‟m not going to give up all my friends just because I‟m getting married
She gave the baby up for adoption
4 hy sinh thời gian cho việc khác
Doing this course will mean giving up a lot of my spare times
5 ra đầu thú (give yourself up to sb)
Police are urging the man to give himself up before any further damage is caused
Do I have to give up my old passport when I apply for a new one?
- Cai, bỏ, từ bỏ (sở thích, thói quen, hy vọng)
It‟s about time you gave up smoking
APPENDIX 3 to write on the paper yet, but John went ahead and wrote his name
There‟s a rumour going around that Sam and Kate are having an affair
3 giải quyết, xử lý, tiếp cận
You‟re not going about it the right way
4 làm/ sống như thường lệ
Most people went about their daily life as usual go along
Everything was going along just fine until she turned up!
2 làm mà không có sự chuẩn bị trước, tuỳ cơ ứng biến
The teacher seemed to be making up the plan as he went along go after - đeo đuổi, cố đạt được
Our company is going after the software market in western Europe go around/ round
I went around last night but nobody was in
2 lây lan, lan truyền (bệnh tật, tin tức)
There‟s a bad strain of influenza going around right now go at 1 tấn công
The two boys were going at each other like the mad dogs
Harry was young and ambitious and went at things with a daunting eagerness
How are you going to go at the job of fixing the roof? go away - đi vắng
She goes away on business a lot go against
You can‟t go against your family
2 đi ngược lại, trái với
This goes against everything I‟ve
I‟ll go by and see him on my way home go down
1 (tàu) chìm, (người) chết đuối
Only two crew members were rescued; the rest are believed to have gone down with the ship
2 (chất lượng) kém đi, giảm đi
He‟s certainly gone down in my estimation (= I don‟t have the good opinion of him that I used to)
How long will it take for the swelling to go down?
We need to win the next two games to avoid going down
5 (lốp xe) bị xì hơi
My tire‟s gone down again
I was nowhere right here when the robbery went down
The airline‟s entire booking go for 1 chọn
I think I‟ll go for the steak What are you having?
There were 200 people going for just three jobs
The newspapers really went for him over his defence of terrorism
4 đến lấy (đồ), đến đón (ai)
She‟s gone for some milk
- thích, bị thu hút bởi
So what type of men do you go for?
Arsenal went down 2-1 to Everton
11 được hoan nghênh/ hưởng ứng
The band went down a storm
(= people like them very much)
12 thất bại, mất uy tín
If the business goes down, we go down with it go forth - (tin, cuộc gọi) được gửi đi, (luật) được ban hành
The message that went forth was that they were going to get married go before - Ra toà , bị xét xử
So he went before the court and pleaded „Not Guilty‟ go forward
1 tiến triển, bước đầu thành công
The project is going forward nicely
Her name has gone forward for the job
3 thắng và đi tiếp vào vòng trong
Which teams will go forward for the second round? go in - (mặt trời, mặt trăng) nấp sau mây
The sun went in and it grew colder
- Tham gia vào tổ chức (quân đội, cảnh sát)
17 when he went in the army
I keep studying, but these dates won‟t go in go into 1 theo nghề
Eric went into the army right after school
2 xem xét, kiểm tra kỹ
We need to go into the question of cost
The car went into a tree
4 tham gia vào (kì thi, trận đấu…)
Suddenly all the lights went off
This milk has gone off
5 diễn ra (thành công/ như đã định)
The show went off very well
Has the baby gone off (to sleep) yet? go on 1 xảy ra
Many people gathered near the accident to see what was going on
In spite of everything, life must go on
3 ra sân khấu, ra sân
Owen went on until the final act
I heard the TV go on in the next room
- tiếp tục (câu chuyện, hành động)
The speaker goes on talking even though most of the audience had left
Go on 1 bắt đầu làm gì to go on the dole (= to start to receive government unemployment benefit)
All his money goes on drink
- làm căn cứ đánh giá, quyết định
The police don‟t have much evidence to go on go out 1 (điện, lửa) tắt
The campers didn't have to put out the fire because it went out by itself
When does the tide go out?
3 được gửi đi, được phát hành, phát sóng
- The invitation hasn‟t gone out yet
- The show will go out live from the studio go to 1 bắt đầu
My brain went to work on (= start to think about) what I should do next
The first prize went to Peter
3 bỏ công sức, tiền bạc… để làm hoặc đạt được điều gì
He went to great pains to persuade us
We went out to see him when he was living in Australia
7 bị loại (trong cuộc thi)
She went out in the first round of the tournament go over -(to sb/st) ghé thăm
I‟m going over to my daughter for lunch
Don‟t go over the speed limit
I‟ll go over the figures again to make sure they‟re right
She went over her lines (= in a play) until she knew them perfectly
He went over the surfaces with a duster
5 sơn, vẽ đè lên lớp lớp vẽ cũ
She went over the original drawing in pen go through
- (luật, hợp đồng) được thông qua, được chấp thuận
The bill went through without any objections
1 trải qua (khó khăn, gian khổ)
We can‟t really imagine what they‟re going through
2 kiểm tra, nghiên cứu kỹ
Collins went through every legal book she could find
They went through all the toilet paper
- (ý tưởng, cảm giác) xuất hiện
(st go through sb’s mind/ head)
I knew what was going through her under động kinh doanh
A large number of small companies have gone under
2 mất dần ý thức do thuốc mê
I could feel myself going under without I never want the children have to go without
She went without sleep for three days
Go up 1 phát hoả, bốc cháy
The whole building went up in just a few minutes
2 (tiếng ồn) đồng thanh vang lên
A cheer went up from the crowd
Another defeat would ruin their dream of going up
A new office is going up in the downtown area
5 (thông báo) được dán nơi công cộng
Posters of the show are going up all over the town go with 1 hẹn hò
Eda went with Richard for about six months, but now she is going out with a new boyfriend
I think we should go with yellow for the walls
I‟m prepared to go with her decision
MAKE Material Process Mental Process MAKE Material Process Mental
Charlie didn't make out very well on his final examinations
I don‟t know how they‟ll make out in the big city
2 khiến ai có quan điểm sai về ai, cái gì
He made out that he‟d won the lottery
3 viết ra, điền vào tài liệu
She made out a cheque and handed it to me
Can you make out his handwriting?
2 hiểu rõ (tính của ai)
- He couldn‟t make out what‟s going on
So he sits me down and starts making with the soft words and the loving eyes
1 thay đổi, cải tạo toàn bộ
They decided to make over the whole house when they moved in
Before he died, he made his estate over to his wife
Make for 1 tiến về phía
He picked up his umbrellar and made for the door
2 giúp tạo ra, giúp cải thiện
Mutual respect makes for a happy working relationship
- làm lành (sau khi giận nhau)
Why don‟t you forget your differences and make up?
I can make my face up in half the normal time
Don‟t go to the bother of making the camp bed up; I‟m just as happy on the sofa
Don‟t worry about the kids‟ lunches
I‟ve made them up already
4 bao gồm, cấu thành nên
The House of Representatives and the
The little boy made up a bad excuse for wearing his dirty shoes in the house, so his mother punished him
2 đi đến quyết định (make up one's mind)
Sally is considering several colleges to attend,
Make of - tận dụng cơ hội để thành công
They‟re going to try to make a go of their marriage again (= make it successful)
I don‟t know what to make of our new teacher
If work is slow during the day, she can always make it up in the evening
HEAR Material Process Mental Process
Hear from - nhận được tin tức (thông qua thư, điện thoại)
Do you ever hear from any of your school friends?
1 biết (về sự tồn tại của ai, cái gì)
I‟ve heard of the Alexander technique, but I don‟t know anything about it
2 biết tin (nhận được tin)
I was sorry to hear of your accident
SEE Material Process Mental Process SEE Material
Intrans Trans Intrans Trans Trans Trans
See around - thường thấy ai quanh khu mình ở/ làm việc
I‟ve never actually met her, but I‟ve seen her around
- lo giải quyết, sắp xếp
I‟ll go and see about lunch
At the moment, we can‟t see beyond
See of - thường thấy, thường gặp rode off without a word
3 đón (một sự kiện khi nó diễn ra)
I went round to Bob‟s flat and we saw the New Year in together
See into 1 nhìn thấu tâm tư (see into sb’s mind/soul)
I wish I could see into his mind and find out what he thinks of me
If we had known what was going to happen, we might have done things differently, but you can‟t see into the future
See to - lo (phần việc, trách nhiệm)
Would someone please organize some coffee and sandwiches for our visitors? – Don‟t worry, I‟ll see to it See off 1 đi tiễn (tại sân bay, ga xe lửa)
We all went to the airport to see Terry off
The dogs soon saw off the burglars
The England team saw off a tired-looking Poland 3-1
See out 1 tiễn ai ra cửa
My secretary will see you out Don‟t bother, I‟ll see myself out
2 theo đến cùng, kéo dài đến hết
He promises to see out the rest of his contract
See 1 giúp ai vượt qua thời điểm khó khăn - nhìn thấu (ý định của ai đó)
