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PHRASEAL VERB AS PART OF PHRASEOLOGICAL ENGLISH
LANGUAGE SYSTEMS
Tuychieva Manzura Xodjimuradovna
Uzbekistan StateUniversity of World Languages
A Chinese teacher
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12564744
Annotation.
This article is dedicated to the analysis of English phrasal
verbs and understanding their nature as part of the theory of English
phraseology. It demonstrates that phrasal verbs play a dual role within English
phraseology: they can be classified as idioms due to their imagery and
conciseness in conveying information, and as phraseological units because of
their grammatical structure. The study of phrasal verbs within the framework of
English phraseology theory should develop within the science of
linguoculturology, which is characterized by anthropocentric communicative
aspects.
Key words:
linguoculturology; phraseology; idioms; phraseological units;
phrasal verbs; adverbial postposition.
Аннотация.
Данная статья посвящена анализу английских фразовых
глаголов и пониманию их природы в рамках теории английской
фразеологии. Показано, что фразовые глаголы играют в английской
фразеологии двоякую роль: их можно отнести к идиомам благодаря их
образности и лаконичности передачи информации, и к фразеологическим
единицам из-за их грамматического строя. Изучение фразовых глаголов в
рамках теории английской фразеологии должно развиваться в рамках
науки
лингвокультурологии,
для
которой
характерны
антропоцентрические коммуникативные аспекты.
Ключевые слова:
лингвокультурология; фразеология; идиомы;
фразеологизмы; фразовые глаголы; деепричастный послелог.
Annotatsiya.
Ushbu maqola ingliz frazeologiyasi nazariyasining bir qismi
sifatida ingliz frazemalarini tahlil qilish va ularning mohiyatini tushunishga
bag'ishlangan. Bu frazemalarning ingliz frazeologiyasi tarkibida ikki tomonlama
rol o‘ynashini ko‘rsatadi: ularni tasviriyligi va axborotni etkazishdagi ixchamligi
tufayli idiomalar, grammatik tuzilishiga ko‘ra esa frazeologik birliklar sifatida
tasniflash mumkin. Ingliz frazeologiyasi nazariyasi doirasida frazemalarni
o‘rganish antropotsentrik kommunikativ jihatlari bilan ajralib turadigan
lingvokulturologiya fani doirasida rivojlanishi kerak.
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Kalit so'zlar:
lingvokulturologiya; frazeologiya; idiomalar; frazeologik
birliklar; frazema fe'llar; ergash gap.
The development of an anthropocentric paradigm has shifted linguistic
problems towards focusing on humans and their place in culture. Language
shapes linguistic identity, which can be reconstructed in its main features based
on linguistic means. Speech, as the external manifestation of language, is
considered "among all aspects of cultural heritage the most fundamental" [8, p.
8], as it is a necessary prerequisite for the existence of culture. In every
utterance, the speaker is presented as a personality with unique ethnic, national,
cultural characteristics, worldviews, and axiological orientations. Thus, within
this paradigm, language is understood primarily as a code, a fundamental
manifestation of culture within various linguistic signs and symbols, alongside
the visual manifestations of the collective's culture, and is considered a "culture-
determined behavior system" [2, p. 43]. The constituent elements of the cultural
linguistic code, linguistic signs of any complexity level, and particularly
phraseological units, contain information necessary for understanding the
behavior of cultural collective members.
Phraseological units reflect the history, lifestyle, and national mentality of
a people, "its original means and unique, indigenous wealth" [6, p. 265]. As
linguistic units containing high cultural-value and emotional content,
phraseological units can be defined as a repository of the linguistic personality's
cultural-value representations of the surrounding world. A distinctive feature of
phraseological units is their stability and semantic integrity, making them
reproduced as semantically indivisible speech units. From the perspective of
enriching the language and updating its vocabulary, phraseological units serve
as the basis for new formations, made possible "by reinterpreting the meanings
of the words comprising the phraseological unit" [1, pp. 8-21]. The study of
English phraseological combinations, whose meanings cannot be explained from
grammatical and logical points of view, falls under the science of phraseology.
Phraseology is a branch of linguistics that examines functionally and
semantically indivisible combinations in terms of their origin, structure,
semantics, style, and pragmatics of use. English phraseology represents a
coherent system within the more complex system of the national language, as
part of its various levels. It includes various groups of phraseological units,
categorized by their characteristic linguistic (unambiguous and polysemous,
homonymous, synonymous, antonymous) and stylistic (stylistically marked and
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neutral) features [10, p. 99], but significantly differing in stylistic coloration and
stylistic affiliation.
One group of English phraseological units is phrasal verbs, complex lexical
units consisting of a meaningful verb and a postposition expressed by a
preposition (e.g., put up ‒ raise, build, erect [4], get out ‒ leave, escape, manage,
look after ‒ take care of, oversee) or adverb (e.g., step aside ‒ step aside, be
away ‒ succeed, have a big chance of success, ponder). Phrasal verb
combinations arise in great numbers and "completely transform the English
language" [1, p. 32]. Therefore, in learning this language by representatives of
other linguistic cultures, mastering phrasal verbs is essential for ensuring
speech dynamism. Phrasal verbs significantly contribute to communication
success due to their emotional expressiveness and expanded semantic
capabilities, along with their conciseness.
When discussing phrasal verbs as part of the English phraseological
system, it is essential to consider the nature and scope of the concept of phrasal
verbs, namely, to which type of phrases phrasal verbs should be attributed.
The idiomatic nature of an expression is "defined as the inability to derive
the overall meaning of a fixed word combination from the sum of the meanings
of its lexical components <...>; as the global nature of the nomination, which
makes an idiomatic word combination similar to a single word, and as literal
untranslatability into other languages" [4, p. 11]. For instance, the verbs "to act"
– "to act, clown around, cause a scene" [3, p. 8], and "to grow" – "to grow" form
idiomatic phrasal verbs such as "act up" – "to malfunction (of a mechanism)" [7,
p. 173], and "grow on" – "to become liked, loved", whose meanings differ from
those of the base verbs. However, it is not feasible to consider phrasal verbs as
pure idioms.
Some phrasal verbs possess certain features of phraseological unity,
including complete lexical indivisibility. Substituting the postposition in such a
phrasal verb, or replacing the base verb with a synonym, either destroys the
imagery of the phrasal verb or alters its expressive meaning.
According to "The Oxford Thesaurus: An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms"
edited by L. Urdang [7, p. 1891], the verb "to take" has 40 synonym rows
containing 151 synonyms. Replacing the base verb in the phrasal verb "to take
away" – "to remove, take away, carry away, lead away, make worse, spoil" [3, p.
793] with any of the 12 synonymous verbs forms phrasal verbs with meanings
different from the original: "to bear away" – "to win, emerge victorious" [4], "to
get away" – "to get out of a difficult situation, escape unscathed, take a leave", "to
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catch away" – "obsolete. to drag away, carry away", "to clear away" – "to clear
away" [Ibid], "to draw away" – "to move away, depart (from a station), set sail
(from a dock)", "to drink away" – "to drink away", "to eat away" – "to consume",
"to lead away" – "to captivate, lead away", "to move away" – "to change one’s
viewpoint", "to steal away" – "to slip away unnoticed", "to think away" – "to
dismiss from one's mind", and "to win away" – "to take away, snatch, seize".
Additionally, the verb "to take," according to the "Oxford Phrasal Verb
Dictionary," forms phrasal verbs with various meanings with 27 collocates
(postpositions). This variability of meanings clearly demonstrates the
impossibility of substituting either the base or the adverbial part of the phrasal
verb. However, in some cases, such substitutions create favorable conditions for
individual stylistic updates in speech, widely used in cinematography for
creating wordplay. Consider the following example:
Hello, where have you been [4, 3.40]?
Oh, that was important business. But I'll be around right from now.
Hello, where have you been?
Oh, I had to leave for important business. But I'll be back soon
(literally – I'll be around you).
Thus, according to the "Oxford Phrasal Verb Dictionary," the phrasal verb
"be around" does not exist as an independent unit; however, there is a reference
to the phrasal verb "to be over" [3, p. 12] – "to come, visit (someone’s home)"
[4], as a synonymous phraseological combination. Replacing the preposition
"over" with the adverbial postposition "round" – "around" [3, p. 678] adds an
extra-linguistic meaning "to be constantly around someone" to the statement,
inherent to this adverb.
The meaning of some phrasal verbs, like phraseological combinations, can
be derived from the meanings of their lexical components. For example, the
phrasal verb "dawn away" – "to fade away, to die out (about a conversation)" [7,
p. 190] is formed from the combination of the verb "to dawn" – "to dawn" [3, p.
192] and the adverb "away" – "away (denoting a distance from the place of
action)" [Ibid, p. 45], or the phrasal verb "lean back" – "to lean back" [7, p. 212]
is formed from the combination of the verb "to lean" – "to lean, to incline" [3, p.
448] and the adverb "away" – "away (denoting a distance from the place of
action)" [Ibid, p. 45].
Similarly, to collocations, one part of a phrasal verb may be replaceable.
Since the main meaning is contained in the verb, and the direction of the action
is in the adverbial postposition, it is often the verb part of the phrase that gets
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replaced. For instance, "to write something down," according to the "Russian-
English Dictionary" edited by A. I. Smirnitsky, can be translated into English with
phrasal verbs like "to take down, put down, jot down, and write down" [5, p.
239]. However, in some cases, various postpositions can be added to the same
base verb while maintaining the original meaning. Thus, the variants of the
phrasal verb "to pass away" – "to pass out" and "to pass over" preserve the
denotative meaning "to die, to pass away" [3, p. 568].
Phrasal verbs, as fixed speech units with a constant composition, are often used
in sentences with specific instructions, admonitions, or wishes, due to their high
emotional content.
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