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The purpose of this paper is to apply some recent findings about the meaning of prepositions in Cognitive Linguistics to some phrasal verbs in ESP, namely Medical and Computer English. We analyse the meaning of some phrasal verbs by applying the cognitive model of prepositions as large networks of related senses with a central spatial meaning that...
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In recent years, a number of cognitive linguistic studies (Barcelona 2003, 2004, Brdar and Brdar-Szabó 2007, Brdar 2007) have focused on the construction of the figurative meaning of personal names as accompanied by their “irregular” morpho-syntactic behavior. These studies prove that cognitive linguistics, with its theory of metaphor and metonymy,...
Metaphors conceptualizing emotions (Kövecses 1986, 1988, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2010) represent a well-researched area in the framework of a cognitive theory of metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, 1999). However, this study offers a different analysis of the metaphor MARAH (ANGER) from the above-mentioned work. Transformation in metaphor studies that are r...
Motion metaphors occur at different levels, from prepositional phrases to discourse, including theoretical metaphors. After reviewing Relevance Theory as a bottom-up approach, and Cognitive Linguistics and Segmented Discourse Representation Theory as top-down ones, an integrated approach to metaphor in discourse construction is developed, based on...
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... Rudzka-Ostyn (2003) 1 investigated, among others, the semantic motivation behind all three particles explored in the current paper (away, out and off) through the prism of their potentially more efficient acquisition by language learners, while Hampe (2002) discussed some similarities in the meaning of the particles away, out and off, in the phrasal verbs with the constituent verb to fade. A number of other studies investigated the meanings of the particles examined in this paper, such as out and off (Tyler and Evans 2003), phrasal verbs in medical and computer English containing the particles in and out (Porto Requejo and Pena Díaz 2008), verbs with the constituent particles up and out (Mahpeykar and Tyler 2014) etc. Finally, Milošević (2016a, 2016b carried out a thorough analysis of the conceptual-semantic structures of the particles out and off in comparison to their opposites in and on, as well as of the numerous semantic relations established between phrasal verbs containing the two pairs of opposite particles (in-out and on-off). ...
The paper focuses on the synonymous relations established between a certain number of English phrasal verbs containing the same constituent verb and the particles away, out and off. The research is carried out within the theoretical framework of cognitive linguistics, which enables us to view the semantic motivation of the linguistic units under examination in the light of their conceptual structure. This semantic analysis includes 124 phrasal verbs with the particle away, 406 phrasal verbs with the particle out and 260 phrasal verbs with the particle off, with the total of 1,620 different meanings. It is shown that a considerable number of the investigated phrasal verbs exhibit a high level of synonymous relations. We argue that such a semantic phenomenon is a result of the closely comparable conceptual scenes motivating their semantic structure, which stem from different spatial configurations underlying the conceptual framework of the constituent particles. The final part discusses the obtained findings and their possible implications for enhancing the understanding of the nature of phrasal verbs in general, as well as for further investigations of the semantic relations established among English phrasal verbs.
... Some of the recent studies in the field also include those dealing with the possible implications of the analysability of phrasal verbs for EFL learners and facilitating their retention by raising awareness about the metaphors underlying various senses (e.g. Boers & Demecheleer 1998;Boers 2000Boers , 2013Đurović 2009, 2017Milošević 2014;Porto Requejo & Pena Díaz 2008;Vujić 2013;etc.). In a similar research to the present one, Đurović (2010) explored a number of English phrasal verbs whose constituent verb is related to animals, concluding that the metaphorical meanings of animal phrasal verbs should be taught alongside the basic prototypical meaning of verbs and particles in order to enhance their learning. ...
The focus of the paper is on the semantics of English phrasal verbs whose constituent verb is related to the concept of PLANTS. The investigated set of verbs includes twenty-two phrasal verbs featuring the particles OUT, OFF, UP, THROUGH, IN and AWAY. The analysis is conducted in the framework of cognitive semantics, which states that the meaning of phrasal verbs can be analysed in view of their constituent particles and the interplay between the verb meaning and the particle senses. It is concluded that the general meaning of the examined phrasal verbs is a result of different spatial configurations underlying the conceptual-semantic structure of the constituent particles, while their specific meanings are motivated by different conceptual metonymies stemming from the constituent verb. Numerous abstract meanings are additionally derived via various submetaphors of the basic metaphor COMPLEX ABSTRACT SYSTEMS ARE PLANTS embedded in the conceptual framework of the constituent verbs.
... Another viewpoint on phrasal verbs in cognitive linguistics is that particles such as up-down, front-back, deep-shallow, onoff, in-out and central-peripheral are relevant to orientational metaphors that have a strong relationship with spatial orientations derived from the experiences of the human body (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Illustrating and clarifying the meanings of the preposition or adverbial particle of a phrasal verb in an accurate and rational manner can be beneficial to a better comprehension of the phrasal verb as a whole (Lindner, 1982;Morgan, 1997;Porto Requejo & Pena Diaz, 2008;Rudzka-Ostyn, 2003). For example, Porto Requejo and PenaDiaz (2008)choose the phrasal verbs with in and out which have the most obvious spatial senses as the target words to study the comprehension of phrasal verbs and find that the comprehension of prepositions can contribute to the comprehension of phrasal verbs in the whole. ...
... Illustrating and clarifying the meanings of the preposition or adverbial particle of a phrasal verb in an accurate and rational manner can be beneficial to a better comprehension of the phrasal verb as a whole (Lindner, 1982;Morgan, 1997;Porto Requejo & Pena Diaz, 2008;Rudzka-Ostyn, 2003). For example, Porto Requejo and PenaDiaz (2008)choose the phrasal verbs with in and out which have the most obvious spatial senses as the target words to study the comprehension of phrasal verbs and find that the comprehension of prepositions can contribute to the comprehension of phrasal verbs in the whole. Additionally, some studies show that strengthening the awareness of orientational metaphors is beneficial to the learning of phrasal verbs for EFL learners (Boers, 2000a, b; K€ ovecses & Szab o, 1996;Yasuda, 2010). ...
The present study examined whether cognitive linguistic methods facilitate Chinese EFL learners' acquisition of English polysemous phrasal verbs. 120 participants were tested in a 2 (method: traditional v. cognitive) × 2 (English proficiency: intermediate v. high) between-subjects design in which the control group was presented English polysemous phrasal verbs in the traditional method and to the experimental group there were presented in a cognitive method. Both groups were then asked to take an immediate test to test their short-term memory, and a delayed post-test was conducted one week later to test long-term memory. Results show that compared with the traditional method 1) presenting polysemous phrasal verbs with metaphor association is beneficial to participants' long-term memory and English proficiency influences the understanding and retention of the learning materials; 2) presenting polysemous phrasal verbs based on orientational metaphor cannot efficiently facilitate participants' meaning retention of the phrasal verbs, neither in the short-term nor in the long-term test. The study confirms that cognitive methods are much more suited for EFL learners in the learning of polysemous phrasal verbs and appropriate L1 input is necessary when a new teaching method is introduced.
... Language Value 4 (1), 84–96 http://www.e-revistes.uji.es/languagevalue 91 abstraction, can be extended to other domains to express more abstract concepts " (Porto and Pena 2008), then these " idealisations " may be accessible to second language learners as well as to native speakers. Some studies have shown promising results (Nhu and Huyen 2009), while others found little difference in terms of outcomes between teaching methods designed to exploit the potential of metaphor and those that did not, particularly in studies which focused on productive language use rather than comprehension (Grundmann 2009). ...
Although verb-particle combinations are generally relatively uncommon in formal English, they occur with a certain frequency in texts related to the economy, and specifically in journalism and academic analysis focusing on the financial markets. The first part of this paper consists of a corpus study of the verb-particle combinations found in two 200,000 word corpora of business English, one consisting of market reports from the Financial Times, the other of academic research papers on economics from a series of peer-reviewed journals. The particles UP, DOWN, OFF, OUT, BACK and AHEAD are found to be particularly frequent, in combination with a wide range of verbs, mainly verbs of motion. The last section of the paper provides some models for creating exercises for teaching purposes, which start from an analysis of the metaphors associated with each particle and progress to comprehension of real examples from market reports published in the Financial Times.
... Unfortunately, progress in this area has been limited, partly because of the complexity of the phenomenon of the verb-particle construction (VPC) itself, which resists categorical delimitations (Lipka 1972), and partly because verb-particle usage is chiefly found in the spoken language, where it is highly idiomatic and subject to many regional and other sociolinguistic variations. For this reason, it could be argued that specialised language offers a particularly useful scenario for exploring cognitive approaches to teaching VPCs (Campoy 2002, Porto and Pena 2008), since the lexical range is more constrained and the VPCs may be more likely to conform to a particular set of ...
Editor of the issue.
This is the second volume in Language Value that is thoroughly devoted to the issue of Verb Particle Combinations (VPCs) also known and analysed under different linguistic trends and terms as phrasal/prepositional verbs, compound verbs, discontinuous verbs or multiword verbs, among others. For the sake of simplicity we will use the term verb particle combinations (VPCs) throughout this editorial.
Five articles present perspectives on the use of VPCs as used in different texts and contexts: that of animal-related VPCs in Panther and Thornburg, VPCs in child and adult interaction in data taken from the CHILDES corpus in Hampe’s article, economics and finance texts in Breeze’s, VPCs in cartoons in Kihr’s, and constructions made by L2 learners of the VPCs as reflected in a corpus of learner language in Alejo’s article....
Two techniques are examined for teaching 10 Phrasal Verbs (PVs) to two groups of university students: dictionary presentation and concordance-based Data-Driven Learning (DDL). After checking their prior knowledge, 5 PVs were introduced via DDL, 5 via dictionary entries. The two techniques were compared, as well as the two groups of students, towards an assessment of DDL as a motivating and effective teaching aid. The results show that DDL can be a productive way to teach new lexical items and to consolidate old ones. The difference was statistically significant for the group which was smaller in size, more mature and working with corpus samples on screen rather than on paper. DDL, independently of classroom attendance, was a positive aid, whereas dictionary presentation was detrimental for some of the verbs involved.
