PREPOSITIONAL VERB

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language | 1998 | 700+ words | Copyright

PREPOSITIONAL VERB. In one school of grammatical theory, the term for an often idiomatic combination of VERB and PREPOSITION: approve of in They fully approved of his actions; get at in I really don't know what you are getting at. Sometimes, such a verb is synonymous with a single verb: come across with find in They came across the manuscript by accident. The phrase that follows the preposition (the children in Look after the children) is a prepositional object. According to this view, some such verbs have two objects, one of them coming between the verb and the preposition: blame on in Blame the noise on the children. Other grammarians, however, argue that here the on is part of a traditional prepositional phrase. A phrasal-prepositional verb is a combination of a verb and two PARTICLES, the first an adverb, the second a preposition: put up with, meaning ‘tolerate’, as in I can't put up with this noise any longer. See PHRASAL VERB.

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TOM McARTHUR. "PREPOSITIONAL VERB." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

TOM McARTHUR. "PREPOSITIONAL VERB." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-PREPOSITIONALVERB.html

TOM McARTHUR. "PREPOSITIONAL VERB." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-PREPOSITIONALVERB.html

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