The most frequent phrasal verbs in English language EU documents – A corpus-based analysis and its implications

Creativity and Unnaturalness in the Use of Phrasal Verbs in ESL Learner Language

“…However, since phrasal verb combinations behave syntactically differently, with the particle element falling at any distance from its verb, the second step consisted of looking horizontally into the concordance lines to locate every occurrence of a particle element with a lexical verb of up to 5 words to its left. The query was limited to this length as the search beyond this length scenario usually leads to wrong combinations (Trebits 2009). In this study, "a phrasal verb is defined as combination of a lexical verb and a non-prepositional particle element that is either adjacent or nonadjacent to the verb" (Zarifi 2013, p. 20).…”

“…In addition to the descriptive corpus-based studies on the use of the phrasal verbs in real language use (Gardner & Davies 2007, Schneider 2004, Siyanova & Schmitt 2007, Trebits 2009), a few experimental studies investigated the impact of compositionality degree of phrasal verbs and learners" first language on the use of these combinations among non-native learners. Dagut and Laufer (1985) explored the active use of English phrasal verbs by Hebrew speaking university students majoring in English.…”

Tracking down phrasal verbs: the case of up and down

“…There are several corpus-based studies that have focused on the frequency of phrasal verbs in English (Biber et al, 1999;Gardner and Davies, 2007;Trebits, 2009;Liu, 2011;Lee, 2015). Biber et al's (1999) pioneering study relies on four corpora representative of four different registers extracted from US and UK sources: conversation, academic writing, newspapers and fiction.…”

“…Both Gardner and Davies (2007) and Trebits (2009) with a sketch, clean, negative, missing, empty ('inability to find new leads'), contusions, name, something ('new leads') narrow down chemical signature, the suspects, whereabouts, the list, search, the field, it (referring to the list of suspects) set up X (usually noun phrases, names, or personal pronouns referring to a victim: her, me, him, them, this kid), dummy phone lines, fake identity, protection detail, the war room, a sting, a canvass, on the office go down (usually intransitive) hostage exchange, crimes, with/without a fight, for murder, deal, abduction, murder, turn up (usually intransitive) dead, murdered, a security camer, ketamine and oxycodone, in your possession, anything, nothing (referring to new leads in a case) open up (usually intransitive) police orders (referring to the opening of a door), an investigation take down X (noun phrases, names or personal pronouns referring to a victim or a suspect/criminal: his victim, the target, their suspect, the Spolanos, him, you, them) cover up the/a crime, her/the/another murder, it (her body), the truth dig up (also intransitive) police report, the bodies, three bodies, associates ('suspects') give up your alibi, myself, his partner, information, the badge, names of a suspect (Danton) clean up (also intransitive) all types of dirt, the/his mess (figurative meaning referring to legal problems or crimes) shut down it (bomb), the whole operation, the investigation, the case, us/them (illegal business) follow up (also intransitive) a lead, on a lead, with the victim's sister, with a think tank make up that story/stories, a lie ('false testimony'), a sketch sit down (usually intransitive) S04E13]). This can be explained by the fact that the semantic meaning of the former is automatically associated with a criminal context (i.e.…”

Analyzing Idioms and Their Frequency in Three Advanced ILI Textbooks: A Corpus-Based Study

“…Gardner and Davis (2007), for example, used the BNC to identify the most frequent English phrasal verbs to be taught to EFL/ESL students. Trebits (2009) also explored the use of phrasal verbs in English language documents of the European Union to serve as a basis for the compilation of teaching materials designed to develop the necessary language skills of those who work with English language EU documents.…”