Introduction The course paper is dedicated to the study of the syntax and semantic features of phrasal verbs in the English language

Chapter II.Phrasal verbs in English and their investigation
II.1. Essential features of present day English phrasal verbs
To get a good idea of English phrasal verbs' semantic nuances, let us first look at their conceptual features. Phrasal verbs are idiomatic expressions, combining verbs and prepositions to make new verbs whose meaning is often not obvious from the dictionary definitions of the individual words. They are widely used in both written and spoken English, and new ones are formed all the time as they are a flexible way of creating new terms.
Phrasal verb is a specific kind of verb. The term derives from "phrase" which in traditional linguistic theory refers to the minimum unit of syntax. They differ from normal verbs in that they are constituted by two or three elements instead of just one. The exact status of the latter is still being debated, scholars being divided on whether it is an adverb, prepositional adverb, postpositional prefix, special part of speech, etc.⁵ However, here we are interested only in the features of adverbial particles. In general, the main function of phrasal verbs is conceptual categorization of reality in the speaker's mind. They denote not only actions or states as "ordinary" verbs do, but also specify their spatial, temporal or other characteristics. This ability to describe actions or states more precisely, vividly and emotionally is determined by the adverbial components of phrasal verbs. By combining with these elements, verbs of broader meaning are subjected to a regular and systematic multiplication of their semantic functions. While the English verb has no consistent structural representation of aspect, adverbial particles either impart an additional aspective meaning to the base verb (e.g. the durative verb sit merges with the particle down into the terminative phrasal verb sit down) or introduce a lexical modification to its fundamental semantics. In most cases adverbial elements denote the general spatial direction of the action or express its qualitative or quantitative characteristics, like beginning (set out), duration (bum along), completion (think out), intensity (hurry up), and so on.
The number of common verbs, prepositions, and adverbs in English is not very great. Yet the quantity of actions, states, and events to be communicated in verb form tends toward the infinite. Phrasal verbs are products of the recycling and the recombination of finite lexical elements in order to render the language infinitely wealthy and expressive. They often arise from casual uses of the language and eventually work themselves into the mainstream of language use. According to some scholars, phrasal verbs constitute a highly productive system which is difficult to classify completely. Like many other verbs, phrasal verbs often have more than one meaning. As well as learning their meanings, we need to learn how to use phrasal verbs properly. Some phrasal verbs require a direct object (someone/something), while others do not. Some phrasal verbs can be separated by the object, while others cannot. In many cases, the particle may come before or after the object. The example is: The teacher marked two students down / marked down two students because they answered the wrong questions in the exam.
Very long objects usually come after the particle. Ex: The accident cut off domestic and industrial water and electricity supplies. When the object is a personal pronoun, the pronoun always comes before the particle.

Noun – object	personal pronoun – object
I picked my parents up / picked up my parents and drove them to the airport.	I'll pick you up at 3.30. (Not I'll pick up you at 3.30).

Phrasal verbs are morphologically complete verbs: they have an infinitive and conjugations. Morphologically they are composed of a base verb and one or more particles (adverbs or prepositions). 1. Phrasal verbs are not to be confused with idiomatic expressions, which are expressions, not verbs. Phrasal verbs generally do have a somewhat idiomatic character, although they are idiomatic in varying degrees. 2. Sometimes a phrasal verb can be confused with a single-word verb followed by an adverbial-prepositional phrase. In other words, is the particle (are the particles) following the verb part of the verb itself or not⁶.
Example 1: a. He ran up | a huge bill at the restaurant. Phrasal verb (b). He ran up the hill. Single-word verb. Example 2: a. The athlete fell behind the group. Phrasal verb (b). The pen fell | behind the desk. Single - word verb.
In order to decide if a verb + preposition or verb + adverb combination is a phrasal verb or not, the student can try to substitute the base verb with a sinonymous single-word verb. If the sentence makes no sense, then the original is a phrasal verb (ex. 1a and 2a). Vice-versa, if the sentence makes sense, the original is a single-word verb (ex. 1b e 2b):
Example 1- with substitution: a) He walked up a huge bill at the restaurant. It makes no sense = Phrasal verb- b) He walked up the hill. It makes sense = single-word verb. Example 2 - with substitution: a) The athlete bounced behind the group. It makes no sense = phrasal verb - b). The pen bounced behind the desk. It makes sense = single-word verb.
As we have just seen, a phrasal verb (PV) is made up of two (or more) parts that function as a single verb. Phrasal verbs are sometimes called two-word verbs because they consist of a verb plus a second word, the latter often referred to as an adverb. Let’s refer to the second part of the phrasal verb as a particle, to show its close association with, verb, and to distinguish it from prepositions and other adverbs, although we acknowledge that the same word can fit into more than one category. To be able to analyze sentences with phrasal verbs, we need to refine our phrase structure rule for the VP by generating a PV as an alternative to V. The PV category is then expanded in a new phrase structure rule as a verb and particle (Prt): PV→ V << Prt>>. The symbols on either side of the particle indicate that although the particle is part of the phrasal verb, it need not be contiguous with it.