Differences between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs
We explain here differences of position, stress and adverb insertion in the clause, illustrating them with the phrasal verb break up and the prepositional verb break with, as in He broke up the party (phrasal verb) and He broke with his girl-friend (prepositional verb).
A pronoun follows a preposition but precedes the particle of a phrasal verb (as elsewhere, the asterisk indicates an ungrammatical sequence):
He broke with her. He broke it up.
*He broke her with. *He broke up it.
The particle in phrasal verbs is stressed, especially when in final position in the clause, whereas a preposition is normally unstressed. In prepositional verbs the stress normally falls on the verb (capitals indicate the stressed syllable):
He broke it UP. He has BROken with her.
Which party did he break UP? Which girl has he BROken with?
Type B, an adverb can sometimes be placed between a verb and its following preposition. Phrasal verbs do not normally admit an adverb between the verb and the particle:
*He broke completely up the party. He broke completely with his girl-friend.
In idiomatic phrasal verbs the particle is usually analyzed as part of the verb (peter out. There is no separate verb ‘peter’) In ‘free’ combinations in which the adverb particle is directional, this is analyzed as Complement, as in The rain came down.
The adverbial particle can be fronted (Down came the rain) for rhetorical purposes, and this mobility is a feature of Complements and Adjuncts. With non-directional meanings, the adverbial particle is inseparable from the verb, and can’t be fronted (The car broke down, *Down broke the car).
