To separate or not? (2) - a little experiment - OBAT KUAT ALAMI

As you know, there are many phrasal verbs which can take a direct object, and where that direct object can come between the verb and the particle or after the particle. These are often known as seperable phrasal verbs:

He took his hat off

He took off his hat

We know that if the direct object is a pronoun we need to separate, but what about if it's a noun. Do native speakers usually separate or not? We'll look at some possible reasons for separating after the exercise.

So I thought I'd do a little experiment and see what Google came up with: how are separable phrasal verbs being used on the web? What I want you to do is decide which of each pair you think is more natural, and then we'll compare the results with the relative numbers of Google hits. All the sentences are grammatically possible, so there aren't really any wrong answers. Just compare your answers with what happens on the Internet.

Results

This is not a scientific experiment, and the findings from Google aren't definitive. For one thing, I've had to make the sentences quite simple, and a lot would depend on the context and the other words used in the sentences. Secondly, I've chosen a relatively small number of phrasal verbs to try it on. But we can make out some patterns:

nearly equal - buy sth up, let sb down, see sb off (chase away), tear sth down

hardly ever separated - carry sth out, dress sb up, fill sth out, show sb/sth off, think sth up

almost always separated - see sb off (say goodbye)

And the rest seem to be somewhere between 5:1 and 200:1 in favour of keeping the verb and the particle together.

A reason for not separating - end-weighting

One thing to bear in mind, is that in all these examples the direct object is relatively short, most of then only one or two words. When the direct object is a longer expression, we are more likely to put it after the particle.

He looked the information up in Wikipedia.

He looked up the information he needed for his project in Wikipedia.

A reasons for separating - known information

I've also seen it suggested in a linguistics paper that we are more likely to separate the verb and the particle when the object has already been mentioned - it is 'old' or known information. New imformation, however, is more likely to go after the particle. This is in line with the general idea in linguistics that we prefer old information earlier on and new information towards the end of a sentence.

He wanted how phrasal verbs worked, so he looked phrasal verbs up on the Internet. We already know what information he was looking for - phrasal verbs - this is 'old' information. By putting 'on the Internet' immediately after the particle, we can put more emphasisi on it.

He looked up phrasal verbs on the Internet. This is the first time we have heard about his interest in phrasal verbs, so by putting phrasal verbs after the particle, we draw attention to it.

Conclusions

From this little experiment, it looks as though we don't really separate seperable phrasal verbs that often (except of course when the direct object is a pronoun, which includes somebody, something etc). There are one or two, however, that are almost always separated, such as see somebody off (say goodbye). Others like this include ask somebody out, call somebody back, put somebody through (on the phone).

There is also a small group of phrasal verbs which are always separated, such as ask somebody round, have somebody over, mess somebody about. I've listed about these in a separate post linked to below.

And remember, the longer the direct object, the more likely we are to put it after the particle.

Phrasal verb or verb + preposition?

Remember that not every verb followed by a preposition is a phrasal verb. A phrasal verb has a special meaning different from its component parts. When a verb is simply followed by a preposition, they cannot be separated.

She looked through the report.

She looked it through

She looked through the window.

She went up to the window and looked through it.

He turned down their offer.

He turned it down

He turned down a side road.

He saw a side road and turned down it.

Answers

To separate or not? (1) - getting something across

Phrasal verbs that are always separated

1.	bought out the company	298,000
	bought the company out	349,000
2.	brought up their children	12,800,000
	brought their children up	525,000
3.	call the meeting off	80,000
	call off the meeting	420,000
4.	carried out the operation	15,000,000
	carried the operation out	605
5.	clear the mess up	339,000
	clear up the mess	2,000,000
6.	close the factory down	88,300
	close down the factory	415,000
7.	cut out the middleman	3,300,000
	cut the middleman out	278,000
8.	chop the meat up	112,000
	chop up the meat	638,000
9.	chop up the meat into	207,000
	chop the meat up into	17,700
10.	dressed up her daughter	50,800,000
	dressed her daughter up	69,000

1.	figured the truth out	38,700
	figured out the truth	18,700,000
2.	fill out the form	344,000,000
	fill the form out	962,000
3.	found the truth out	141,000
	found out the truth	8,930,000
4.	get across his meaning	144,000
	get his meaning across	108,000
5.	giving up smoking	819,000
	giving smoking up	39,000
6.	hand the assignment in	76,900
	hand in the assignment	3,230,000
7.	held a bank up	6,450
	held up a bank	597,000
8.	let down the side	9,190,000
	let the side down	1,290,000
9.	pay the loan back	1,790,000
	pay back the loan	9,650,000

1.	put her coat on	2,140,000
	put on her coat	1,110,000
2.	saw off her mother	4
	saw her mother off	789,000
3.	saw off the intruder	1,010
	see the intruder off	1,340
4.	showed her new dress off	3
	showed off her new dress	1,510,000
5.	showed off his new car	3,180,000
	showed his new car off	5
6.	think an excuse up	10
	think up an excuse	186,000
7.	tidy up your room	730,000
	tidy your room up	40,100
8.	tore the building down	217,000
	tore down the building	395,000
9.	turn on the computer	35,600,000
	turn the computer on	3,700,000

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