Pages: 16-31

Abstract

Phrasal Verbs are there in many languages such as English and Persian and extensive research has been conducted in English on the Semantic and Syntactic structure of Phrasal Verbs.  However, in Persian, they have not been causally motivated in a systematic manner. In this paper; an attempt has been made to examine the structure of phrasal verb formation in Persian and English.  A detailed analysis of the various patterns of phrasal verb formation are discussed. For example, the PV occurring with adverbial and verb complements, the PV without prepositions, the PV s independent parts in ancient texts, and the PV expressing irony are discussed. They are compared and contrasted with English phrasal verbs. From the analysis it has been observed that there is a cognitional divergence or variation in the formation of Phrasal Verbs in English and Persian. First of all, at the basic level, PVDSC operates in the unmarked structure of the sentence: Persian is SOV but English is SVO; modifiers follow the nouns; prepositions are used instead of postpositions; and there is scrambling. Then at the level of interrogatives, √a:ja: which is a yes/no question particle appears at the beginning of a question;  at the level of honorificity, there is T-V distinction which is lost in Modern English. In the case of phrasal verbs, there are three components (a preposition, a noun and a verb) which is not the case in English which has generally only two (lexical verb + particle). Moreover, ‘az’ is compulsory in Persian phrasal verbs and Persian phrasal verbs are figurative or ironic which is not necessarily the case with English. In view of this variation, it is proposed that a causal linguistic motivation is not possible without invoking dispositional choices such as three vs two components with a compulsory ‘az’; and figurative or ironic vs literary meaning choice. These choices are basically dispositional as formal or semantic choices.