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I tried to research the difference beween particle and preposition in phrasal verb, but the information on this website is not very clear. According to the website, in "She is making up excuses" up is called particle, but in the sentence "stop picking on your brother " on is preposition because the information comes immediatey after the phrasal verb completes a prepositional phrase. Without these prepositional phrase, the sentence would be incomplete. Can't the same be said about "she is making up excuses"? Without the preposition, the sentence would also be incomplete. I would appreciate greatly a more detailed explanation.

jxhyc
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    Real transitive phrasal verbs like make up can be distinguished from prepositional uses like pick on by checking for Particle Shift. Both He made up the answer and He made the answer up are grammatical; but only He's picking on his brother is grammatical. You can't say *He's picking his brother on. – John Lawler Sep 02 '20 at 04:11
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    First, you should be aware that 'particle' is not a part of speech, but a term used for those complements that can occur between a verb and its direct object. Particles are mostly prepositions like "down", "in", "up" etc, as in "She took down the suitcases". In your example "up" is a preposition (cf. "She is making excuses up"). Btw, I would avoid the term 'phrasal verb'. It's a misnomer: in your example, it's just "making" that is the verb. – BillJ Sep 02 '20 at 06:45
  • I strongly disagree with BillJ's advice about phrasal verbs. The point is that the phrase "make up" behaves just like a verb, even though it is more than just one word. When "up" appears in that context, it should be understood as part of a verb phrase rather than as having a separate role. – Daniel Asimov Sep 27 '21 at 07:01
  • @DanielAsimov This is the kind of unhelpful stuff that they used to teach us as EFL teachers. How many verbs split in two and appear in either side of their direct objects? The preposition up has an idiomatic meaning along the lines of in(to) existence. The frame ‘(verb) something up’ is productive and one can stick any suitable verb in that verb slot. The word up there is effectively an object oriented depictive complement. – Araucaria - Him Sep 27 '21 at 08:32
  • @DanielAsimov Consider dream/ think/ rustle/ conjure etc, etc. And you can whimsy up your own versions (did you see what I did there?!) – Araucaria - Him Sep 27 '21 at 08:38
  • @Araucaria. I have struggled with the best way to teach this aspect of English grammar. So I would be interested to know what you were taught as an EFL teacher and what was unhelpful about it for you and for your learners. How do you approach the topic now? – Shoe Sep 27 '21 at 15:43
  • Araucaria - Not here any more: The question is whether [verb+prepositional adverb] has a special definition that could not be inferred from merely concatenating the two words. In many cases, it does. – Daniel Asimov Sep 28 '21 at 01:07
  • @Araucaria Even if the meanings of some verb/particle combos are compositional, an answer to the OP needs to work for those wnose meanings are not. – Rosie F Sep 28 '21 at 10:26
  • @RosieF Yes, I agree to an extent. But the meaning (idiomatic or not) of 'phrasal verbs' doesn't make them verbs and doesn't make them behave like verbs either. They don't! Having an idiomatic meaning is not the same as being a verb. Incidentally, I generally liked your answer, but the 'adverb/preposition' bit of it prevented me from upvoting it. Even if that bit of C19th grammar were true, what benefit could the putative adverb/preposition distinction ever provide for students? (given that the prepositions involved behave in every way as prepositions and never behave like adverbs!) – Araucaria - Him Sep 29 '21 at 10:05
  • @Araucaria You appeal to the teaching of students. (So is this Q is more suited to ELL?) Why involve them in the debate about CGEL's definition of "preposition", let alone try to recruit them to the pro-CGEL side? Isn't that debate for linguists rather than for EFL students? EFL students already know the concept of preposition from their L1 (for many L1s -- Indo-European ones at any rate). CGEL says here & now are prepositions. Are German-speakers taught that hier & jetzt are prepositions? – Rosie F Sep 29 '21 at 10:58
  • @Araucaria. It would be helpful to know what you mean by 'phrasal verb', since I find it hard to understand how a 'phrasal verb', or MWV if you prefer, such as 'to put out = to extinguish' does not behave in most ways like a prototypical verb. – Shoe Sep 29 '21 at 12:08
  • @Rosie F. I agree with your most recent comment. In my experience learners are more interested in meaning and usage than in terminology. Having them distinguish between or categorise the second and third elements of multi-word verbs adds an extra layer of difficulty to an already difficult aspect of English grammar. – Shoe Sep 29 '21 at 12:13
  • @Shoe I was going to suggest a chatroom conversation, but haven't got the time right now for a long one. I find your comment to Rosie interesting because you say what I believe, that the most challenging thing about 'phrasal verbs' is precisely the meaning not the grammar. In my experience, my observation is that students don't generally make many errors at all with the grammar of phrasal verbs when they are actually using the language. In fact, the only confusion arises when teachers start 'teaching' it to them. At a basic level, there is really only one thing Ss need to know ... – Araucaria - Him Sep 29 '21 at 13:11
  • @Shoe ... Some 'phrasal verbs' are separable, and with these any pronouns must come before the preposition. That's it. There's nothing else that can be usefully said to most language students. [At an advanced level, there are a range of modifiers, most notably right and straight that can sometimes be used before the prepositions in 'phrasal verbs' - we can't use those kinds of modifiers that we use with adverbs e.g. very or extremely]. – Araucaria - Him Sep 29 '21 at 13:42
  • @RosieF They think these words are prepositions, most EFL teachers think they are prepositions, it's only when EFL teachers start doing Diplomas or MAs or really start investigating the grammar that they are taught that they're adverbs. It's the 'adverb' bit that's confusing for everybody involved. Btw, this isn't a CaGEL debate. We've known this ever since Jespersen the the 1930's (arguably earlier). Otto Jespersen being, of course, the Isaac Newton of English grammar. These prepositions don't behave like adverbs: I dreamt it very up - I dreamt it immediately up. - I dreamt it right up. – Araucaria - Him Sep 29 '21 at 14:01
  • @Araucaria. Thanks for the clarification. I think we are in basic agreement. Originally, I taught the common meanings of the various prepositions. For example, up, which as you point out above has the sense of bringing something into existence. But it also can mean complete (finish up, sum up). Then we have up with its common sense (bubble up). Then break up, do up, balls up, etc. This approach did not seem to be helpful. – Shoe Sep 29 '21 at 14:42
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    @Araucaria. Essentially, I now teach students to recognise idiomatic MWVs in sentences they are trying to understand. And how to look them up (!) in a good dictionary such as Collins Phrasal Verbs. They then need to be taught how to use the MWV correctly. This basically also entails using a good dictionary with examples and simply learning the specific MWV's grammar if the verb seems worth entering into the active lexicon. I don't think there is much useful generalisability here. – Shoe Sep 29 '21 at 14:42

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One test is to use a pronoun for the object. If the order verb object particle is acceptable, then the particle is an adverb, not a preposition. If the order verb particle object is acceptable, then the particle is a preposition.

1a. Stop picking on him.

1b. *Stop picking him on.

2a. *Stop leading on him.

2b. Stop leading him on.

So here, in "pick on", "on" is a preposition, but in "lead on", "on" is an adverb.

(All this assumes that it's meaningful at all to assign a part of speech to a phrasal verb's particle.)

Rosie F
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  • Intransitive prepositions are not adverbs. EFL literature and dictionaries are still using 19th century grammar. There’s a reason that students and non-‘enlightened’ EFL teachers assume that these words are prepositions: they are. – Araucaria - Him Sep 27 '21 at 06:55