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a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs in english for specific purposes mª dolores porto requejo and carmen pena díaz universidad de alcalá de henares spain mdolores.porto@uah.es carmen.pena@uah.es abstract the purpose of this paper is to apply some recent findings about the meaning of prepositions in cognitive linguistics to some phrasal verbs in esp namely medical and computer english we analyse the meaning of some phrasal verbs by applying the cognitive model of prepositions as large networks of related senses with a central spatial meaning that can be extended towards more abstract metaphorical senses for this we have chosen the most obvious spatial scene that of a container and the phrasal verbs referring to that container those which are formed with the particles in and out a number of metaphorical projections emerge from the analysis that evidences both the unitary meaning of the particles in different contexts and the motivation underlying the apparent arbitrariness of the compounds those metaphorical projections are but specifications of some common metaphors we can find in more general uses of english which supports the idea that the model presented can be easily extended to other fields in english as well as to general discourse key words phrasal verbs cognitive linguistics medical english computer english metaphors resumen el objetivo de este trabajo es aplicar algunos hallazgos recientes sobre el significado de las preposiciones en lingüística cognitiva a algunos verbos con partícula en ife concretamente inglés médico e inglés de informática analizamos el significado de algunos verbos con partícula aplicando el modelo ibÉrica 16 [2008 109-128 109

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m.d porto requejo c pena dÍaz cognitivo de las preposiciones como grandes redes de sentidos relacionados con un sentido espacial central que puede extenderse hacia otros sentidos metafóricos más abstractos para ello hemos elegido la escena espacial más obvia la de un recipiente y los verbos con partícula que se refieren a ese recipiente los que están compuestos con las partículas in y out del análisis surgen varias proyecciones metafóricas que demuestran tanto el significado unitario de las partículas en diferentes contextos como la motivación que subyace a la aparente arbitrariedad de los compuestos esas proyecciones metafóricas no son más que especificaciones de algunas metáforas corrientes que se pueden encontrar en usos más generales de inglés lo cual confirma la idea de que el modelo presentado se puede extender fácilmente a otros campos del inglés para fines específicos así como al discurso común palabras clave verbos con partícula lingüística cognitiva inglés médico inglés para informática metáforas introduction most english grammars define phrasal verbs as idiomatic verbs in which a verb combines with prepositions or particles and creates a different meaning from the original one the idea is that the particle changes the meaning of the verb in such a way that it is not possible to connect it any more with the dictionary definition of the individual words moreover the very same combination of verb and particle seems to mean different things in different contexts which supports the intuition that the final meaning is absolutely arbitrary no wonder phrasal verbs are one of the most difficult parts of the lexicon for foreign learners on the other hand they are so expressive that they are very widespread in native speech especially in spoken english and what is more new phrasal verbs are constantly being created if meanings were as arbitrary as could be inferred from the above definition they would not be so easily interpreted and created by speakers apparently what makes phrasal verbs so unpredictable is the meaning of the particles since prepositions seem to be quite arbitrary themselves whereas the meaning of the verbs is usually less controversial besides as long as the expressions refer to spatial locations and movements the meanings are quite transparent but when they refer to more abstract concepts feelings relations etc the meanings are not so obvious rudzka-ostyn 2003 over the past few years a cognitive approach to the meaning of prepositions has been fruitful in the explanation of their numerous possible uses and how they are all motivated and related to one another this paper intends to apply 110 ibÉrica 16 [2008 109-128

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a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs those findings to phrasal verbs and see if they also provide a satisfactory explanation for the differences in meaning between the original words and the final compound still as there are so many possible variations depending on the contexts where a phrasal verb is used it will be useful to reduce the analysis to a few specific fields if only for researching purposes namely to those of medical english and computer english this reduction will provide a better understanding of the unitary meaning of the phrasal verbs in question before it can be extended not only to other fields but also to more general discourse phrasal verbs and cognitive linguistics traditionally the semantics of english prepositions and particles has been considered largely arbitrary a long list of possible uses in different contexts is often provided by textbooks and dictionaries without any apparent relation to one another this poses a particular problem for students of english as a foreign language who mostly see english prepositions as idiomatic expressions that must be learnt one by one without a reasonable explanation of their uses also since the major nuances of the meaning and also of the syntax of phrasal and prepositional verbs lie in these particles it follows that phrasal verbs constitute a sort of a mystery for foreign learners they cannot be interpreted by the mere addition of the meanings of their constituents verb and particle so they seem to be even more impossible to predict or guess than prepositions alone however in the last 25 years cognitive linguistics has paid great attention to polysemy in general1 and more specifically to prepositions since the work by brugman 1981 on the meaning of over many studies have been carried out on prepositions from a cognitive perspective lakoff 1987 brugman 1988 herskovits 1988 radden 1989 taylor 1993 dirven 1993 vandeloise 1994 pütz dirven 1996 cuyckens radden 2002 tyler evans 2003 among others an accurate rational clarification on the meaning of prepositions will result in a better understanding of phrasal verbs but not so much work has so far been devoted to them in cognitive linguistics lindner 1982 morgan 1997 dirven 2001 rudzka-ostyn 2003 the view that it is possible to establish links among the different senses of a preposition would present the various meanings of a phrasal verb as motivated ones if not predictable and so eliminate the idea that they are arbitrary tyler evans 2003 2004 apart from the consequences of ibÉrica 16 [2008 109-128 111

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m.d porto requejo c pena dÍaz this view for the improvement of the learning of english as a foreign language it will also contribute to the construction of a better model of the semantics of words in general the way they are stored and organized in our minds as well as it will better help to elucidate the strategies by which speakers interpret and use them the cognitive approach considers that all the senses in a polysemous word are related and therefore the meaning of a word can be seen as a big semantic network of related senses being so all the possible senses of a preposition would make up a large network of related senses some of them being more peripheral i.e less common or less significant and some others more central i.e basic ones the core meaning of a preposition is the one that refers to the cognitive domain of physical space whereas other abstract senses tend to be derived from concrete spatial senses by means of generalization or specialization of meaning or by metonymic or metaphoric transfer cuyckens radden 2002 xiii in other words english prepositions encode an abstract mental idealization of a spatial relation derived from more specific spatial scenes this is what tyler and evans 2003 2004 call the proto-scene 2 for example let s consider the following sentences 1 i think john is in his room 2 i think john is in the city 3 i think john is in trouble 4 i think john is in love the spatial sense of the preposition in is quite obvious in sentences 1 and 2 even if sentence 2 involves a metaphorical perception of the city as a bounded space far more abstract are the meanings of sentences 3 and 4 in which some abstract concepts trouble and love are also perceived as physical entities as containers that people can get into or out of the relation between john and love or trouble is considered a metaphorically spatial one and this is the reason why the preposition in is used in this network of senses that constitute the meaning of a preposition conceptual metaphors play a leading role metaphors are the way in which we usually understand the world around us lakoff johnson 1980 anything beyond what is physical and concrete can only be understood metaphorically as for the role of the verb in the compound according to rudzka-ostyn 2003 apart from a few static verbs such as be sit hold etc most of the verbs used with particles are verbs of motion either physical run 112 ibÉrica 16 [2008 109-128

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a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs break throw etc or abstract think sell buy refer etc even those that refer to physical motion are often used to designate abstract nonvisible changes as in the following examples 5 to run up the hill 6 to run up expenses 7 to throw out old clothes 8 to throw a person out of a club moreover the verbs often provide the perspective of the speaker since spatial scenes can be viewed from different perspectives each of these views will determine how we conceptualize the scene this is evidenced in the related meanings of those phrasal verbs with the same particle and similar meanings such as go down come down get down etc in this paper we will analyse the meaning of some phrasal verbs by applying the before-mentioned cognitive model that considers the semantics of prepositions as big networks of related senses with a central spatial meaning that can be extended towards more and more abstract metaphorical senses for this we have chosen the most obvious spatial scene that of a container and therefore the phrasal verbs with the particles in and out referring to that container however the possibilities are almost unlimited since phrasal verb meanings are highly dependant on their context of use.3 this pragmatic aspect is even more remarkable when we consider different fields in english for specific purposes the following sentences are examples of how the same compound can provide very different meanings depending on the context 9 you have put your shoulder out 10 the doctor decided to put her out during the birth 11 it took them a long time to put the fire out 12 they are putting out a special issue this week 13 the yacht put out to sea in the morning 14 the tree has put out new leaves 15 this printer offers excellent output quality still we will see that the apparent differences are due to contextual matters and this paper intends to evidence how closely they are related since there ibÉrica 16 [2008 109-128 113

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m.d porto requejo c pena dÍaz is such a wide range of possible contexts and therefore meanings it is not easy to find a common core to all the senses of a phrasal verb for this reason we have constrained our study to a few specific fields medical and computer english which will allow us to reduce the number of possible meanings from a pragmatic point of view and consider the similarities underlying the surface differences this way all the possible senses of one verb will be better contextualized and will likely be better connected with each other so that we can see all the senses as a unitary meaning thus the analysis will be easier and clearer and it will hopefully serve as a sound basis to eventually extend the results to other fields by adding new senses without altering the global meaning the container metaphor the meaning of in and out the container metaphor is one of the most basic and most pervasive ones in our conceptual system we understand an extended number of abstract concepts in terms of the experiential image-schema of containment johnson 1987 according to lakoff and johnson 1980 it is the human body our physical bounded reality which is the origin of this metaphor each of us is a container with a bounding surface and an in-out orientation we project our own in-out orientation onto other physical objects that are bounded by surfaces thus we also view them as containers with an inside and an outside lakoff johnson 1980 29 thus the human body is perceived as a container where we can introduce food or where we can keep emotions and fill it up to the point of a metaphorical burst for instance in anger or in tears4 we can then project this conceptualization to external areas even if they do not have clear physical boundaries and conceptualize them as containers therefore our mind is also perceived as a container full of ideas what is more we can metaphorically understand abstract concepts in terms of physical containers such as the visual field as well as events actions and states as evidenced by the use of the prepositions in and out in sentences like i have him in sight and he fell into a depression lakoff johnson 1980 the linguistic evidence shows that the conceptualization of a particular lm [landmark as bounded is determined not in absolute terms by its geometry 114 ibÉrica 16 [2008 109-128

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a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs although clearly this does play some part but rather by virtue of the way in which humans experience and interact with the lm in question tyler evans 2003 132 moreover the way in which humans experience and interact with containers or any other bounded spaces has a number of functional consequences according to tyler and evans 2003 these consequences are reflected in the meanings typically associated with the spatial particles in into out out of and through thus for instance containment involves constraining movement as in the case of a prison cell which restricts the movements of a convict but the container can also be conceived as a protection as in the case of a jeweller s safe tyler evans 2003 also if the boundaries of the container are opaque what is inside remains hidden and can only be seen if taken out the functional elements in the spatial meaning of prepositions are essential to understand how other senses are generated besides these functional elements can explain the apparent arbitrariness of the alternation of prepositions for example if someone is in trouble this is conceived as a state from which one cannot easily escape whereas if one is on the take or on the pill it is perceived as a choice that can be reversed therefore there is a basic spatial meaning in prepositions and a number of metaphorical and metonymical extensions but also some other associated senses must be taken into account which derive from the way in which we interact with physical entities in the real world the schematic meaning of in and out is a basic spatial scene tyler evans 2003 the mental image of a container to convey the idea that something is or is not inside that container see figure 1 out in figure 1 basic spatial scene for in and out from this schematic image we can extend that meaning to more metaphorical senses where entities that are not containers can be seen as such depending on the context concepts like a human body an illness a ibÉrica 16 [2008 109-128 115

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m.d porto requejo c pena dÍaz computer or the internet can be perceived as containers we will see that the way in which we conceptualize and interact with many non-physical entities are but metaphorical projections of the concept container and the expressions we use to refer to them especially phrasal verbs with in and out are the evidence the particles in and out in medical english let us consider first the metaphor the body is a container5 see figure 2 which can make sense of some phrasal verbs in medical english like 1 take out 2 cut out 3 set in 4 take in they took his appendix out jane had a lump on her neck cut out you can see gangrene has set in to your left leg she sat taking in breathes of fresh air the average daily intake of iron in a normal diet 5 breathe in/out the doctor asked her to breathe in and out softly 5 hold in 6 kick in she wanted to cry but held in the tears her hayfever didn t feel as bad once the antihistamines had kicked in they took his appendix out the doctor asked her to breathe in and out softly figure 2 the body is a container we can also conceptualise buildings as containers like large boxes where people get in or out of in general uses the default building to be in is home which explains general phrasal verbs like stay in to mean stay at home in medical english this use is reflected in verbs like 116 ibÉrica 16 [2008 109-128

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a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs 7 call in 8 look in we had to call in a doctor because she was feeling really bad the stoma nurse will look in again next week the hospital is a container however in medical english the default place is a hospital see figure 3 so as evidenced in the following examples 9 come in 10 go in someone came in with an undiagnosable bleeding he went in for a triple bypass operation two days ago figure 3 a building i.e the hospital is a container or else the most specific place in a hospital the room or ward 11 room in most hospitals have a policy of rooming in mothers and their babies we can also perceive some places without physical boundaries as containers in this sense when something spreads to occupy a wider area it can also be conceived as going or spreading out see figure 4 12 break out an epidemic broke out figure 4 unbounded places are containers ibÉrica 16 [2008 109-128 117

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m.d porto requejo c pena dÍaz or we can consider that the right place for something is its container so when something is not in the right place to be then it is out 13 put out you ve put your shoulder out in a higher level of abstraction a person s control area can also be regarded as a container so anything beyond a person s reach or availability is commonly referred to as out of reach see figure 5 the same conceptualization is reflected in verbs like 14 run out 15 have in the nurse run out of bandages do we have any penicillin in bandages the nurse ran out of bandages figure 5 the area of influence is an unbounded place i.e a container as explained in the previous section when we consider containers there are some functional elements we know about from our experience of the world for instance a container involves the idea of confinement and therefore some kind of obstacle that must be overcome tyler evans 2003 2004 in that sense we usually perceive that a bad habit is a container that keeps the person trapped inside see figure 6 16 get into 17 get out how did he get into drugs mary managed to get out of smoking smoking mary managed to get out of smoking figure 6 a bad habit is a container 118 ibÉrica 16 [2008 109-128

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a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs also from our experience of containers we know that something inside a container is usually hidden from sight so being unknown is being inside a container see figure 7 figure 7 being unknown is being inside a container therefore when something unknown is discovered it is usually conceived as getting out as evidenced by common phrasal verbs in general speech such as find out or come out see figure 8 which explains the meaning of verbs in medical english like the following 18 break out julie broke out in a disease julie broke out in a disease figure 8 revealed is out finally states are containers as evidenced in common expressions like we are in trouble or he is in love lakoff johnson 1980 in medical english we can find this meaning in verbs like come out and fill in as in the following sentences 19 come out 20 fall in he is coming out of the coma he fell in a deep depression ibÉrica 16 [2008 109-128 119

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m.d porto requejo c pena dÍaz being in and just the same as we have seen in 13 that being in the right place is also the right conscious state is in and when you are unconscious you are out see figure 9 21 put out the doctor put the patient out for the operation the doctor put the patient out for the operation or figure 9 being unconscious is being out very significant for this particular conceptualization are those verbs which carry both in and out at the same time like 22 bring out in 23 come out in it was the lobster that brought me out in this rash all over my body she came out in a nasty rash after touching the poisonous plant by mistake as shown in figure 10 the mental image underlying these sentences is that of someone being taken out of a normal healthy state as we pointed out above being in the right state is being in and into a different state out in healthy state disease she came out in a nasty rash after touching the poisonous plant by mistake figure 10 states are containers /becoming ill is getting into a container 120 ibÉrica 16 [2008 109-128

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a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs the particles in and out in computer english in the specific field of english for computer science there is an obvious container the computer itself.6 the mental image of a container can be easily projected onto that of a computer mostly because a computer has actually got the shape of a box with chips and circuits inside firstly all the components of a computer system i.e the monitor the keyboard the cpu speakers etc can be perceived as one whole container this conceptualization motivates expressions like built-in speakers or built-in modem secondly in a more abstract sense non-physical concepts such as the software or data are conceived as physical entities that can be introduced in the computer system as if in a big box the two possible uses of plug in and plug into in the following sentences evidence the transition from a physical spatial sense to a more abstract one see figure 11 1 digital cameras can be plugged into a computer to download and edit the photos 2 a plug-in application like acrobat reader is recognized automatically by the browser figure 11 plug in from concrete to abstract meanings thus the computer is a sort of box with not only chips and devices inside but also non-physical entities ­i.e the software the operating systems the data all these are usually conceptualized as physical objects which we keep in the computer system the way in which we refer to the computer functions evidences this conceptualization of the computer as a container and so we usually speak about storing information moving files to a folder or about the lack of space in the hard disk for this reason compounds with in and out are so frequent when we speak about what we do with the computer as in the following examples see figure 12 ibÉrica 16 [2008 109-128 121

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m.d porto requejo c pena dÍaz 3 the images were then scanned into a macintosh and the final composition was arranged with adobe photoshop 4 a lightpen is an input device similar to a pen 5 if the file is not specified the program will print the output at the screen 6 a person would only have to key in words or phrases and he would have access to any information he wants to have 7 you should rub out all the unwanted files to get some free space in your disk 8 instructions and data must be fed into the computer instructions must be fed into the computer you should rub out all the unwanted files to get some free space in your disk figure 12 the computer is a container moreover since the computer is seen as a closed container where we keep our belongings it is quite straightforward that the action of accessing the information stored in a computer without permission is conceived as breaking or hacking into the container 9 a few hackers began to use their skills to break into private computer systems and steal money since the computer is a container that not only stores but also processes the data we can find a very special meaning of out in computer english consider the following sentences 10 the computer crunched out all those computations in a fraction of a second 11 a series of inputs were set up and fed into the computer which would work out the answers and print them 122 ibÉrica 16 [2008 109-128

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a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs the mental image we can obtain from these sentences is that of a computer processing data for some time and putting out the results at the end of the process see figure 13 because what comes out of a computer is usually the result of a processing the output the meaning of out in computer english includes a sense of getting the results and giving them out the computer crunched out all those computations in a fraction of a second figure 13 out is getting the results this is also a meaning that can be found in english for general purposes as in sentence 12 whose mental representation would be similar to that of figure 14 12 i worked it out in my head i worked it out in my head figure 14 out is getting the results and completion this sense of getting the results is also related to the completion sense of the preposition out in common language.7 in computer english it is quite straightforward that the output is not only what the computer puts out ­i.e the information that the computer shows on the display but also the last step of a process performed by the computer since the data provided has been previously processed and only the final result is given.8 this sense of completion can be easily found in general english as much as in the specific field we are dealing with ibÉrica 16 [2008 109-128 123

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