Linguistic distinctions between the notions of a phrase a word and theircomponents are challenged by socalled particle verbs in German and similarfeatures in ot... » 

Linguistic distinctions between the notions of a phrase a word and theircomponents are challenged by socalled particle verbs in German and similarfeatures in other languages. Particle verbs look like single words yet aretypically assembled from wordlike fragments that together behave more likecomponents of a phrase than of a word. The resolution of existing scholarlyambivalence has exciting ramifications from questioning the existence ofparticle verbs to a broader understanding of what constitutes a word.Particle verbs have previously been analyzed as morphological objects or asphrasal constructions but neither approach fits cleanly within its chosenframework. The resolution presented here is that particle verbs should be seenas lexicalized phrasal constructions. Emphasizing morphological and syntactictestability over a hundred colloquial examples are shown to break the rules ofprevious approaches while remaining consistent with this books proposition. Todistinguish particle verbs from similar constructions and to demonstrate howstructural and morphological factors have been misidentified in the pastpreverb verb constructions PVCs are introduced and diagrammed. This revealsthe roles of listedness and nontransparency in word formation and clarifiesthe conclusion that particle verbs do not form a definable class of words. «