1. No category

Phrasal verbs in the spoken
language of the past: Formal
and stylistic features
Paula Rodríguez-Puente
University of Cantabria
CILC 2015 - Valladolid
Purpose
PVs related to spoken language in PDE, but not
in EModE (Thim 2006a, 2012).
—  To analyse the formal and stylistic features of
phrasal verbs in the OBC from 1720 to 1913.
—  Can PVs be related to spoken and colloquial
styles between the LModE period and the 20th
c.?
—  To compare the results from the OBC with
those from previous research with ARCHER.
— 
2
The Old Bailey Corpus
— 
14 million words.
— 
Based on the Proceedings of the Old Bailey,
London’s central criminal court.
— 
It documents spoken English from 1720 to
1913.
— 
Taken down in shorthand by scribes in the
courtroom; verbatim and faithful representation
of the spoken language of the time.
3
Trial proceedings
Culpeper & Kytö (2010: 17)
— 
Speech-based genres: genres based on a ‘real-life’
speech event, e.g. trial proceedings (not
represented in ARCHER).
— 
Speech-like texts: neither based on nor designed
to be like speech, but which contain features which
are speech-like, e.g. Letters and diaries.
— 
Speech-purposed texts: designed to be
articulated orally, either as monologues (sermons)
or reproducing real-time interaction (drama).
4
The data
Section of the OBC.
—  Files organised in 4 periods: 1720-1749,
1750-1799, 1800-1849 and1850 to 1913.
—  Ca. 100,000 words per sub-period; 150,000 for
the last one.
—  XML tags: <speech>.
—  Texts from a variety of years
— 
5
Period
1720-1749
1720-1749
1720-1749
1720-1749
1720-1749
1720-1749
1720-1749
1720-1749
1750-1799
1750-1799
1750-1799
1750-1799
1800-1849
1800-1849
1800-1849
1850-1913
1850-1913
1850-1913
Total words
Filename
OBC-17250407
OBC-17250630
OBC-17250827
OBC-17260420
OBC-17300116
OBC-17320906
OBC-17450116
OBC-17471014
OBC-17520218
OBC-17621020
OBC-17780603
OBC-17900224
OBC-18020602
OBC-18350615
OBC-18430703
OBC-18640229
OBC-18930501
OBC-19130304
Words
7,015
6,273
8,277
8,695
6,624
29,529
13,052
25,853
14,206
14,493
18,887
54,143
23,569
35,577
41,707
44,510
56,449
45,271
454,265
Year
1725
1725
1725
1726
1730
1732
1745
1747
1752
1762
1778
1790
1802
1835
1843
1864
1893
1913
Words per subperiod
105,453
101,729
100,853
146,230
454,265
6
Procedure
POS-tag
—  WordSmith Tools 6
—  Tags (CLAWS):
o 
RP: prep. adverb, particle (e.g about, in).
1)  With such like Discourse we pass’d away the Time till the
Company broke up. (1725-OBC-POS-17250827)
2)  I found a mass of them on his desk the books had been
getting behind. (1893-OBC-POS-18930501)
3)  [H]e ought then to bring forward the contribution book
to show who is in arrears. (1864-OBC-POS-18640229)
4)  Little boy do you want to go past? (1835-OBCPOS-18350615)
5)  [T]hey [the handkerchieves] had all been pinned
together. (1843-OBC-POS-18430703)
— 
o 
RL: locative adverb (e.g. alongside, forward).
7
Definition of PVs
A combination of a verb plus a particle of
adverbial nature which form a lexical and
semantic unit to various degrees.
6)  So, I am looking after their interests. (BNC
J9M S_meeting) – PREP. VERB
7)  Menzies was seething and he broke in on the
last words. (BNC A0N W_fict_prose) –
PHRASAL PREP- VERB
— 
8
Definition of PVs
— 
Literal and idiomatic combinations (e.g.
Bolinger 1971, Makkai 1972, Claridge 2000).
— 
Idiomatic and non-idiomatic constructions share
many syntactic characteristics.
— 
Non-idiomatic combinations are “the core from
which figurative types are ultimately
derived” (Claridge 2000: 47).
9
Results: 5,512 examples
10
Trial proceedings vs. other genres
11
Trial proceedings vs. other genres
12
Trial proceedings vs. other genres
13
The particles
— 
25 different types out of the 35 listed by
Claridge (2000: 46)
aback, aboard, about, above, across, after, ahead, along, apart, around,
ashore, aside, astray, asunder, away, back, behind, by, counter, down, forth,
forward(s), home, in, off, on, out, over, past, round, through, to, together,
under, up (Claridge 2000: 46)
14
Particle
Tokens Norm. Freq.
aback
1
0.02
aboard
2
0.04
about
48
1.05
across
10
0.22
along
61
1.34
apart
1
0.02
aside
12
0.26
away
577
12.70
back
394
8.67
behind
9
0.19
by
28
0.61
down
723
15.91
forth
3
0.06
forward(s)
32
0.7
in
527
11.6
off
218
4.79
on
147
3.23
out
1,205
25.52
over
119
2.61
past
5
0.11
round
61
1.34
through
15
0.33
together
6
0.13
under
1
0.02
up
1,307
28.77
Total
5,512
15
Up = commonest particle in all the periods of
the language (see Potter 1965: 287, Hiltunen
1983: 208, Brinton 1988: 223n, Martin 1990,
Hiltunen 1994: 136, Tanabe 1999: 123, Claridge
2000: 126, Biber et al. 1999: 413, Wild 2010: 228,
317-319).
—  Out = infrequent in OE; later growth (Ishizaki
2012:249)
— 
16
1720-1749 Particle
Tokens
out
316
up
291
down
165
away
146
in
139
off
77
back
64
along
21
on
17
over
17
about
12
by
11
aside
8
forward(s)
7
round
3
aboard
2
behind
2
through
2
together
2
across
1
1750-1799 Particle
Tokens
up
401
out
277
down
211
in
117
away
100
back
83
off
43
over
28
on
21
about
17
along
17
round
16
forward(s)
15
by
10
behind
3
forth
3
through
2
aside
1
past
1
together
1
1800-1849 Particle
Tokens
up
279
out
273
down
178
away
169
in
120
back
104
off
45
round
35
on
32
over
20
along
10
by
6
about
5
forward
5
past
4
across
3
behind
2
together
2
apart
1
aside
1
through
1
1850-1913 Particle
Tokens
out
339
up
336
down
169
away
162
in
151
back
143
on
77
over
54
off
53
about
14
along
13
through
10
round
7
across
6
forward
5
aside
2
behind
2
aback
1
by
1
together
1
under
1
17
Aback, apart and under (1 token each), aboard (2
tokens) and forth (3 tokens).
8)  I was rather taken aback. (1913-OBCPOS-19130304)
9)  It is a confined place as it is set apart for him
to make up black lead. (1835-OBCPOS-18350615)
10)  When the fire had been got under I saw
Morris Loufer. (1913-OBC-POS-19130304)
— 
Why then D-- you all I'll kill you when I have
got ye aboard. (1725-OBC-POS-17250630)
12)  He set forth his distresses and miseries.
(1778-OBC-POS-17780603)
11) 
18
— 
ARCHER: counter (1 token (13)), aback, above
and under (2 tokens each), and astray, asunder
and to (4 tokens each).
13) 
[H]e will be touched with the patriotic frenzy
of the times, and run counter till aw my
designs. (1792mack.d4b)
— 
Above, astray, asunder, counter and to not in OBC.
— 
Aboard: common in ARCHER (espec. travel
journals).
— 
Aback: infrequent in ARCHER and OBC; only in
the compound take (sb.) aback.
19
— 
Forth decreases during EModE (see Martin 1990:
111; Hiltunen 1994: 134, Nevalainen 1999: 423;
Brinton & Traugott 2005: 124; Ishizaki 2009).
— 
Replaced by out (Akimoto 2006: 25).
— 
Decreasing tendency observed in ARCHER
14) 
“Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou
knowest not what a day may bring
forth.” (ARCHER 16xxbuny.h2b)
20
The verbs
— 
229 verbal bases
Verb Tokens % out of total tokens go 912 16.54% come 841 15.25% take 526 9.54% get 323 5.85% run 198 3.59% bring 167 3.02% pick 165 2.99% put 157 2.84% call 117 2.12% pull 108 1.95% 21
Like in PDE, mostly native, monosyllabic or
disyllabic with the accent on the first syllable
(Martin 1990: 115; Claridge 2000: 54; Thim 2006a:
219).
OBC
—  81.22% (186 types) = monosyllabic
—  10.91% (25 types) = disyllabic with accent on first
syllable
—  7.86% (18 types) = exceptions to the general
tendency:
o  14 two-syllable verbs with accent on second
syllable: (convey, halloo, proceed, beckon, contain,
decline, entice, holloa, invite, pursue, return, select,
arise, decoy)
o  3 three-syllable verbs: (deliver, continue, partition)
o  1 four-syllable verb (accompany).
— 
22
— 
Germanic origin: 65.50% (150 types)
— 
French and AN: 25.76% (59 types)
— 
Latin: 2.62% (6 types)
— 
Echoic, imitative, onomatopoeic or unknown:
6.11% (14 types)
23
The combinations
— 
602 PVs
Combination Tokens go out 276 come in 212 take up 178 come up 168 go away 162 come back 147 pick up 147 get up 133 take out 130 come out 117 24
— 
259 hapax legomena (43.02%)
88 dislegomena (14.61%).
15)  Yes, it was added up 6s. more than I owed. (1864-OBCPOS-18640229)
16)  As for the Management in bringing this Wedding about I
have heard Mrs. Gregory and the rest of our People say
that at first they only talked of it in a Banter. (1725-OBCPOS-17250827)
17)  I ran after and caught up to prisoner. (1913-OBCPOS-19130304)
18)  Their only time was upon the occasion of Funerals, when
the Vault was not closed up till the next Day. (1747-OBCPOS-17471014)
19)  I was putting away the articles and I missed a pair of gold
bracelets. (1790-OBC-POS-17900224)
20)  When the door was open, the man set off. (1790-OBCPOS-17900224)
21)  He thought there were face-bricks enow, if they could be
sorted out. (1864-OBC-POS-18640229)
22)  I was washing up, and the prisoner said, “I will wipe the
spoons for you.” (1843-OBC-POS-18430703)
— 
25
23) 
24) 
25) 
26) 
27) 
28) 
His head had been bandaged up. (1893-OBCPOS-18930501)
I was just about to branch over when a
policeman put out his arms and I ran into them.
(1913-OBC-POS-19130304)
He fetch’d the Crank down out of the Room and
so i t w as conveyed off. (1 74 7- OB CPOS-17471014)
Sylvester decoy’d the Prisoner away. (1725OBC-POS-17250630)
He was stab’d into the Body thro’ the Coat,
Wastecoat, and Shirt, and the Blood lay guthing
out upon the Floor under him. (1725-OBCPOS-17250630)
[…] getting a cag of rum up, and staving the head
of it out: they cut the main gears, and let the
yards come about their heads. (1752-OBCPOS-17520218)
26
— 
OBC
1850-191
1720-49 1750-99 1800-49 3 Total Types Tokens TTR — 
256 273 258 329 602 1,303 1,367 1,296 1,546 5,512 0.19 0.19 0.19 0.21 0.10 ARCHER
1650- 1700-4 1750-9 1800- 1850- 1900- 1950Total 99 9 9 49 99 49 90 Types 406 372 412 458 465 524 578 1,579 Tokens 974 TTR 0.41 876 0.42 932 0.44 934 0.49 1,212 1,200 1,346 7,474 0.38 0.43 0.42 0.21 27
Syntactic features
2,664 transitive PVs
—  2,848 intransitive PVs
—  VPO (28) and VOP (29) arrangements:
29)  I fastened up my house the night before it
was broke open. (1790-OBC-POS-17900224
30)  Did she or he carry the bundle out? (1745OBC-POS-17450116)
— 
28
ARCHER OBC VPO 1,481 (41.34%) 775 (29.09%) VOP 939 (26.21%) 1,247 (46.8%) Other 1,162 (32.43%) 642 (24.09%) Total 3,582 2,664 29
Give it me back again. (1864-OBCPOS-18640229)
32)  I took in from the prisoner at the bar three
sheets at separate times (1802OBCPOS-18020602)
33)  He rented his jacket open himself, and out
dropped this watch stand. (1790-OBCPOS-17900224)
34)  And down he set about two yards from me.
(1802OBC-POS-18020602)
31) 
30
Conclusions
Differences in the type and number of particles.
—  Differences in the type and number of
combinations.
—  TTR lower in trial proceedings.
—  VOP order predominates in trial proceedings
(vs.VPO in ARCHER).
— 
31
Conclusions
In historical corpora, the data are preserved
only randomly and are “only indirectly related
t o e v e r y d a y s p o k e n
communication” (Nevalainen 1999b: 499).
—  We try to make “the best use of bad
data” (Labov 1994: 11),
— 
32
THANK YOU!
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