Prepositions and Phrasal Verbs
How to learn them and how to teach them

Course code: PREP

What is this course about?

This course is about how to best study and learn the use of prepositions, adverbial particles and phrasal verbs. How do most teachers deal with phrasals? They teach them when they appear in a context. That's fine, but we also want our students to understand the meaning of the phrasals, and although the meanings can be looked up in a dictionary, no dictionary tells us why phrasals mean what they mean .Very often, they are treated as idiomatic.

In the past ten years or so, a school of linguistics called Cognitive Grammar has developed an interesting study of the polysemy of prepositions and adverbial particles and these studies relate the primary or basic meaning of prepositions with the metaphorical ones. Today we know why ON means continuation, and why UP means completion. We know why a marriage BREAKS UP, but a relationship is BROKEN OFF. So phrasals should be learnt and taught on the basis of the meanings of the verbs and the adverbial particles. We know when to translate Spanish de as AT, or ON, or IN. We know why we say in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, but at night. These expressions are no longer idioms. They are metaphorical extensions of the original meaning of the preposition.

This course throws light on the meanings and uses of prepositions, adverbial particles and phrasal verbs. Prepositions have to be studied as pairs of opposites: at and its opposite, away from, on and its opposite, off, in and its opposite, out, over and its opposite under, and so on. Metaphorical uses of phrasals are no longer a mystery. They can be understood and used with much greater confidence than before.

The following are some of the questions we ask and answer in this course: what is the difference between … and why is there a difference?

1) At the office and in the office
2) At the house and in the house
3) Break out of prison and break away from prison
4) Pick out and pick up
5) Speak up and speak out
6) At sea, on the sea and in the sea
7) Angry at and angry with
8) Come away and get away
9) Read on and read away
10) On the line and in the line
11) On the boat and in the boat
12) At 6, on Monday, in March
13) Set the alarm for 6 and it went off at 6
14) On the grass and in the grass
15) Fall in love and out of love
16) I've run 2 miles and I've been running for 2 hours
17) Live up and live down
18) Turn over and roll over
19) Over 6 and above 6
20) Walk over and walk across
And what is the meaning of ON in expressions such as: The drinks are on me?

Who is this course for?

Teachers and students of English who may be teaching or translating, or preparing for these professions. As the objective of the course is to understand better the meanings and uses of prepositions and adverbial particles, our approach is one of enquiry into these matters. We assume that English teachers and translators are eager to know more about the semantics and pragmatics of prepositions and so would like to regard them all as enquirers into this topic.

How long is the course?

Six weeks.

Contents:

Module 1: AT and AWAY (FROM)
Module 2: ON and OFF
Module 3: IN(TO) and OUT (OF)
Module 4: UP and DOWN
Module 5: OVER and UNDER
Module 6: ABOVE and BELOW

Methodology

• This course will be taught on the Internet through the Net-Learning system completely on-line.
• There will be weekly discussions.
• The bibliography will not be obligatory, but it is highly advisable to consult a few sources.
• The materials presented will be of direct application to the four linguistic skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking, and it will also be of great help to translators as we will provide translation exercises.
• Through a thorough understanding of the meanings of the prepositions and adverbial particles, in themselves and in combination with verbs, the practical application and use of these items will become much more clear and fluent than they have been in the past.
• Every week you will be able to download the materials we will upload to the campus. You can study them even when you are not connected to the Internet.

Evaluation

There will be exercises in every module and a final test on all six pairs of prepositions/adverbial particles for those who are willing to do them. Certificates of attainment will be issued at the end of the course. Certificates will be issued by Net-Learning and the Asociación de Ex-Alumnos del Profesorado en Lenguas Vivas "Juan Ramón Fernández" .

Instruction and Tutorials

The instruction and checking of the activities performed by the students will be delivered from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Reception and delivery of the materials and the discussion forum will be through the Internet.

Tutor

Aldo Omar Blanco
English Teacher, 'Dr Joaquín V. González' Collage of Education, Buenos Aires (1958), MA in English, University of Buffalo, USA (1961), Diploma in General Linguistics, University of Edinburgh (1965), Certificate of Specialization in Linguistics, Montevideo (1966). Taught English Language, Grammar and Linguistics in various colleges and universities in Argentina.