This article was downloaded by: [University of North Texas]On: 04 December 2014, At: 07:05Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Studia NeophilologicaPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/snec20

The Verbs have and take inComposite Predicates and PhrasalVerbsMeiko Matsumoto aa Department of Language Sciences , Okayama University ,Okayama City, Japan E-mail:Published online: 05 Mar 2008.

To cite this article: Meiko Matsumoto (2007) The Verbs have and take in Composite Predicatesand Phrasal Verbs, Studia Neophilologica, 79:2, 159-170, DOI: 10.1080/00393270701699591

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00393270701699591

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoeveras to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Anyopinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of theauthors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of theContent should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primarysources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions,claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilitieswhatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, inrelation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms& Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

The Verbs have and take in Composite Predicates and

Phrasal Verbs

MEIKO MATSUMOTO

This paper offers a comparative analysis of the development of the state vs. event contrast inComposite Predicates (CPs) and Phrasal Verbs (PVs), the two main types of verbal phrases inEnglish. The paper focuses on CPs with have and take, and PVs such as ‘‘have on’’ and ‘‘have off’’(meaning ‘put on’ and ‘take off’) from Middle English. Related compound verbs in German, Danishand Dutch are considered in comparison. An analysis then follows of the convergence of put on/offand take on/off in the developmental history of English. Finally, the contractions of do on to don andof do off to doff are considered in the context of language change.

1. Introduction

This paper extends my research into the development of Composite Predicates(CPs; Cattell, 1984) containing have and take in Early Modern English (EModE)and Late Modern English (LModE; Matsumoto, 1999, 2003, 2005) with (1) anexamination of phrasal verbs (PVs) containing have and take, put and other verbs,in Middle English (ME), (2) a comparison of the state vs. event contrast in CPs andPVs, and (3) an investigation of idiomatization in CPs and PVs. This paper focuseson semantic differences between phrasal verbs followed by on and off, althoughaspectual differences are also discussed (in regard to 7a–b). Because phrasal verbsoriginated in Germanic verbs, the paper also explores compound verbs meaning‘have on’ [‘to wear’] and ‘have off’ [‘to take off’] in German, Danish, and Dutch; anunderstanding of the state vs. event distinction in compound verbs in theselanguages is illuminating. (The Dutch and German examples presented in Sections5 and 6 are from e-mail exchanges with native informant Henricus Verweijen,formerly head of the SPIDI language school in Vienna, who was originally Dutchbut has lived for more than forty years in Austria; the Danish examples are from e-mail exchanges with Ove Linnet, a Danish language teacher from Arhus,Denmark).

Composite Predicates (CPs) and Phrasal Verbs (PVs) are the two main groups ofverbal phrases in English. CPs are verbal structures comprising verbs such as give,make, have, and take and deverbal nouns; examples of CPs include give an answer,make a call, have a drink, and take a guess (Brinton and Akimoto, 1999: 1).

The term ‘‘phrasal verb’’ as here employed refers to verb-particle constructions, orparticle verbs. As defined in this paper, moreover, PVs are transitive. Examplesinclude give up, make out, have in, or take over.

2. Previous Studies

With regard to nomenclature, Kennedy (1920) discussed ‘‘verb-adverb combina-tions’’, and Fraser ‘‘verb-particle combinations.’’ Smith (1943 [1925]: 172, qtd. inBrinton, 1985: 157), Bolinger (1971), and Brinton (1985) have used ‘‘phrasalverb(s)’’. Denison’s ‘‘group-verbs’’ (1998: 221) include both CPs and phrasal verbs.

Studia Neophilologica 79: 159–170, 2007

DOI: 10.1080/00393270701699591

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f N

orth

Tex

as]

at 0

7:05

04

Dec

embe

r 20

14

According to Huddleston (2002: 280), the construction is a type of ‘verb-particle-object’ formation.

Among previous aspectual studies of phrasal verbs, Brinton (1988) offers the mostsystematic analysis of post-verbal particles. Prior to Brinton’s work, Poutsma (1926:296) used the term ‘‘ingressive’’ to describe the verbs to lie, to sit, and to standfollowed by the adverbs down or up. Kruisinga (1931: 222) considered the aspectualdifference between the imperfective (or durative) and the perfective aspects, offeringto sit as an example of the imperfective and to sit down as an example of theperfective. However, no researchers have undertaken as comprehensive a study asBrinton (1988).

With regard specifically to the verb have in phrasal verbs in ME, Tanabe (1999:129) cited the following instances of have+particle in The Paston Letters (1a–d).

(1) (a) And þe seyd parson hathe a-wey þe seyd hors [MP159: 13]‘And the said parson has lost the said horse’

(b) Drawale … was takyn with enemyis walkyn by the se side and haue hym forþe the with hem.[AP20: 6–7]‘Drawale … was taken with enemies walking by the seaside and (they) took him out withthem’

(c) … but yf ye canne fynde the betere mene for to haue hym ovte. [MP 183: 15–16]‘unless you can find the better means to make him come out’

(d) there was come a newe writ for to haue him vp by the xv day of Seynt Martyn; [AP25: 15–16]‘there had come a new writ to have him up (summoned) by the 15th day from St. Martin’

Tanabe observed that ‘‘… in the meaning of the whole phrasal verbs, a-wey, forth,out and vp outweigh HAVE so much that we have to provide verbs from the contextto interpret them. … The nullification of the verb meaning is one of the importantfactors in the semantic idiomatization of phrasal verbs’’. Tanabe examined away,down, forth, and up, but did not discuss have on/off and take on/off in The PastonLetters, as I do in this paper.

Hisashi Takahashi (1957) analyzed ‘Verb-adverb combinations’ in Chaucer’sCanterbury Tales with particular attention to down, in, off, out and up. He did notconsider have on/off either, but rather discussed take of as employed in (2).

(2) Til fro my tonge of taken is the greyn (VII 1855)‘Till from my tongue the seed is removed’

Kerkhof also referred to CPs in Chaucer’s works (1982: 369–371; 496–497), andMustanoja to articles in CPs (1960: 271–2), but neither researcher mentioned phrasalverbs in Chaucer. The only previous study focusing on phrasal verbs in Chaucer’sCanterbury Tales is that of Takahashi, although a number of doctoral dissertationsand book-length studies have been produced on the historical development ofphrasal verbs (e.g., Denison 1981; Hiltunen 1983; Brinton 1988). Kennedy (1920: 11–13) and Konishi (1958: 117–121) referred to phrasal verbs in OE and ME briefly.

3. Phrasal Verbs with have, take, and put

In this section, I pursue a comparative investigation of how verbs related to have andtake convey the state vs. event contrast in phrasal verbs such as those in (3a–b), (4a–b), and (5a–b), a distinction to which Denison, Hiltunen and Brinton did not payspecial attention. I also comparatively analyze processes of substitution involvingthese verbs in CPs with have and take, in Section 4.

160 M. Matsumoto Studia Neophil 79 (2007)

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f N

orth

Tex

as]

at 0

7:05

04

Dec

embe

r 20

14

Let us consider how have and take convey the state vs. event distinction in (3a–b), (4a–b), and (5a–b). Have off in (3a), meaning ‘take off’, indicates an event, whereas have on in(3b) indicates a state. Have off and have on in (3a–b), from ME, show the state vs. eventcontrast, but take off/on in (4a–b) and (5a–b) does not do so: take off in (4a) indicates anevent, but take on in (4b), meaning ‘put on’, also indicates an event. Similarly, put off in(5a), meaning ‘take off’, indicates an event, and put on in (5b) also indicates an event.‘‘Off’’ in (4a), (5a), and (6b) ‘‘expresses separation from attachment, contact, or theposition on: as in to break, cast, cut, put, shake, take off, etc.’’ (OED, s.v. off, def. 3).‘‘On’’ in (4b), (5b), and (6a) signifies ‘‘the position of being attached to or covering anysurface, esp. the body; on the body, as clothing or a limb’’ (OED, s.v. on, def. 3).

3 (a) þenne hatz he hendly of his helme, … (Gawain 773)‘Then he courteously takes off his helmet, …’

(b) He hefde brunie on. (Lay. Brut 1553: MED, s.v. haven, def. 2[c])‘He wore his coat of mail’

4 (a) Pers … toke hys kyrtyl of … (Mannyng HS 5704: MED, s.v. taken, def. 30a[f])‘Pers … took off his coat …’

(b) Thenne they went, & toke on the beste clothing that they had. (Caxton, Sonnes of Aymonxxii.494: OED, s.v. take, def. 84[b])‘Then they went, & put on the best clothing that they had’

5 (a) ; and there he put hym to the wers, for he put of his helme. (Malory, Wks.349/32–33)‘; and there he defeated him, for he took off his helmet’

(b) He did on his maister clothing, & putt on his ryng on hys finger. (Alphabet of Tales 226: MED,s.v.putten, def. 8c[a])‘He put on his master’s clothing, & put his ring on his finger’

In Present-Day English (PDE), have on, take off and put on are used as in (6a–c), buthave off, take on, and put off are not used to denote their opposite meanings; rather,take off is the opposite of put on in PDE. In contrast, the opposite of take off in MEwas take on, and the opposite of put on was put off. The aspectual difference betweenhave on and have off is shown in (7a). The process of substitution that occurred in thedevelopment of these phrasal verbs is outlined in (7c).

6 (a) She had on a long, sleeved robe, the usual dress of unmarried princesses; (2 Samuels 13: 18)(b) She took her clothes off and got into bed. (LDPV 532)(c) She put on her coat and went outside. (LDPV 397)

7 In ME:(a) aspectual difference:

have on vs. have off(b) semantic difference:

take on vs. take offcast on vs. cast offpull on vs. pull offput on vs. put off

(c) the process of change: have on vs. WW vs. take offcast on vs. cast offpull on vs. pull offput on vs. W

An interesting point in the process of substitution that occurred in the developmentof these phrasal verbs was the replacement of put off in the sense of ‘take off’, withtake off. In PDE, put off is often used as a phrasal verb meaning ‘postpone, delay,defer’ (ODCIE), and it was employed in similar senses in the time of ME, as in (8).According to the OED, put off in the sense of ‘postpone to a later time’ first appeared

Studia Neophil 79 (2007) have and take in Composite Predicates and Phrasal Verbs 161

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f N

orth

Tex

as]

at 0

7:05

04

Dec

embe

r 20

14

in the year 1398 (OED, s.v. put off, def. 45c), and put off in the sense of ‘remove ortake off’ between 1470 and 1485 (ibid., 45d). The OED cites the examples from thefourteenth to the nineteenth centuries (the latest being from 1891)for put off.However, Charles Dickens used take off instead of put off between 1868–70, in hisnovel A Tale of Two Cities: …, in which a character is seen to take off his hat toscratch his head (p. 22). Moreover, Fanny Burney used take off in the case of put offin her 1796 novel Camilla: ‘…, while the Doctor retired to the vestry to take off hisgown’ (p. 127); ‘‘Take it off, sir! —take it off my head!’’ (p. 264), where ‘it’ refers to a‘full buckled bob-jerom’ (a crisp and curled bobwig [p. 938]). The evidence presentedin the OED notwithstanding, authors in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuriespredominantly used take off rather than put off.

In the preceding period, Samuel Pepys used put off and put on in his Diary (1662):‘… only, at first entry, he put off his hat and she made him a very civil salute …. And byand by, she being in her haire, she put on his hat’ (p. 175). In the Chadwyck-HealeyEarly English Prose Fiction (1500–1700) database, put off in the sense of ‘take off’occurred forty-nine times, and put off meaning ‘postpone’ twenty-three times.

The verb postpone meaning ‘put off to a future or later time’ first occurred inEModE in the year 1500–20 (OED, s.v. postpone, def. 1); postpone comes from Latin,whereas put off is a native phrase. Jonathan Swift used put off in the sense of‘postopone’ in 1710–11 in the following entries, for example, in Journal to Stella: ‘…,and therefore we would put it off till another time’ (October 31, 1710 Letter VIII,p. 45); ‘But after all, the matter was put off till Monday’ (April 5, 1711 Letter XX,p. 145).

It seems likely that in the seventeenth century the use of put off to mean ‘take off’was still dominant, but that its usage in this sense was later lost. In the eighteenthcentury usages in this sense occurred, but infrequently, according to the Chadwyck-Healey Eighteenth-Century Fiction (eleven examples out of one-hundred sixty-eightemployed this sense, e.g., ‘Should he be so weak or ill as to require a servant to putoff and on his clothes’ (1771 Smolett, T.G. Humphry Clinker, Vol. 1, Letter [47] 8[p. 255]). The 1986BBI and the 1997BBI take up only one meaning ‘to postpone’ forput off.

Inversely, take on, in the sense of ‘put on’ was replaced by put on. Why, then, didtake on disappear? In ME, take on seems to have had several meanings, as shown in(9a–e), and these meanings were in conflict. The meanings ‘to undertake’ and ‘to goon madly or excitedly’ are used in PDE, but according to the OED, take on meaning‘put on’ is now obsolete, with the examples cited occurring in 1389, 1489 (see [4b]),and 1583. According to the Chadwyck-Healey Early English Prose Fiction database,take on in the sense of ‘put on’ occurred two times in the seventeenth century, out ofthirty examples of take on in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: ‘she and herwhole family take on blacke and mourning attire, …’ (1622 Reynolds, J. TheTriumphs of Gods Revenge, Book2, History6, p. 26); …, and griefe making her castoff her glittering, to take on mournfull attire, … (ibid., History8, p. 132). Take onmeaning ‘put on’ occurred in the fourteenth century, became infrequent in theseventeenth century, is not found in the Chadwyck-Healey Eighteenth CenturyFiction database, and is now obsolete.

Take on/off and put on/off settled into take off and put on through a process thathas been termed ‘‘convergence’’ (Samules 1972: 92). This process resulted not fromcontact between languages but from contact and conflict between expressions.

8 They fell oute at that tyme that it was put of tyll Candelmas, (Malory Wks. 15/26: MED, s.v. putten,def. 7b)‘They had a disagreement at that time that it was postponed till Candlemas’

162 M. Matsumoto Studia Neophil 79 (2007)

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f N

orth

Tex

as]

at 0

7:05

04

Dec

embe

r 20

14

9 (a) to put on (obs.: OED, s.v. take, def. 84a[b])(b) to undertake (ibid., def. 84d)(c) to begin (obs.: ibid., def. 84h)(d) to act, proceed (obs.: ibid., def. 84i)(e) to go on madly or excitedly (ibid., def. 84j)

4. Other Phrasal Verbs

The verbs have, take, pull, and put are basic verbs, but verbs such as breiden (nowbraid), casten (now cast), throwen (throw), drauen (draw), and don (do) combine withon and off to express the meanings ‘put on’ and ‘take off’. This represents what hasbeen called ‘spread’ (Samuels 1972: 92) or diffusion. Aitchison (1991: 81) used theterm ‘lexical diffusion’. In this paper, I refer not to ‘lexical’ but to ‘phrase’ or ‘groupverbs’ diffusion. In this case I will not use ‘phrasal verbs’ diffusion because in thefuture CPs might be included in this argument. Although take on/off, and put on/offsettled into take off and put on, other verbs could express the same meanings with theparticles on and off. Such verbs were spread, and the emergence of varieties of verbsmay show the possibilities of English group verbs.

Several phrasal verbs other than have on/off, take on/off and put on/off mean ‘puton’ or ‘remove’ in ME; these can be considered in three groups, based on theexamples from the MED. The first group comprises breiden on/off, as employed in(10a–b), and casten on/off as in (11a–c). The PVs in this group arose in the same era.

The second group includes throuen on/off and drauen on/off as in (12a–b) and(13a–b). Throuen on occurred in ME, and throw off subsequently arose in ModernEnglish. Draw on appeared in LateModE, and drauen off appeared in ME. The PVsin this group occurred in different eras, as supported by evidences found fromdifferent eras, but they may have existed in the same eras as well.

The third group included do on/off, as shown in (14a–b). Members of this groupare found nowadays as don and doff.

Of these phrasal verbs, throw on/off, draw on/off, and cast on/off are still in use.Braid on/off is not found in the OED, but the MED provides the following fourexamples of breiden on/off as in (10a–b).

4.1 Breiden on/off and casten on/off

Breiden on as used in (10a) means ‘put on’, and breiden of in (10b) ‘to pull or take[sth.] off’ (MED, s.v. breiden, def. 4[c]). The verb casten with no particle means ‘totake off [one’s clothes, a garment]; remove [clothing] from [sb.]’ as in (11a). Casten onmeans ‘put on [a garment, armor, etc.], don’ (MED, s.v. casten, def. 15c), as in (11b),and casten of means ‘remove [one’s clothing, one’s garment]; remove [clothing] from[sb.]’ as in (11c; MED, s.v. casten, def. 15a).

10 (a) He brayedez on a bacenett. (Morte Arth.[1]906: MED, s.v.breiden, def. 4[c])‘he put on a helmet’

(b) He .. Braydes of his bacenette and his ryche wedis. (Morte Arth.[1]2695: MED, s.v. breiden def. 4[c])‘he … took off his helmet and his rich garment’

11 (a) His claiþs he kest, al bot his serke. (Cursor[Frf] 21527: MED, s.v. casten, def. 15a)‘he took off his clothes, all but his shirt’

(b) He caste on his cloþes, (PPl.A[1][Vrn]: MED, s.v. casten, def. 15c)‘he put on his clothes’

(c) Clement þe Cobelere caste of his cloke. (PPl.A[1][Vrn]5.170: MED, s.v.casten, def. 15b)‘Clement the Cobelere took off his cloak’

Studia Neophil 79 (2007) have and take in Composite Predicates and Phrasal Verbs 163

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f N

orth

Tex

as]

at 0

7:05

04

Dec

embe

r 20

14

4.2 throw on/off and draw on/off

Throuen on/upon as used in (12a) means ‘put [a garment, ornamental trappings] on[oneself, a horse], esp. hastily or abruptly’ (MED, s.v. throuen, def. 8[e]). Throw off asin (12b), which means ‘cast off, put off energetically [something put on or assumed,as a garment]’ appeared in ModE (OED, s.v. throw, def. 42c). Draw on as in (13a)means ‘to pull (something such as tight [clothing] on’ (LDPV) in PDE, and appearedin the eighteenth century (OED, s.v. draw, def. 86 draw on); draw off appeared in MEas in (13b).

12 (a) A qweyntyse off þe kynges owen, Vpon hys hors was iþrowen. (Rich.[Brunner]5700: MED, s.v.throuen, def. 8[e])‘a surcoat of the king’s own, hastily on his horse was put’

(b) He throws off his Gown and Hypocrisy together. (1706 E.Ward Wooden Diss. 41: OED, s.v.throw, def. 42c)

13 (a) He immediately drew on his Boots. (1712 ADDISON Spect. No.311 p5)(b) þe king drou of his gloue (Cursor 8116: MED, s.v. drauen, def. 2a [f])

‘The king drew off his glove’

4.3 don on/off

Don on as used in (14a) meant ‘put on [clothing, armor, an article of armor orclothing]’, and don of as in (14b) ‘take off [one’s clothes, shoes, armor, etc.], remove[clothing] from [sb.]’ (MED, s.v. don, def. 5b[c]).

14 (a) Brutus hehte his beornes don on heora burnan. (Lay. Brut 1701)‘Brutus commanded his soldiers to put on their cuirasses’

(b) Alle heo .. duden of claðes. (Lay.Brut 16759)‘They all … took off their clothes’

5. The State vs. Event Contrast in CPs

CPs from Late Middle English (LME) through LModE in some cases show the statevs. event contrast as reflected in the examples of have/take cold shown in (15a–b),(16a–b), (17a–b), and (18a–b), and of have/take love in (19a–b), (20a–b), (21a–b) and(22a–b). From the viewpoint of the history of the idiomatization of CPs with haveand take, this contrast seems likely to disappear, as I have argued elsewhere (2003,2005). The contrast of state vs. event in CPs can be utilized to compare the state vs.event contrast in phrasal verbs. Moreover, the examples of have hunger and colde in(15a), and have love in (19a), (20a), (21a) and (22a) can be considered in terms of theargument on the verbs have and be in Section 6.

15 (a) …: lat us kepe oure stronge-walled townys untyll they haue hunger and colde, and … (Malory,Wks.1211/25–6) (OED, s.v. cold, def. 2: to have cold ‘to be cold, to feel or suffer cold’)‘… : let us keep our strong-walled towns until they are hungry and feel cold, and …’

(b) … But now go again lightly; for thy longe tarrynge puttith me in grete jouperte of my lyff, for Ihaue takyn cold … (Malory, Wks.1239/33) (MED, s.v. taken, def. 13[c]: taken (a) cold ‘to catcha chill, become pathologically cold or chilled’)‘… But now go again quickly; for your tarrying for a long time put me in danger of losing mylife, for I have caught a chill …’

16 (a) … I am much grieved you have such a cold, … (Browne21)‘… I am much grieved you have such a cold, …’

(b) And lest thou shouldest take cold, I cover’d With this Irish mantle. (Webster, WD606)‘And lest you should catch cold, I covered with this Irish mantle’

17 (a) We have all had cold together, but I walk home on foot. (1710–1713 Swift, Journal328)

164 M. Matsumoto Studia Neophil 79 (2007)

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f N

orth

Tex

as]

at 0

7:05

04

Dec

embe

r 20

14

(b) Once I resolved to travel on foot with one servant, and, as many did, lie at no inn, but carrya soldier’s tent with us, and so lie in the fields, the weather being very warm, and no dangerfrom taking cold. (1772 Defoe, JPY)

18 (a) … ; that he was clad but lightly in his slippers, dressing-gown, and nightcap; and that hehad a cold upon him at that time. (1859 Dickens, CB 29)

(b) Sit you down here; the grass is well nigh dry by this time; and you’re neither of you nesh folkabout taking cold. Stay,’ he added, … (1848 Gaskell, MB 8)

19 (a) …, for the grete love that they had unto hym. (Caxton 132/18)‘…, for the great love that they had for him’

(b) Meede took so grete love to Jason that … sche made Charmes… Jason to enchaunte. (c1440Scrope Othea66/24: MED, s.v. taken, def. 16[b]: taken love of[to] ‘fall in love with’)‘Medea fell so deeply in love with Jason that … she cast a spell … to enchant Jason’

20 (a) … all their measures with cha-abas, who she knew had a love for them both: she disguidedthe Love which … (PART II: Bellon, Peter: The Court Secret [1689]: the Chadwyck-HealeyEarly English Prose Fiction)

(b) And …, a grave man …, began to tell us that he had taken such a love unto us … thatthough he were a servant, … (Sidney 372)

21 (a) …, that he must be a very pitiful fellow, and could have no love for a lady, … (1749 Fielding,Tom 459)

(b) Now God took a great liking and love to these pretty silver …/… God took such a liking anda love to him, … (1765–1779) (Henry Brooke: The Fool of Quality, vol.1, Chap. II: theChadwyck-Healey 18th Century Fiction).

22 (a) My mother had long been ailing, and not well able to eat much; and there is nothing thatfrightens us so much as for people to have no love of their victuals. (1869 Blackmore, Lorna 56)

(b) There, there, you shall go, leetle dear, and perhaps I will go after you. I have taken muchlove of you. But the Baroness is hard to me. How far call it now to the bank of the sea atWash-Wash- (1869 Blackmore, Lorna 24)

6. Compound Verbs in German, Danish and Dutch

For further insight into the development of the state vs. event contrast, let us explorecompound verbs meaning ‘have on’ (meaning ‘wear’) and ‘have off’ (meaning ‘takeoff’, ‘put on’ and ‘take off’ in German, Danish and Dutch. Compound verbs withhave such as have on and have off in (3a–b) no longer show the state vs. event contrastin the Germanic Languages, as in the case of anhaben/aushaben in (23a) and (23c) inGerman, have pa/have af in (26a) and (26c) in Danish, and aanhebben/uihebben in(28a) and (28c) in Dutch. The asterisks in (23c), (24c), (26c), and (28c) indicate non-permitted sentences.

6.1 German

In German, the compound verbs anhaben, aufhaben and aushaben are used to mean‘have on, wear’ and ‘have off, i.e., take off’. In these compound verbs, the separableprefixes ‘an-’, ‘auf-’ and ‘aus-’ are added to the haben, the ‘have’ verb in German.Anhaben and aushaben are not opposites. An instance of anhaben is shown in (23a),and of aufhaben in (24a). The examples in (23c) and (24c) are not permissible; thenegation keine is required to express ‘I am not wearing shoes’, as in (23b).

23 (a) Ich habe Schuhe an.‘I am wearing shoes’

(b) Ich habe keine Schuhe an.‘I am not wearing shoes’

(c) *Ich habe Schuhe aus.(d) Ich habe meine Schuhe schon aus.

‘I have already taken them off’

Studia Neophil 79 (2007) have and take in Composite Predicates and Phrasal Verbs 165

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f N

orth

Tex

as]

at 0

7:05

04

Dec

embe

r 20

14

(e) Ich habe meine Schuhe schon ausgezogen.‘I am no longer wearing them; I have (just) taken them off’

24 (a) Ich habe eine Brille auf.‘I am wearing glasses’

(b) Ich habe keine Brille auf.‘I am not wearing glasses’

(c) *Ich habe eine Brille aus.

As shown in (23a, b, d, and e) and (24a–b), the state vs. event contrast is not clearlyindicated in anhaben/aufhaben and aushaben.

The compound verbs meaning ‘put on’ and ‘take off’ in German are anziehen andausziehen, in which the separable prefixes ‘an-’ and ‘aus-’ are added to the verb ziehen,meaning ‘pull’, as in (25a–b). These compound verbs are the semantic opposites ofthose that include haben. In ME, pullen of, literally meaning pull off but with thesemantic sense of ‘take off (shoes, hose)’ (MED, s.v. pullen, def. 5[a]) occurs, as in (26a).

However, pullen on was not found in the MED. The examples of pull on meaning‘put on’ are found in the OED; the example of pull on (26b) is from the nineteenthcentury (OED, s.v. pull, def. 27), and that of pull off (26c) from the sixteenth century.In PDE, pull on/off, meaning ‘don[clothing], draw on; remove [with some force]’(ODCIE 231) is used as in (27a–b).

25 (a) Ich zieh Schuhe an.‘I put on shoes’

(b) Ich zieh Schuhe aus.‘I take off shoes’

26 (a) Barfoot now I do me make, and pull of my schon fro my fete. (MED, s.v. pullen, def. 5[a]: 1475Ludus C. 52/34)‘Barefoot now I do myself make, and take off my shoes from my feet’

(b) Boots pulled on without stockings (1814 Scott Wav. Lx); he pulled on his large Macintosh(1894Doyle Mem.S.Holmes i, 7)

(c) Pull off my bootes and spurres (1586 A.Day Eng. Secretary II. [1625] 83); I pulled off myclothes. (Defoe Crusoe [1840] I.iv, 57)

27 (a) He pulled a sweater on over his woolen shirt. (ODCIE 231)(b) Here, help me pull these boots off. (ibid., 231)

6.2 Danish

In Danish, have means ‘have’, and tage is ‘take’. Have pa means ‘have on, wear’, andthus expresses a state, as in (28). Ikke, as in (28b) is a negation. Example (28b) alsoexpresses a stative meaning. Example (28c) has no semantic meaning in Danish. Tagepa means ‘put on’, and tage af means ‘take off,’ as in (29a–b); these convey events.Tage can go with af as in (29b), but the Danish have cannot go with af as in (28c).The negation ikke is required, as in (28b). In Danish, have pa ‘have on’ is permissible,but have af ‘have off’ is not. In ME, have on and have off were both permissible. InDanish, tage pa, literally meaning ‘take on’, and tage af, literally meaning ‘take off’are similar to take on and take off in ME.

(28) (a) Han havde sine handsker pa.‘He had his gloves on’

(b) Han havde ikke sine handsker pa.‘He did not have his gloves on’ –– ‘He had his gloves off’

(c) *Han havde sine handsker af.

(29) (a) Han tog sine handsker pa.‘He put on his gloves’

166 M. Matsumoto Studia Neophil 79 (2007)

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f N

orth

Tex

as]

at 0

7:05

04

Dec

embe

r 20

14

(b) Han tog sine handsker af.‘He took off his gloves’

6.3 Dutch

The Dutch verbs aanhebben meaning ‘to wear’ and aantrekken, meaning ‘to put on’show the state vs. event contrast, as in (28a) and (30a). Aantrekken (‘to wear’) anduitrekken (‘to take off’) have opposite meanings, as in (29a) and (29b). Examples(28a) and (28b) express opposite meanings, and (28c) is not permissiblegrammatically. In Dutch, aanhebben, literally meaning ‘have on’ and uithebben,literally meaning ‘have off’ are possible. Aan trekken literally means ‘pull on’ anduitrekken literally means ‘pull off’; trekken literally means ‘pull’ (DED 186). Thepermissibility of these cases in Dutch is equivalent to that of have on/off and pull on/off in ME.

(30) (a) Ik heb een broek aan.‘I am wearing a pair of trousers’

(b) Ik heb geen broek aan.‘I am wearing no trousers’

(c) *Ik heb een broek uit.

(31) (a) Ik trek een broek aan.‘I am putting on a pair of trousers’

(b) Ik trek een broek uit.‘I am taking off a pair of trousers’

7. Contractions

Do on and do off originated as contractions of don and doff, which arose in OldEnglish (OE) as in (30a, b, and d), according to the OED and Bosworth and Toller(1929). However, the instances of do on in (30a–b) are not such cases; do on meaning‘put on’ appeared in early ME as in (30c). Examples of the contracted forms don anddoff are shown in (31a–b). The contracted form don occurs in the twentieth centurydiary as in (32a), and the twentieth-first century novel as in (32b). The former writercited in (32a) is Canadian, and the writer cited in (32b) is American. The2003COBUILD ciites the word don, referring to it as a ‘written’ form (p. 419). Onenative American speaker (a colleague of mine) reports having heard someone say‘donned on’, observing that the term is not used daily, but rather is used from time totime for special impact or effect; another American native speaker (a formercolleague) often uses phrases such as ‘I quickly donned my dress and rushed toschool’. According to the OED, don is archaic, but has been retained since 1650 inpopular use in northern dialects (from the OED, s.v. don). Nonetheless, don remainsalive in North American English in the United States and Canada. From theviewpoint of the historical development of English (British English), don should havebecome obsolete.

(32) (a) Haran zeallan do wearmne on. (Sax.Leechd. II.32: OED, s.v. do, def. 48)‘Put on warm grey gall’

(b) billa selest on bearm dyde; (Beo1144: Bosworth and Toller)‘(he) put the best of swords on the lap’

(c) Brutus hehte his beornes do on heora burnan (1205 LAY. 1701: OED, s.v.do, def. 48)‘Brutus commanded his soldiers to put on their cuirasses’ (Madden Vol.I, p. 72)

(d) ða he him of dyde isernbyrnan, (Beo 671: OED, s.v. do, def. 47)‘Then he himself took off iron shirt’

Studia Neophil 79 (2007) have and take in Composite Predicates and Phrasal Verbs 167

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f N

orth

Tex

as]

at 0

7:05

04

Dec

embe

r 20

14

(33) (a) Don thyn hood; (1425 Chaucer TC 2.954)‘Put on your hood’

(b) His clothes þai dof, (1425 Nicod[1][Hrl] 603: MED, s.v. doffen, def. [a])‘they take off his clothes’

(34) (a) As soon as we got to the shore … we stripped, hid our clothes in a hole in the rocks anddonned our bathing dresses. (Sunday, Sept.15, 1935 [p. 36] from the Selected Journals ofL.M.Montgomery Volume V: 1935–1942)

(b) He donned the hotel bathrobe and moved toward the door. (2003 Dan Brown: The Da VinciCode 10)

Why did do on and do off become the one-word contractions don and doff? Sincethe vowel /o/ in the one-syllable do is followed directly by the /o/ in on and off, itseems likely that as a matter of pronunciation the double /o/’s contracted to the pointthat do on and do off each became one word. PDE includes contracted forms of takeoff, meaning ‘leaving’, in the nominalized form take off. Takeoff meaning ‘leaving’ isan instance of an idiomatic particle-verb (PV) construction (Dehe 2002, 7). However,there is no nominalized form of takeoff with the sense of ‘removing’, which would bea compositional PV construction(ibid.,7). That there is no nominalized form oftakeoff with this meaning may follow from the differences between idiomatic andcompositional constructions.

8. Conclusion

The histories of put off and take on cast a revealing light on the process ofsubstitution that occurred in the development of phrasal verbs. The opposition of puton and take off seems a relatively awkward outcome of this process, whereas that ofput on and put off, or take on and take off would have seemed more reasonable andnatural developments. Yet put on and take off emerged neither spontaneously,without put off and take on ever having existed in the history of English. Whatexisted in the past cannot be denied; language change is a process.

Although the state vs. event distinction can be found in phrasal verbs in ME, as inhave on vs. have off, it cannot be observed in PDE. The compound verbs of themodern Germanic languages, German, Danish, and Dutch, no longer indicate thisdistinction either. Yet CPs with have and take continue to make the state vs. eventdistinction in PDE. Idiomatization has thus proceeded further in phrasal verbs withhave than in CPs with have/take in the historical development of English.

Department of Language SciencesOkayama UniversityOkayama CityJapanE-mail: m-meiko@eva.hi-ho.ne.jp

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Works cited[Middle English]

Caxton’s Blanchardyn and Eglantine. Keller, L. (ed.). 1890 [1962] The Early English Text Society, ExtraSeries, No. 58, London, New York and Toronto: Oxford University Press. [Caxton].

The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd ed., Benson, L. D. (ed.). 1988. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Lazamon’s Brut, or Chronicle of Britain: A Poetical Semi-Saxon Paraphrase of the Brut of Wace, Sir

Frederic Madden, K. H. (ed.). Vol. I. 1847. Repr. Osnabruck: Otto Zeller. 1967. [Lay.Brut].The Works of Sir Thomas Malory. 3 vols. Vinaver, Eugene (ed.). 1967, 1973 [1990]. Revised by Field, P. J.

C., Oxford: Clarendon. [Malory, Wks.].

168 M. Matsumoto Studia Neophil 79 (2007)

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f N

orth

Tex

as]

at 0

7:05

04

Dec

embe

r 20

14

[Modern English]Blackmore, Richard Doddridge (1825–1900). Lorna Doone (1869) Shuttleworth, S. (ed.). 1999. Oxford and

New York: Oxford University Press. [Lorna].Browne, Sir Thomas (1605–82). The Letters of Sir Thomas Browne. ed. by Geoffrey Keynes. 1946 [1931].

London: Faber and Faber. [Browne].Burney, Fanny (1752–1840). Camilla or a Picture of Youth (1796) ed. with an introduction and notes by

Edward A. Bloom and Lilian D. Bloom. 1999. (Oxford World’s Classics) Oxford and New York:Oxford University Press.

Defoe, Daniel (1660–1731). A Journal to the Plague Year (1772) Burgess, A. & C. Bristow (eds.). with anintroduction by A. Burgess. 1996. Harmondsworth: Penguin. [JPY].

Dickens, Charles (1812–70). The Christmas Books (1859) Ledger, S. (ed.). 1999. London: EverymanLibrary, J.M. Dent/ Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle. [CB].

Dickens, Charles (1812–70). A Tale of Two Cities (1868–70), with a new introduction by Frederick Busch.1997. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Fielding, Henry (1707–54). Tom Jones (1749) Mutter, R. P. C. (ed.). 1966. Harmondsworth: Penguin.[Tom].

Gaskell, C. Elizabeth (1810–89). Mary Barton (1848) Daby, M. (ed.). 1996. Harmondsworth: Penguin.[MB].

Pepys, Samuel (1633–1703). The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A New and Complete Transcription, ed. byRobert Latham & Matthews William (eds.). Vol. III 1662. 2000. Hammersmith: HarperCollins.

Sidney, Sir Philip (1554–86). The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia. Evans, M. (ed.). 1987 [1977].Harmondsworth: Penguin. [Sidney].

Swift, Jonathan (1667–1745). Journal to Stella (1710–13) Moorhead, J. K. (ed.). with an introduction bySir W.Scott. 1948. London: J.M.Dent and Sons/ New York: E.P. Dutton. [Journal].

Webster, John (1580–1625). The White Devil (1612), 493–628 in Elizabethan and Jacobean Tragedies. 1984.Kent: Ernest Benn. [WD].

[Others]Ebor, Donald, et al., of Chairman of the Joint Committee. The New English Bible with illustrations by

Horace Knowles. 1984. Swindon and Edinburgh: Bible Society and The National Bible Society ofScotland.

Early English Prose Fiction 1500–1700, by the Chadwyck-Healey, UK.18th Century Fiction, by the Chadwyck-Healey, UK.

[Present-day English]Brown, Dan (2003). The Da Vinci Code. New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Auckland: Doubleday.Montgomery, L. M. (1874–1942). The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery: Volume V: 1935–1942 ed.

by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. 2004. Ontario: Oxford University Press.

REFERENCES

Aitchison, Jean (1991). Language Change: Progress or Decay? 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Benson, Morton, Evelyn Benson & Robert Ilson, com (1986). The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English.Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins. [1986BBI].

Benson, Morton, Evelyn Benson & Robert Ilson, com (1997). The BBI Dictionary of English WordCombinations. Revised ed. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins. [1997BBI].

Bosworth, Joseph & T. Northcote Toller (eds.) (1972 [1929]). An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.

Brinton, Laurel (1994 [1988]). The Development of English Aspectual Systems: Aspectualizers and Post-Verbal Particles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brinton, Laurel & Minoji Akimoto (eds.) (1999). Collocational and Idiomatic Aspects of CompositePredicates in the History of English. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Cattell, Ray (1984). Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 17: Composite Predicates in English. Sydney, Australia:Academic Press.

Courtney, Rosemary (1983). Longman Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. Essex: Longman. [LDPV].Cowie, A. P. & R. Mackin (1975). Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English, Vol. 1: Verbs with

Prepositions & Particles. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [ODCIE].Dehe, Nicole (2002). Particle Verbs in English: Syntax, Information Structure and Intonation. Amsterdam,

Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Denison, David (1981). Aspects of the History of English Group-Verbs, with Particular Attention to the

Syntax of the Ormulum. Diss.D.Phil., University of Oxford.Denison, David (1998). ‘‘Syntax’’. In The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume IV: 1776–

1997. ed. by Romaine Suzanne, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 92–326.

Studia Neophil 79 (2007) have and take in Composite Predicates and Phrasal Verbs 169

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f N

orth

Tex

as]

at 0

7:05

04

Dec

embe

r 20

14

Hiltunen, Risto (1983). The Decline of the Prefixes and the Beginnings of the English Phrasal Verbs: TheEevidence from Some Old and Early Middle English Texts. (Annales Universitatis Turkuensis, series B,160.) Turku, Finland: Turun Yliopisto.

Huddleston, Rodney (2002). ‘‘The Clause Complements’’. In Huddleston and Pullum 2002.213–321.Huddleston, Rodney & Geoffrey K. Pullum (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Kennedy, Arthur Garfield (1920). The Modern English Verb–Adverb Combination (Language and

Literature 1,1.). Stanford: Stanford University Press.Kerkhof, Jelle (1966). Studies in the Language of Geoffrey Chaucer. Leiden: E.J. Brill.Konishi, Tomoshichi (1958). ‘‘The Verb–Adverb Combination in English – a Brief Sketch’’. In Studies in

English Grammar and Linguistics. ed. by Kazuo Araki, Taiichiro Egawa & Toshiko Oyama, Tokyo:Sanseido, 117–128.

Kruisinga, Etsko (1931 [1911]). A Handbook of Present-Day English, Part II: English Accidence andSyntax. Vol. 1. 5th ed. Groningen: P. Noordhoff.

Kurath, Hans, Sherman M. Kuhn & Robert Lewis (eds.) (1952–2001). The Middle English Dictionary. AnnArbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. [MED].

Matsumoto, Meiko (1999). ‘‘Composite Predicates in Middle English’’. In Brinton and Akimoto 1999.59–95.

Matsumoto, Meiko (2003). ‘‘The Development of Composite Predicates with have and take’’. In Studies inModern English. ed. by Fujio Nakamura, Tokyo: Eichohsha, 165–176.

Matsumoto, Meiko (2005). ‘‘The Historical Development and Functional Characteristics of CompositePredicates with have and take in English’’. English Studies 86(5), 439–456.

Mustanoja, Tauno F. (1960). A Middle English Syntax, Part 1: Parts of Speech (Memoires de la SocieteNeophilologique de Helsinki 23.). Helsinki: Societe Neophilologique. (Repr. Tokyo: Meicho FukyuKai, 1985).

Poutsma, Hendrik (1926). A Grammar of Late Modern English, Part II: The Parts of Speech, Section II:The Verb and the Particles. Vol. 5. Groningen: P. Noordhoff.

Quist, Gerdi & Dennis Strik (2003). Dutch–English Dictionary. London: Hodder Headline. [DED].Samuels, M. L. (1972). Linguistic Evolution, with Special Reference to English. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.Simpson, J. A. & E. S. C. Weiner (eds.) (1989). The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University

Press. [OED].Sinclair, John (ed.) (2003). Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary. Glasgow:

HarperCollins. [2003 COBUILD].Summers, Della (ed.) (2000). Longman Phrasal Verbs Dictionary. Essex: Longman. [LPVD].Takahashi, Hisashi (1957). ‘‘Verb–Adverb Combination in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales’’. In Essays and

Studies in English Language and Literature Presented to Prof. Tadao Yamamoto. Tokyo: Kenkyusha,241–252.

Tanabe, Harumi (1999). ‘‘Composite Predicates and Phrasal Verbs in The Paston Letters’’. In Brinton andAkimoto 1999.97–132.

170 M. Matsumoto Studia Neophil 79 (2007)

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f N

orth

Tex

as]

at 0

7:05

04

Dec

embe

r 20

14