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From: mac@uvacs.UUCP (Alex Colvin)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Re: English verbal miscellany
Message-ID: <211@uvacs.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 22-Feb-86 11:56:42 EST
Article-I.D.: uvacs.211
Posted: Sat Feb 22 11:56:42 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Feb-86 03:44:17 EST
References: <10132@tardis.UUCP> <771@spar.UUCP> <130@calma.UUCP> <879@h-sc1.UUCP> <117@uvacs.UUCP> <131@spar.UUCP> <316@ptsfb.UUCP>
Organization: U.Va. CS dept.  Charlottesville, VA
Lines: 18

> Linguists have considered "up" in the expression "look up" (in the sense
> of "to search for") a "particle", not a preposition. Although historically
> derived from prepositions and homophonous with prepositions, particles
> function differently from prepositions. 

In German these are called "separable prefixes".  They're included in the
infinitive, but detach from the verb in finite forms ("ankommen", "er kommt
an").

> The fact that TWO words can make up a single verb is more an artifact of
> our writing than anything else. After all, Latin used prepositions as
> in a similar way, except the Romans wrote them together with the verb and
> considered them prefixes: pre-, a(d)-, a(b)-, co-   ad nauseam  :-)

Verbal prefixes (be-, er- ver-, etc. cannot be separated from their verb.
("bekommen", "er bekommt")