USAGE: phrasal verbs/postpositions

From: "Nik Taylor" <fortytwo@...>
> >     He [switched on] the light.
> >
> > Where 'on' doesn't modify 'the light'
>
> Well, "switch on" is really a single phrasal verb.  Altho in this case,
> perhaps one could make the argument that it's really "He caused the
> light to be on"
Yeah, it is a phrasal verb, but the idea is that _in_ the 'phrase' of it the
modifier follows the head.

> > Plus there's the postposition-like objects:
> >
> >     It happened seven years [ago].
> >     He looked the table [over] for defects.
>
> The first is definitely a postposition, but the second is a phrasal
> verb, as shown by the fact that one can also say "He looked over the
> table for defect".  In fact, for me, that sounds a bit better.
Hmm, for me 'looked over the table' is more ambiguous and less natural.  [At
least, at the moment--but then, it's currently being examined, so there's
Uncertainty and all..]  What I think it is is that if I wasn't going to say
"looked the table over" I'd probably use a different verb ("checked the
table"...?).  That may just be this example.

There is, however, the stock phrase "the world over", which [to me, at least]
implies that the postposition 'over' is more attached to 'world' than whatever
verb is in the sentence it's used in.



    *Muke!