PHRASAL VERBS

Introduction: When translating a text, we can find several difficulties such as idioms, metaphors, puns, proverbs, passive voice constructions, titles, cultural words, conceptual terms, neologisms, etc. Within these difficulties, we can also find phrasal verbs. These are complete semantic units made up of a main verb and a preposition or an adverb; in some cases they can both appear along with the verb, and are usually called complement. The meaning of each particle of the phrasal verb on its own does not have an influence on the meaning of the phrasal verb as a whole. That is why it is said that the aspect of phrasal verb constructions that makes them difficult to learn for non-native speakers of English is that their meaning is non-compositional. Therefore, one cannot know what a given phrasal verb construction means based upon what the verb alone and/or the preposition and/or particle alone mean. There are some phrasal verbs that have a literal meaning, i.e. (that is to say) that their meaning can be easily recognized (You have to sit down in that chair) but others dont, for example in The boy looks after his father, if you dont know the meaning of this phrasal verb, you wont realize that what it says here is The boy takes care of his father. Besides, direct and indirect objects can often be found in between or after the verb phrase. As for their structure, we can find: 1) Verb + preposition: Stand by (support). Example: He stood by her throughout the trial as he believed her to be innocent. (La apoy durante el juicio porque crea que ella era inocente) 2) Verb + adverb: Pass away (die). Example: Unfortunately, my best friends uncle passed away yesterday morning. (Desafortunadamente, el to de mi mejor amigo falleci ayer a la maana). 3) Phrasal-prepositional verbs: Verb + adverb + preposition: Run out of (quedarse sin). Example: Weve run out of coffee. Would you like some tea? (Nos quedamos sin caf. Te gustara un poco de t?)

Still, we can make another distinction amongst them, according to its grammatical structure: 1) Intransitive phrasal verbs that cannot be separated and do not take an object: Take off: despegar. Example: The plane takes off at five oclock (El avin despega a las cinco) Get up: despertarse. Example: I usually get up after midday (Me despierto usualmente despus del medioda) 2) Transitive phrasal verbs that can be separated and do take an object: Write down: anotar. Example: You should write some notes down while I explain (Deberan anotar algunos apuntes mientras explico) Pick up: pasar a buscar. Example: Im picking you up in ten minutes (Te paso a buscar en diez minutos) 3) Transitive phrasal verbs that cannot be separated with an object: Climb down: descender/bajar. Example: Peter, climb down the tree right now! (Peter, baja del rbol en este momento). You cannot say Peter, climb the tree down right now! Look for: buscar. Example: Ive been looking for my keys all the morning. (He estad o buscando mis llaves toda la maana). 4) Transitive phrasal verbs made up of two particles that cannot be separated: Put up with: tolerar. Example: I cant put up with Steve when hes drunk. (No tolero a Steve cuando est borracho) Look forward to: ansiar. Example: I look forward to receiving your response. (Anso recibir tu respuesta)
1. She put down the baby. 3. The teacher put the student down. 2. She put the baby down. 4. The teacher put down the student.

5. The student put her bad grade

6. The student put down her bad

down to tiredness.

grade to tiredness.

As they are idiomatic expressions, they have suffered alterations over time and they mainly depend on the region where they are used. This gives raise to the fact that some of them are neologisms since new objects are constantly being created and so, the language requires new expressions to name them; phrasal verbs are a particularly flexible kind of word. For example, once the internet was created, there came expressions with it: Pop up (appear suddenly): I open this site and a new window pops up saying I won a prize. (Abro esta pgina y aparece una nueva ventana que dice que gan un premio) Scroll down (move [a page] down): There was a long list of names on the webpage and I had to scroll down to view all of them. (Haba una lista muy larga de nombres en la pgina web y tuve que desplazar hacia abajo para verlos a todos) Since a large number of phrasal verbs have more than one shade of meaning, we can say they are polysemous. Consider these examples: Go off (fire [a gun]): The gun went off accidentally and blew his head off. (El arma se dispar accidentalmente y le vol la cabeza). Go off (decompose [meat]): The milks gone off because Tom left it outside the fridge. (La leche se cort porque Toms la dej afuera de la heladera). Turn on (switch on [the lights]): Before entering my bedroom, I always turn on the lights. (Antes de entrar a mi pieza, siempre prendo las luces). Turn on (excite sexually [someone]): The way he looked at her really turned her on. (La forma en la que la miraba la excitaba). If we look carefully enough to these examples, the semantic relation between each pair becomes apparent: making a gun go off and letting the meat go off both include they cant come back to a previous state or that both processes have somehow changed the present situation; in the same way, turning the lights on and turning Mary on both involve making either object be now activated. This is to say that within phrasal verbs there are metaphors; in the case of pass away, it does have a metaphorical meaning since it has a religious origin where someone who died would pass to a further state. Here we provide further polysemous examples:

 Pick Out (notice): I picked out Maxs voice from among the general conversation. (Identifiqu la voz de Max entre los murmullos de la conversacin). Pick Out (choose): His story was picked out as the best by the judges. (Su historia fue elegida como la mejor por los jueces). Take Out (go on a date): We are taking my folks out for a meal next week. (La semana que viene vamos a salir a cenar con mis padres). Take Out (buy prepared food): The average person spends over $900 taking out food each year. (La persona promedio gasta aproximadamente $900 en comida preparada cada ao). Bring Up (mention a topic for discussion): Betty bringed up the important question of who will be in charged. (Betty sac el tema preguntando quin estar a cargo). Bring Up (take care of and nurture): My parents brought me up strictly. (Mis padres me criaron estrictamente ). Break In (make softer with use): I went for a walk to break in my new boots. (Sal a caminar para amoldar mis nuevas botas). Break In (enter without permission): Thieves broke in and stole $10.000 worth of computer equipment. (Los ladrones irrumpieron y robaron $10.000 en equipos de informtica). Cut Out (remove using scissors): Mike showed me the article hed cut out of the magazine. (Mike me mostr el artculo que recort de la revista). Cut Out (stop eating or drinking something): The current advice to pregnant women is to cut out alcohol. (Se le recomienda a la mujer embarazada abandonar el consumo de alcohol). Wrap Up (arrange a paper covering): I havent wrapped up her birthday present yet. (Todava no he envuelto su regalo de cumpleaos). [?] Wrap Up (end): Were hoping to wrap up the negotiations this week. (Esperamos finalizar la negociacin esta semana). [?] Burn Out (become extremely tired): Its a high-pressure job and you could burn out young. (Es un trabajo demandante que puede estresarte de joven). Burn Out (stop working because of loss of power): The clutch burnt out. (El embrague se dao).
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As for its register, we could say that phrasal verbs are informal or rather colloquial. For a more formal register, it is possible to find another single-word verb that suits best the context and still shares its meaning. This chart will make it easier to understand what we are talking about: Informal Formal Translation

Cover up Set up Let down Hand in

Suppress Establish Disappoint Submit/Deliver

Suprimir/Eliminar Fundar Decepcionar Entregar/Presentar

Examples: Now that we will show some examples we can say that phrasal verbs have more than one meaning and they depend on the context in which they are used. For example: 1) Take the phrasal verb add up. The meaning of this phrasal verb can be to calculate the total (mathematically) or to make sense. Now consider this examples: The waiter added up the bill ( El mozo sum la cuenta), Parts of the story just dont add up (Las partes de la historia simplemente no encajan). 2) The phrasal verb bring up can be either to raise a child or to mention someone or something. I was brought up by my grandmother (Fui criado por mi abuela), I hate him! Dont ever bring his name up again (Lo odio! No vuelvas a mencionar nunca ms su nombre). 3) The meaning of the phrasal verb hook up can be either to meet or to connect. We hooked up with some friends while we were on holidays (Nos reunimos con algunos amigos mientras estbamos de vacaciones), My friend helped me hook up my new stereo (Mi amigo me ayud a conectar mi nuevo estreo).

4) The phrasal verb ask for can be either to request or to seek/provoque something negative. Can I ask you for a favour? (Podra pedirte un favor?), If you date her, youre asking for trouble (Si sales con ella te meters en problemas). 5) We can also find phrasal verbs with more than two meanings, such as keep up. It can mean to persist, to maintain in good conditions, to prevent from sleeping. This can be evidenced in Another excellent mark. Keep up working like that! (Otra nota excelente. Sigue trabajando as!), I dont want a bigger house, it will be really hard to keep it up (No quiero tener una casa ms grande, sera muy difcil de mantenerla) and The neighbor's noise kept me up all night (El ruido de los vecinos no me dej dormir en toda la noche). Comparacin con el castellano: En el idioma castellano, tambin podemos encontrar verbos compuestos por ms de una partcula, los cuales se llaman: Perfrasis verbales: Una perfrasis verbal es una secuencia sintctica formada por un auxiliar y algunas formas verbales adicionales que le dan el significado lxico. En esta secuencia el "auxiliar" funciona como ncleo sintctico del sintagma de tiempo. El "verbo principal" es una forma no personal, tambin llamada verboide, ya sea infinitivo, gerundio o participio, acta como ncleo sintctico de un sintagma verbal. Al ser el "verboide" el ncleo del sintagma verbal es quien rige los complementos de la expresin y determina en mayor medida el significado de la perfrasis verbal. La mayor parte de las perfrasis unen ambos verbos con un nexo; si este existe, suele ser una preposicin o conjuncin, como en he de volver o tengo que irme, aunque tambin existen perfrasis verbales sin ese nexo, como estar + gerundio, deber + infinitivo o poder + infinitivo. En castellano existen unas cuarenta perfrasis verbales del tipo (verbo auxiliar) + (preposicin o conjuncin) + (infinitivo, gerundio o participio).

Cmo traducir los Phrasal Verbs al castellano?: La verdadera problemtica que se presenta a la hora de traducir los Phrasal Verbs se resume a la pregunta de: Qu tcnica se debera usar para obtener una traduccin transparente de su significado? Obviamente que no podemos recurrir a una traduccin literal, ya que el significado del phrasal verb se perdera. Entonces, debido a la falta de verbos con partculas en el idioma espaol, debemos hacer uso de la tcnica de la equivalencia. Por ende debemos tener bien en claro su significado. Sin embargo no debemos olvidar que los verbos en espaol presentan distintos aspectos que podran ser de gran ayuda: Aspecto ingresivo o incoativo, indican el inicio de una accin. Mary broke into laughter: el phrasal verb break into en este caso indica el inicio de una accin entonces podra traducirse, usando el aspecto mencionado, como Mara ech a rer. John took up guitar lessons: el phrasal verb take up en este caso indica el inicio de una accin entonces podra traducirse como Juan comenz a tomar clases de guitarra. Aspecto reiterativo, indican la repeticin de una accin. Estos pueden formarse con verbos auxiliares como volver o con prefijos como re-. You will have to do over the essay, its full of mistakes: el phrasal verb do over en este caso indica que la accin se debera repetir debido a una cierta razn, en este caso porque el ensayo contiene muchos errores. Si usamos un auxiliar se podra tr aducir como: Tendrs que volver a hacer el ensayo, est lleno de errores. Si usamos un prefijo se traducira como: Tendrs que rehacer el ensayo, est lleno de errores. Aspecto terminativo, indica la finalizacin de una accin. Si tomamos el ejemplo de She didnt expect to do it but, she ended up killing him: en este caso el phrasal verb end up indica una accin que fue finalizada pero la persona no tena la intencin de hacerlo. Para traducirlo debemos usar acab por, que tiene el mismo significado. La oracin quedara traducida como Ella no esperaba hacerlo pero acab por matarlo.

Conclusin: Hemos llegado a la conclusin de que el mtodo ms acorde para traducir esta problemtica es la equivalencia. Con esto queremos expresar la idea de interpretar el significado del phrasal verb y elegir un verbo o perfrasis verbal cuyo aspecto o significado sea igual o se asemeje. Si bien en castellano no hay construcciones tales como los phrasal verbs, las perfrasis verbales, que se asemejan en su composicin gramatical, pueden ser de ayuda en su traduccin. Lo que queremos dejar en claro con este trabajo es que el traductor debe saber las herramientas con las que cuenta a la hora de traducir para as poder discernir qu recurso utilizar, con el objetivo de plasmar en el lenguaje de llegada el significado exacto que se intent transmitir en el lenguaje de origen.