Separable complex verbs

Abstract

Separable complex verbs (SCVs) are a subtype of multi-word expressions: phrasal predicates with a verbal head, and particles, adjectives, or nouns as non-heads. They behave as lexical units, but cannot be analysed as verbal compounds. They are analysed as verb phrases with a non-projecting complement, and they can also behave as syntactic compounds, with syntactic incorporation of the preverb. The subtype of SCVs with a Noun as complement is called quasi-incorporation. Nominalizations of separable complex verbs are nominals compounds consisting of a preverb and a deverbal nominalization. This implies a systematic paradigmatic relationship between phrasal constructions (SCVs) and morphological constructions (the corresponding nominalization compounds).