Verb Particle Constructions (VPCs)

Verb particle constructions, also known as phrasal verbs, are highly common collocations of a verb paired with a particle (adverb or preposition) to achieve a figurative meaning, such as tear down, eat up, cut back, and chew out. Verb-particle constructions (VPCs) are not multiword terms in the Lexicon. They are attached to verb complementation types in lexRecords to coordinate lexical meaning with syntactic characteristics of the verb. For example, “tear something down” can be constructed from the lexRecord of “tear” (E0060022). “tear” is coded as a transitive verb with a verb-particle construction of “down” in the Lexicon as shown bellows.

{base=tear
entry=E0060022
	cat=verb
	variants=reg
	variants=irreg|tear|tears|tore|torn|tearing|
	intran;part(up)
	tran=np
	tran=np;part(down)
	tran=pphr(into,np)
	cplxtran=np,advbl
	cplxtran=np,advbl;part(away)
	cplxtran=np,advbl;part(off)
	cplxtran=np,advbl;part(out)
	cplxtran=np,advbl;part(up)
	cplxtran=np,pphr(off,np)
	nominalization=tear-off|noun|E0587862
}

In this example. Verb-particle constructions are coded as part() attached to the complementation codess, such as intran (intransitive), tran (transitive), and cplxtran (complex-transitive). Both tran (transitive) and ditran (ditransitive) are verb complementation types in the Lexicon, where np (noun phrase) and pphr (preposition phrase) are possible filler codes.