the one hand, of the verb-adverb combination and, on the othe common but more exact synonym. Furthermore, to go one step farther, one can generally d tween the average man of fairly good education and the indif English by his choice in such a list as the following: get on.. prospe hang out... reside call down.. censure, rebuke hold up.. rob call off. .... cancel jack up... reprov catch on......... comprehend on-- jolly up.. encour chip in... contribute knock off. cease cough up.. .pay let down..... relax dig in.. let on.. preten do up. unders fizzle out.. .fail muddle up.. .confus fix up...... depart apply oneself improve, furnish A hasty survey of the 826 combinations specially exami least 110 which could at times be replaced to advantage by specialized verbs. And yet that by no means implies that so portion of our verb-adverb combinations could be eliminate of them are possessed of a variety of meanings, as already doubt any one who examines thoughtfully the lists of pairs just given will at times feel inclined to question the pair jus meaning of the combination must often be expressed by so ple verb than the one which stands opposite it in the list. SECTION VII. RESULTS OF THE INCREASE IN THE The ever-increasing tendency to utilize the verb-adverb combination is resulting in at least three very important changes in the character of the English vocabulary. In the first place, an inspection of the articles in Webster's New International Dictionary which treat of our most common verbs of native origin such as back, blow, break, bring, call, come, fall, get, give, go, hold, lay, let, make, put, run, set, take, turn and work, will reveal an amazing wealth of meanings and uses in combination. And it must be borne in mind that no dictionary has been able to record all the variety of colloquial and slang adaptations of the combinations. In the list of combinations and meanings which I have compiled from recent dictionaries and various books illustrating modern colloquial English, the twenty verbs above-named enter into 155 different combinations with at least 600 fairly distinct significations or uses. On the average each of these verbs is combined with seven or eight out of the sixteen particles under consideration. Get, as might be expected, leads with fourteen such combinations, viz., get about, get across, get at, get by, get down, get in, get off, get on, get on with, get round, get thru, get thru with, get to and get up. Go is next with thirteen combinations, come and put each with twelve, lay and take each with nine, fall, run, turn with eight, and the rest with fewer. These combinations, moreover, are susceptible of an amazing number of uses and phases of meaning. Take leads with about sixty-four, put comes next with sixty-three, go has sixty-one, then comes get with fortyseven, turn with forty-one, lay with forty, set with thirty-seven, run with thirty-four, make with thirty-two, fall with thirty, and the others of the list with fewer. The range of meaning and the variety of uses to be found in special combinations are at times remarkable. Make up is capable of at least sixteen, while put out, take up and set up show fifteen apiece, get up twelve, take in and turn out eleven each, go thru and put up, ten, etc. For example, make up may mean, according to Webster's Dictionary: 1. To build or construct. Obsol. 2. To compose, to constitute. "The twenty-five states . . . which make up the German Empire."-Four Years, 35. 3. To compose, draw up or compile. "Making up a list of names."Sixes and Sevens, 106. 4. To invent or concoct. "Make me up a romantic name," or "Make up a story." 5. To form into; to wrap or to fasten up, as, to make up a parcel. 6. To form by an assembling or arranging of parts. "A nigger only makes up the feather-bed."-H. Finn, 247. 7. To prepare; arrange; adjust; as, to make up accounts; also, to distort the features; as, to make up a face. 8. Print. To arrange set type (in pages, columns, etc.) for printing. 9. To complete; to fill or close up; to bring up to, as, a dollar is wanted to make up the requisite sum. to us. 10. To compensate for; to make good; to atone (for). 11. To dress, paint, etc., for a part, as one to be acted on the stage. 12. To reconcile; to become reconciled, or friendly. 13. To settle or arrange mentally; to decide. To make up one's mind. 14. To advance or go (to or into); as, a suspicious boat made up 15. To pay addresses (to); to make love (to). Dial. or Slang. 16. To get into a condition for marketing; said of an animal. If one considers the use of out in such combinations as bleach out, blot out, cut out, fizzle out, or the perfective up in mix up, muss up, scrub up, sober up, etc., he can not fail to appreciate the fact that the number of these combinations is increasing rapidly. A second result of this growing tendency to combine is the increase of synonymous or nearly synonymous combinations. In a number of cases usage has not yet fixed upon any one phrase, and so it is possible to combine a verb with one of two or more adverbs to produce the same general effect. I say 'general effect' because it must be admitted that in most cases one feels that a slight difference in meaning is developing. A rather interesting example of this tendency to differentiate is shown in a statement in Oman's England before the Norman Conquest, p. 489: "Thanks be to God, the army had not utterly broken down the English nation," writes the chronicler at this moment. "Instead it had been itself broken up." Perhaps in the case of back down or up, and burn down or up, the difference is ordinarily negligible. But if broken down and broken up are used to describe an individual, the implication differs very decidedly. One who is badly broken down is losing his power of resistance, bodily or mentally, whereas one who is all broken up over something is in great sorrow, or is grieving. To buy in and buy up mean, in a general way, the same, but usually suggest in themselves quite different conditions of purchase. One may buy in (or bid in) articles of his own which are being offered for sale. available property of a certain kind. Roads may dry off or dry up, but a talkative person can only be told to dry up. In a class with the above examples are, also: It must be reiterated, however, that while these combinations may be used interchangeably under certain circumstances, they can not be so used under all conditions. One can let an engine cool down or off, but when these phrases are applied to a human being, a very nice distinction is felt. A person cools off if he has become physically warm, but he cools down if mentally 'heated up' or aroused. The one phrase is literal, the other is figurative. The context determines, generally, whether one can use the different particles interchangeably or use only one of them. One can clean out or clean up a room, altho these phrases are synonymous only in a very general way, for out has a certain directional force which suggests the removal of debris or unnecessary articles, while up lends to the combination a perfective force. In other words, the prepositional-adverb very seldom loses its adverbial personality so completely that it makes no difference in the use of the combination. Such a state of indifference is perhaps most nearly attained in such combinations as give in or give up (intrans.), slow down or slow up, speak out or speak up, talk out or talk up. The third, and very marked, change which the multiplication of the verb-adverb combinations has been effecting in the English vocabulary is the one which offers most material for discussion. For in the gradualof late rather rapid-increase in the use of these combinations, a large number of simple verbs of more highly specialized meaning are being crowded out of general use. Perhaps this can be most definitely illustrated by turning again to the first ten of the twenty verbs already studied.10 Some of the most obvious substitutions in ordinary usage are: |