Object Complement + Prepositional Phrase?

Question

Thank you, CJ!Are these prepositional verbs? - I walked down the streetI went up the hillThe water is coming down the wallThe water is going up the wallAre these verbs prepositional verbs or just verbs followed by a prepositional phrase implying direction?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

ProdigyAre these prepositional verbs?

No. Whenever you can vary a sentence so that the preposition in question changes, giving no more than another literal meaning, it's not a prepositional verb. Example:

go up the hill, go down the hill, go around the hill

These are all typical variants. There is no sense that only one preposition is possible, i.e., that exact preposition that must always accompany that verb in order to produce that special meaning. Example:

I ran into a friend of mine at the mall yesterday.  (You could call 'run into' a prepositional verb here.  That combination creates a non-literal meaning.  That's often a good sign that we're dealing with a prepositional verb.)
My neighbor lost control of his car yesterday and ran into a telephone pole.  (No prepositional verb here.)

Note that the presence of a prepositional verb does not alter the analysis of the preposition and its complement as a prepositional phrase. In fact, it often adds no very significant information to discover that a certain combination forms a prepositional verb, because the grammatical analysis remains the same anyway.

CJ

Object Complement + Prepositional Phrase?

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