What are these sentence parts?

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Durakken
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What are these sentence parts?

Post by Durakken »

The sentence is "...as he pulled it back up"

I'm trying to figure out how to translate to my language but I don't know how to break up "pulled it back up". "Pulled" is the verb, "it" is the noun, What then is "back" and "up"? "Up" and "back" are adjectives without the other, but "back" in this case seems like an adverb and I see the idea of "phrasal verb" but that doesn't seem right. I also tried to look at this with google translate to japanese which uses SOV like I want, it seems there is no difference between "back" and "back up".

Currently I've split it up like this...
[as he] [it back up] [pulled]

Though it seems that it might be some formation of this...
[as he] [it] [pulled back up]
or
[as he] [[it] [back up]] [pulled]

I'm so confused by this

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gach
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Re: What are these sentence parts?

Post by gach »

They are adverbs of location that describe where the pulling is directed. Notice that you can use them both very well without the other in the same position,

"he pulled it back"
"he pulled it up",

where they retain their meanings.

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Re: What are these sentence parts?

Post by linguoboy »

Interesting to me how I recognise your analysis as technically correct even as it doesn't accord with my native speaker instincts at all.

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Re: What are these sentence parts?

Post by Salmoneus »

linguoboy wrote:Interesting to me how I recognise your analysis as technically correct even as it doesn't accord with my native speaker instincts at all.
While my immediate native speaker instinct was "adverb!", and while they are indeed called adverbs, it's worth noting that they don't really act the same way as other adverbs - which is to say, they're not really adverbs in the normal sense of the word.

Take a prototypical adverb like, say, "stupidly". Here are some things you can do with "stupidly":

1. Form comparatives and degrees: "I pullled it very stupidly"; "he answered more stupidly"; "she attempted it most stupidly of all".

2. Front it: "Stupidly, I pulled it".

3. Conjunct it with other -ly adverbs: "I pulled it stupidly and excessively".

4. Modify other adverbs: "I pulled it stupidly quickly"

5. Modify adjectives: "This test is stupidly hard"

6. Answer "how" questions: "How did you pull it?" "Stupidly!"

7. Be modified by -ly adverbs: "He answered unexpectedly stupidly"



Many of these tests work for many non-ly adverbs and adverbial phrases, like "bit by bit" and "like a bat out of hell":
- I ran quite like a bat out of hell, but he ran much more like a bat out of hell. [But not "very bit by bit", note.]
- Like a bat out of hell, I ran. Bit by bit, I pulled it.
- I ran immediately and like a bat out of hell. Bit by bit and painstakingly, I pulled it.
- The modification tests are failed
- How did you eat that elephant? "Bit by bit".
- He looked surprisingly like a bat out of hell. [but "bit by bit" constructions feel awkward]


Then there are other "adverbs" that pass and fail other tests, like "very", which fails all these tests other than the modifier tests, and also fails the one so obvious I didn't think to include it: they can't modify verbs.

Then there are "adverbs" like "tomorrow", which fail most of the tests but not all. "Tomorrow" allows fronting. And while it doesn't answer "how" questions, it does at least answer "when" questions.

And finally we get to "back" and "up":
- they can't directly be compared in standard English (*I pulled it more back, *I turned looked very up). Instead they need the intercession of "farther" ("I pulled it farther back", "I looked farther up") or for other degrees "far" (It fell very far back)
- they can't be fronted in colloquial English (?Back, I pulled it; ?up, I looked). [? because these may be acceptable in archaic/poetic/literary constructions]
- they can't be conjoined with -ly adverbs
- they can't modify other adverbs
- they can't modify adjectives
- they can't answer "how" questions, and can't exactly answer any simple question: "where did you pull it?" - ?"back"; "in which direction did you pull it?" - ?"up" [I would have to say "upward"]
- they can't be modified by -ly adverbs, again requiring the intercession of "far" ("stupidly far back", "unexpectedly far up")



At the very least, "back" and "far" clearly are a very different class from things like "stupidly", which are more uncontroversially "adverbs".
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Re: What are these sentence parts?

Post by Vijay »

They can also just be phrasal verbs, though, I think.

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linguoboy
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Re: What are these sentence parts?

Post by linguoboy »

Salmoneus wrote:At the very least, "back" and "far" clearly are a very different class from things like "stupidly", which are more uncontroversially "adverbs".
Which is why the qualification "of location" is crucial there. I've seen them called simply "locatives" in some sources which dodges nicely the question of whether they should be lumped together with adverbs of manner etc.

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Re: What are these sentence parts?

Post by zompist »

Sal's discussion is good. Basically "adverb" is the trash bin of linguistics: everything that doesn't fit into another ancient Latin word gets thrown there.

We could probably call them particles, which is another trash bin, but allows us to distinguish these from "real" adverbs.

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Re: What are these sentence parts?

Post by Salmoneus »

linguoboy wrote:
Salmoneus wrote:At the very least, "back" and "far" clearly are a very different class from things like "stupidly", which are more uncontroversially "adverbs".
Which is why the qualification "of location" is crucial there. I've seen them called simply "locatives" in some sources which dodges nicely the question of whether they should be lumped together with adverbs of manner etc.
"Directional" is probably better, because adverbs of location strictu sensu do at least pattern like adverbs of time (and can, for instance, easily be fronted: "Next to the lamp, there's a mushroom"), and contrast in form too. For instance, directional "up" (?"Up, I handed it") is paired with locatives like "high up" (and "up high", "far up", etc) ("High up, they built viewing deck").

["High up" also gives us seemingly adjectival uses like "high up the ladder", while "up high" does not]


Vijay: ahh, but there we're into a different kettle of worms! Because verb+directional can contrast with phrasal verbs semantically: "up" seems to be doing something different in "I pulled it up" than in "I folded it up" or "I looked it up". And I think there are at least probabilistic syntactic differences too. [eg, its much harder to break up phrasal verbs. I can say "I handed it carefully up", but "I looked it carefully up" makes me uneasy.]
And directionals can (almost always?) be converted into prepositions, while phrasals often can't. So, "I pulled it up"/"I pulled it up the well", but "I looked it up"/*"I looked it up the dictionary?"

That might suggest that "back" and "up" aren't really the same thing as one another. Maybe "back" forms predictable phrasal verbs indicating counter-action, while "up" is a deserted preposition that is used as a directional particle?
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But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
as though her heart was brook: Why, why, why! Weh, O weh
I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!

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