Available via license: CC BY-ND 4.0
Content may be subject to copyright.
75
DOI
10.51558/2490-3647.2021.6.4.75
UDK 811.111'373.7
Primljeno: 04. 10. 2021.
Izvorni naučni rad
Original scientific paper
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić
PHRASAL VERBS IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
DISCOURSE: A CASE STUDY
Countless research studies have been carried out covering wide range of aspects associated with
phrasal verbs. However, little has been done when it comes to phrasal verbs in the mechanical
engineering discourse, more so in the ESP teaching in the B/C/S context. This paper was aimed
at investigating the role of phrasal verbs in the technical discourse, identifying the most frequent
phrasal verbs within mechanical engineering register and determining the level of familiarity
with such structures among the students at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Zenica.
Key words: ESP teaching; engineering discourse; phrasal verbs: one-word equivalent; phrasal
verb avoidance tendency
1. INTRODUCTION
It is a well-known fact that over the past several decades the English language has
become the lingua franca – language used for everyday communication, not only in
the Anglo-Saxon world but also around the globe (Crystal 2012). At the same time,
the innovations of the modern age have led to a plethora of developments in science
and technology, communication, and many other aspects of life, most of them
resulting in an increased necessity of dealing with English which is used for specific
and professional purposes (ESP). Consequently, more and more universities opted
for introducing some of the content-based language approaches in their curricula.
The state of affairs at universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina mostly allows for ESP
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90
76
courses of obligatory and elective type although some of them, such as University of
Zenica, have recently introduced activities related to some other approaches such as
CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning).
ESP, the most present approach, has always been allotted a small number of
classes. Hence, there has always been an effort to economise, that is, to identify the
language phenomena that need to be insisted upon. One of them refers to phrasal
verbs. As language structures, phrasal verbs have long been a part of ELT curricula
and have always found their place in the foreign language textbooks. However, the
use of phrasal verbs is quite specific and, as such, a topic of many discussions over
the necessity of their introduction into the foreign language syllabi. Namely, some
authors (Bolinger 1971; Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman 1983; Cornell 1985;
Meyer 1975; etc.) claim that phrasal verbs have a dimension of informality
considering them characteristic of informal (out-of-school) rather than formal (in-
school) communication. On the other hand, Pye (1996: 699) argues that “it is
misleading to emphasise this [informality] as one of their most distinctive features…
In fact, a phrasal verb is very often the normal or neutral way of expressing some-
thing.” While discussing the relevance of these structures some authors maintain that
fluency in English is directly dependent on the frequency in use of formulaic structu-
res as phrasal verbs. That is, the higher the proficiency and fluency, the more frequent
are the phrasal verbs and collocations with idiomatic meaning (Bjelajac 2017).
Nonetheless, the vast number of the studies related to the relevance of phrasal
verbs refers to the phrasal verbs in general English, giving less attention to phrasal
verbs across different registers. The present paper focuses on the use of phrasal verbs
in technical discourse, more precisely, in mechanical engineering register. Namely, a
research was carried out at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Zenica, aimed
at investigating the role and significance of phrasal verbs in the aforementioned
register by identifying their frequency across different genres (instruction manuals,
scientific papers, textbooks) as well as by determining the level of their usage among
mechanical engineering students. The results were intended to help upgrading the
ESP curriculum at this Faculty. The research which was done against the relevant
theoretical background included several phases from corpus creation to data analysis.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
The importance of prepositions and prepositional verbs dates back to the times when
English language saw drastic changes, one of them being the drop of the grammatical
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90
77
case. In those processes, prepositions have assumed a new role of carrying a certain
semantic weight, which helped in construction of new lexical items – phrasal verbs.
These verbs were produced and used almost extensively even in the Shakespearean
time (Blake 2002). As a result, phrasal verbs were propelled into prominence and
have long been regarded as one of the most characteristic features of the English
language.
Structurally, a phrasal verb is a formation that consists of two components, a verb
and a particle. They are orthographically considered as two separate words. However,
semantically, the verb and the particle are fused together. The particle is almost always
homonymous with an adverb or a preposition that carries a number of semantic,
syntactic and prosodic characteristics (Thim 2012). It can be said that native speakers
are very much aware that “the system underlying phrasal verbs is semantically
complex and that combinations display very different levels of idiomaticity...
However, using their unconscious knowledge native speakers have no problem in
decoding them [phrasal verbs]” (Armstrong 2004: 215). On the other hand, these
verbs are considered as one of the most notoriously challenging issues to non-native
speakers due to the broad spectrum of syntactic and semantic varieties in which they
occur (Gardner & Davies 2007). At the same time, piecemeal approaches to teaching
and learning phrasal verbs make the processes even more daunting, resulting in poor
abilities of students to use them (Strong 2013). Further problems arise due to the
neglecting of cognitive approaches and their presumptions in teaching these verbs.
Namely, cognitive linguistics recognises the meaning of a phrasal verb as a result of
dynamic processes between lexis and grammar (Thom 2017). Consequently, such
processes created a wide spectrum of meanings which phrasal verbs assume.
According to Becker (2004: 3) „one reason for the difficulty in mastering the use of
phrasal verbs can be explained by the fact that phrasal verbs can belong to different
semantic categories, which are not always apparent to L2 learners”. In that sense,
Riguel (2014) states that the meanings of phrasal verbs may range from spatial to
directional, literal or transparent to aspectual, completive to non-compositional,
opaque or idiomatic. Phrasal verbs with idiomatic meanings may well be the most
complex ones for learners of English because of the mismatch between the idiomatic
meaning and the meanings of the individual words that make up the phrasal verb.
According to some authors (Bolinger 1971; Darwin & Gray 1999; Kovitz 2003),
the productivity and frequency of phrasal verbs in English comes from their flexibility
feature. Thus, Bolinger’s seminal study (1971: xiii) defines phrasal verbs as being
„the most prolific source” of new words in English. A change of an element in the
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90
78
phrasal verb construction brings about completely different meaning allowing for
easy creation of a completely new lexical item (Kovitz 2003).
According to a study carried out by Li et al. (2003), phrasal verbs form about one
third of verb vocabulary in English, which confirms that they are a frequent part of
the English language and as such are of a great importance to the learners of English
(Pye 1996), including the ESP ones. In that respect, Brady (1991: 2) confirms the
significant role of phrasal verbs in the technical discourse while maintaining that “…
phrasal verbs are in some way integral to technical context… they are legitimate
objects of ESP study, for in technical contexts they are often more precise than their
single word synonyms”.
Notwithstanding the productivity, frequency, and flexibility of phrasal verbs, there
is a substantial number of studies (Dagut & Laufer 1985; Hulstijn & Marchena 1989;
Laufer & Eliasson 1993; Irujo 1993; Liao & Fukuya 2004; Becker 2014; Yildiz 2016;
Hautte 2017) proving that EFL students seem to resort more readily to one-word verbs
thus avoiding phrasal verbs. Reasons can be related to distinctive semantic and
syntactic challenges related to phrasal verbs. The first research into the learners’
avoidance of phrasal verbs was carried out by Schachter (1974) who determined the
avoidance as a linguistic phenomenon in the realm of second language acquisition.
Each of the aforementioned studies proposes different reasons, one of them noting
that “avoidance is the reverse side of negative transfer, since learners tend to avoid
using in L2 those structures that have no parallel in their L1 and therefore provide
them with no pattern to transfer“ (Daugt & Laufer 1985: 73). In other words,
‘avoidance’ implies that the learner is familiar with a certain structure but is not
confident enough to freely use it. As Laufer & Eliasson (1993) put it, avoidance is
actually one of the strategies that learners turn to when they want to overcome a
communicative difficulty because “if a student finds a particular construction in the
target language difficult to comprehend, it is very likely that he will try to avoid
producing it” (Schachter 1974: 213). On the other hand, a long-term experience of
one of the authors of this paper gained at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in
Zenica has shown that many students make use of phrasal verb patterns that they are
familiar with to make ad hoc solutions in communication.
Considering the complexities related to phrasal verbs as well as the fact that the
students seem to be prone to incorrectly use phrasal verb patterns, it seemed necessary
to carry out a research. In the light of the previously mentioned economisation in an
ESP classroom, the research was aimed to identify the level of phrasal verb
significance in the said context by determining their frequency within the mechanical
engineering register and by testing the students knowledge on phrasal verbs against
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90
79
the backdrop of the currently used textbook. Finally, the prime purpose of the research
was to indicate whether the focus in the ESP course at the Faculty of Mechanical
Engineering in Zenica should be intensified with respect to the phrasal verbs.
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1. Research Questions
The research was carried out at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Zenica at
the end of the 2020/2021 academic year. It was guided by the following research
questions (RQ):
RQ1 How significant is the role of phrasal verbs in the mechanical engineering
register?
RQ2 Do the phrasal verbs covered by the current ESP syllabus at the Faculty of
Mechanical Engineering meet the requirements of the profession?
RQ3 Should the focus on teaching phrasal verbs be intensified following the
results on their avoidance among the students?
3.2. Research participants
The participants were students enrolled in the third and fourth year of study. The third
year students (74 in total) made a junior student group that, at the time of the research,
had already received a year long instruction in Technical English. On the other hand,
the fourth year students (23 in total) made the senior student group. These students
received two year long instruction in Technical English.
3.3. Instruments and procedures
The research was conducted in three phases. The first phase was the corpus creation
phase. The second phase was reserved for data collection and the analysis of the data
was done in the third phase.
Since there was no ready-made corpus that could have met the requirements of
the research, a specialised corpus was created on the basis of texts collected from rel-
evant scientific journals, instruction manuals, and from the ESP textbook which is
currently in use at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Zenica. Texts were cho-
sen to cover the fields related to mechanical engineering, such as mechanical design,
environmental engineering, production engineering, and maintenance. The instrument
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90
used in the first phase was a resource tool called WordSift designed by the Stanford
doctoral students, science teachers and SERP (Strategic Education Research Partner-
ship)1. All phrasal verbs found in the corpus were sifted in terms of the most frequent
occurrence and a list of the 20 most frequent phrasal verbs was established.
In the second phase, the data were collected concerning both the familiarity of
the students with the previously provided most frequent phrasal verbs and their readi-
ness to use them. For this purpose, two separate Google Forms questionnaires were
designed and distributed to the participants. In order to eliminate any frustration that
students as participants of this type of study might develop as well as to create a com-
fortable atmosphere, students were informed that the questionnaire would not be
graded, that the content of questionnaire was directly related to the contents familiar
to them, and that the aim of the research was the improvement of the ESP classes at
the Faculty. Having in mind that they are making contribution to the language classes
for the future generations, students were motivated to participate.
The third phase of the research was dedicated to a quantitative analysis of the data
collected in the previous phase. The results of the analysis were double-checked by
a statistical program PSPP2.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In the first phase of the research and upon the consultations with mechanical engi-
neers working as professors at the University of Zenica, a number of texts from dif-
ferent technical genres were selected. The selection included approximately 100,000
words which served as a corpus for the research (Table 4.1). The scientific articles
covered 62 037 words. Out of that number 388 verbs (0.63%) were phrasal verbs.
The instruction manuals covered 30 466 words. Among them, 394 phrasal verbs
(1.29%) were detected, showing a much bigger presence of phrasal verbs in this genre
then in scientific journals (almost twice as much). In the corpus of 15 000 words of
the ESP textbook, 171 phrasal verbs were found (1.14%). The analysis proved that
the smallest occurrence of the phrasal verbs was in scientific journals (0.63%)
whereas the occurrence of these verbs in manuals and a textbook was somewhat
higher (1.29% and 1.14%, respectively).
1 Available on https://wordsift.org
2 PSPP is a free-of charge alternative to SPSS.
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90
81
Table 4.1 Corpus analysis with respect to the occurrence of phrasal verbs
Once the presence of phrasal verbs in technical texts was determined, the whole
lot of the identified phrasal verbs was sifted by the WordSift tool. The aim was to iso-
late the most frequent ones within the totality of the corpus. The sifted verbs (20 in
total) were subsequently searched for within the texts of each genre. Table 4.2 shows
these verbs in order of their frequency within the corpus as well as their distribution
across the genres.
Table 4.2 The list of the 20 most frequent phrasal verbs and their distribution across
the genres
Out of the 20 most frequent verbs, 14 verbs (70%) occur in instruction manuals,
13 (65%) in scientific journals and 7 verbs (35%) in the ESP textbook. A very high
occurrence of the phrasal verbs in the texts related to manuals and journals proves
Corpus materials
No. of words
Total no. of phrasal verbs
Percentage (%)
scientific journals
62037
388
0.63
instruction manuals
30466
394
1.29
ESP textbook
15000
171
1.14
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90
Phrasal verbs
ESP textbook
Journals
Manuals
switch off
agree with
put on
refer to
put into
depend upon/on
shut down
lead to
come from
carry out
convert into
result in
account for
bring about
pull out
turn on
switch on
focus on
screw on
derive from
their significance within the mechanical technical discourse. At the same time, the
overlaps in the distribution of phrasal verbs across the genres identified the phrasal
verbs which occurred in majority of the texts, making thus their common denomina-
tor. They are: refer to, depend upon/on, lead to and result in. Consequently, these
phrasal verbs should be regarded as an inevitable part of any ESP syllabus related to
mechanical engineering. It should be noted that almost all phrasal verbs isolated from
the textbook were found in the texts from other two genres. In other words, the se-
lection of phrasal verbs that are currently being taught at the Faculty of Mechanical
Engineering is justified. However, there are the verbs in the list, such as agree with,
shut down, carry out and switch on, that were not found in the textbook but their oc-
currence overlapped in the scientific journals and manuals. These verbs should defi-
nitely be treated as a priority in mechanical engineering ESP classes, and along with
the other ones from the list, included in the syllabi.
In the next, second phase of the research two separate questionnaires were de-
signed, one for junior student group and another for seniors. As already noted, they
were aimed at determining the level of students’ familiarity with 20 most frequent
phrasal verbs and their readiness to use them. Each item in both questionnaires was
an incomplete sentence to be filled with multiple choice answers. The choice always
included a correct phrasal verb, a semantically corresponding one-word verb and two
other incorrect verbs serving as distracters. The rationale behind offering a phrasal
verb as well as its one-word equivalent was to identify the more preferable form for
the students and thus determine the level of phrasal verb avoidance.
In the third phase of the research the analysis of the results was done. The results
are shown in the Table 4.3.
82
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90
83
Table 4.3 The list of the 20 most frequent phrasal verbs and their distribution across the
genres
Four columns in each group (juniors and seniors) present four different types of
students’ answers. Thus, the PV column relates to the percentage of answers in which
students used correct phrasal verbs, the OWV column – to the answers in which stu-
dents opted for one-word verbs, the column B shows the percentage of students who
used both the phrasal verbs and one-word verbs, whereas the column I refers to the
students who provided incorrect verbs (distracters) as their answers.
The data analysis has shown that both groups provided a significant number of
correct answers when phrasal verbs are concerned. Around half of the students from
each group have opted for a correct phrasal verb. In that respect, seniors reached 56%
and juniors 47% of correct answers. Obviously, seniors outperformed juniors by 6%
(Fig. 4.1).
Phrasal verbs
Senior students
Junior students
PV
OWV
B
I
PV
OWV
B
I
switch off
65%
9%
0%
26%
46%
35%
9%
11%
agree with
22%
22%
4%
48%
26%
19%
4%
51%
put on
43%
0%
0%
57%
45%
1%
4%
47%
refer to
87%
4%
4%
4%
36%
65%
8%
1%
put into
91%
4%
0%
4%
39%
0%
3%
58%
depend upon
87%
9%
0%
4%
68%
0%
0%
32%
shut down
96%
4%
0%
0%
55%
14%
8%
23%
lead to
74%
9%
9%
4%
62%
27%
0%
11%
come from
74%
4%
0%
17%
27%
11%
1%
59%
carry out
17%
48%
4%
26%
14%
58%
20%
7%
convert into
87%
9%
4%
0%
92%
0%
5%
1%
result in
30%
43%
13%
13%
39%
32%
7%
31%
account for
26%
30%
0%
43%
30%
47%
1%
22%
bring about
17%
78%
0%
4%
23%
54%
1%
22%
pull out
43%
48%
4%
4%
28%
38%
23%
11%
turn on
52%
26%
13%
9%
93%
1%
4%
1%
switch on
61%
22%
9%
9%
68%
20%
12%
0%
focus on
83%
4%
0%
13%
93%
3%
1%
3%
screw on
9%
0%
0%
91%
9%
0%
0%
91%
derive from
78%
4%
0%
17%
59%
1%
1%
38%
Average
56%
20%
3%
20%
47%
22%
6%
25%
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90
84
Fig. 4.1 Questionnaire results
The lack of familiarity with phrasal verbs or even the reluctance in using them as
a sign of a possible avoidance tendency is obvious from the data showing the number
of students who provided answers with only one-word verbs. In that sense, the results
were rather unified in both groups. More precisely, the students from the senior group
were the ones who used one-word equivalents less (20%) than the students from the
junior group (22%). Similarly, unified results in both groups were found in terms of
incorrect answers. Again, senior students made less mistakes (20%) than the junior
ones (25%). The least percent of correct answers in both groups (3% in the senior
group and 6% in the junior group) belonged to the students who chose both phrasal
verbs and their one-word equivalents. Those are the students who may well be inse-
cure in the best solution. Seniors, with the longer received instruction in Technical
English seemed to be more confident (only 3% of the students gave such answers)
than the students from a junior group (6%). Yet, all the students who opted for such
answers added to a total number of students familiar with phrasal words (PV + B)
showing that 59% of students in the senior group and 53% of them in the junior group
are using phrasal verbs correctly with a varying level of confidence.
Although significant in terms of students’ familiarity with phrasal verbs, the results
were not completely satisfactory. Namely, there was still a solid cohort of students in
each group who showed that they were not familiar with phrasal verbs, be it because
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90
they used only one-word verbs or because they provided incorrect answers (OWV +
I). Compared to the number of such students in the junior group (47%), the students
in the senior group showed better results (40%). This is most probably owing to the
longer instruction in ESP that these students have received. Nevertheless, it is pretty
alarming to realize that the students from both groups have rather poor knowledge
on some quite ordinary phrasal verbs typical of this type of discourse, such as screw
on, bring about and carry out (Table 4.3).
Finally, all results were additionally double-checked by using the t-test in PSPP
(Table 4.4).
Table 4.4 The list of the 20 most frequent phrasal verbs and their distribution across the
genres
As the reason behind the research was a possible upgrading of the ESP curriculum
at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Zenica, the answers to the research ques-
tions posed at the very beginning of the research offered certain solutions. Namely,
the answer to the first question (How significant is the role of phrasal verbs in the
mechanical engineering register?) is that the research has proven the significance of
these verbs, particularly in terms of preparing young engineers to use instruction
manuals where these verbs seem to be most present. Although their occurrence in the
totality of the corpus (around 100 000 words) seems to be average varying from
0.63% (630) phrasal verbs in scientific journals to 1.29% (1290) ones in instruction
manuals their share in the total number of verbs in the corpus related to mechanical
engineering would show much higher results. Another research in that direction would
definitely provide more information and good grounds for a comparison with the
study carried out by Li et al. (2003) claiming that phrasal verbs form about one third
of verb vocabulary in general English. In any case, phrasal verbs should have their
place in the ESP curricula, particularly for their prolific nature in creating new mean-
ings.
Finally, it was necessary to determine if the phrasal verbs covered by the current
ESP syllabus at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering meet the requirements of the
profession, which, in fact, was the second research question. Almost all of the verbs
85
Mean
Std. Deviation
S. E. Mean
PV_4 – PV_3
0.90
2.32
0.52
OWV_4 – OWV_3
-0.25
1.80
0.40
B_4 – B_3
-0.35
0.63
0.14
I_4 – I_3
-0.65
2.05
0.46
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90
86
from the ESP textbook currently used at the Faculty which were found among the
most frequent verbs in the corpus related to mechanical engineering were also found
in the texts from another two genres (scientific journals and instruction manuals).
The fact proves that they do meet requirements of the profession. However, they
cover only one third of the most frequent verbs. This means that the current ESP
curriculum at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering should be intensified in terms
of teaching phrasal verbs. The insufficient coverage of the ESP textbook in terms of
the most prominent phrasal verbs relevant for mechanical engineering as well as the
fact that a significant number of students still avoid using phrasal verbs at all (approx.
20 percent of students in each group) provides the affirmative answer to the last
research question – Should the focus on teaching phrasal verbs be intensified
following the results on their avoidance among the students? Not only should the
focus be intensified in teaching the phrasal verbs which already exist in the textbook
but it should be extended to the rest of the most frequent verbs found in the corpus
which were not identified in the ESP textbook, primarily the ones that the
questionnaire results showed as the least familiar to the students. In that way, the in-
securities related to the students’ use of phrasal verbs would hopefully be diminished
which would help building their foreign language confidence.
5. CONCLUSION
English phrasal verbs are one of the most important issues in theoretical study and
practical mastery of English language. Their significance, usage and complex nature
has always been a subject to discussion. It is a well known fact that one of the
prerequisits for fluency in a foreign language is a good command of formulaic ex-
pressions and structures, which native speakers have at their unconscious disposal.
The facts, that there is a pattern in the structure and that the meaning of the structure
is often different from the particular meanings of individual words, make phrasal
verbs resemble such expressions.
However, due to the peculiarities often associated with these verbs, research has
often been a challenge, particularly in the realm of teaching English for Specific Pur-
poses. Compared to the number of studies on phrasal verbs in general English a little
has been done on phrasal verbs in engineering English, particularly in the B/H/S con-
text. Therefore, it was expected that the paper aiming to investigate the role and sig-
nificance of phrasal verbs in the mechanical engineering register should give its
contribution in that respect.
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90
87
The research carried out at the Faculty of Mechanical engineering addressed the
issue by identifying the frequency of phrasal verbs across the engineering texts from
different genres (instruction manuals, scientific papers, textbooks) as well as by de-
termining the level of their usage among mechanical engineering students. The re-
search data intended to help upgrading the ESP curriculum at this Faculty proved that
phrasal verbs have an important role in mechanical engineering register, particularly
in terms of instruction manuals usage. Also, the analysis of the data revealed that the
students at the said Faculty who receive instruction in English for Specific Purposes,
varying from a year to two years, show significant results in using some of the most
frequent verbs typical of this register. However, the fact that almost half of the stu-
dents do not use these phrasal verbs, or use them incorrectly, implies that the ESP
curriculum at the Faculty of Mechanical engineering should be reinforced with a syl-
labus that would include more materials and activities related to teaching at least
those phrasal verbs which are, according to the research, the most frequent ones in
the mechanical engineering register.
REFERENCES
1. Armstrong, Kevin (2004), ˝Sexing up the Dossier: A Semantic Analysis of
Phrasal Verbs for Language Teachers˝, Language Awareness, Vol. 13, No. 4,
213-224.
2. Becker, Anthony (2014), ˝Avoidance of English Phrasal Verbs: Investigating
the Effect of Proficiency, Learning, Learning Context, Task Type, and Verb
Type˝, English Language Teaching, 24, 1-33.
3. Bjelajac, Sanda (2017), ˝Uloga formulaičkih segmenata u fluentnosti govora
na engleskom kao stranom jeziku˝, Aktuelnosti: časopis za društvena pitanja,
37, 33-47.
4. Blake, Norman Francis (2002), ˝Phrasal Verbs and Associated Forms in
Shakespeare˝ Atlantis, Vol. XXIV, No. 2, 25-39.
5. Bolinger, Dwight L. (1971), The Phrasal verb in Englis, Harvard University
Press, Cambridge MA
6. Brady, Brock (1991), The function of phrasal verbs and their lexical
counterparts in technical manuals, MA Thesis, Portland State University
7. Celce-Murcia, Marianne, Diane Larsen-Freeman (1983), The Grammar Book:
An ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course, Newbury House
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90
88
8. Cornell, Alan (1985), ˝Realistic goals in teaching and learning phrasal verbs˝,
IRAL, 23, 269-280.
9. Crystal, David (2012), English as a Global Language, 2nd Edition, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge
10. Dagut, Menachem, Batia Laufer (1985), ˝Avoidance of Phrasal Verbs – a Case
for Contrastive Analysis˝, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 7(1), 73-79.
11. Darwin, Clayton M., Loretta S. Gray (1999), ˝Going after the Phrasal Verb:
An Alternative Approach to Classification˝, TESOL Quarterly, 33, 65-83.
12. Gardner, Dee, Mark Davies (2007), ˝Pointing Out Frequent Phrasal Verbs: A
Corpus-Based Analysis˝, TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 41, No.2, 339-359.
13. Hautte, Jolien Vanden (2017), Avoidance of Phrasal Verbs in Learner
English: A Study of Flemish and Italian Students of English, MA Thesis,
Faculteit Letteren & Wijsbegeerte, Universiteit Gent
14. Hulstijin, Jan H., Elaine Marchena (1989), ˝Avoidance: Semantic or
Grammatical Causes˝, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 11(3), 241-255.
15. Irujo, Suzanne (1993), ˝Steering Clear: Avoidance in the Production of
Idioms˝, IRAL – International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language
Teaching, 31(3), 205-219.
16. Kovitz, David Immanulel (2003), Looking into Phrasal Verbs, MA Thesis,
California State University, San Bernardino
17. Laufer, Batia, Stig Eliasson (1993), ˝What Causes Avoidance in L2 Learning:
L1-L2 Similarities, or L2 Complexity?˝, Studies in Second Language
Acquisition, 15, 35-48.
18. Li, Wei, Xiuhong Zhang, Cheng Niu, Yuankai Jiang, Rohini Srihari (2003),
˝An expert lexicon approach to identifying English phrasal verbs˝,
Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of ACL, 513-520.
19. Liao, Yan, Yoshinori J. Fukuya (2004), ˝Avoidance of Phrasal Verbs: The Case
of Chinese Learners of English˝, Language Learning, Volume 54, Issue 2,
193-226.
20. Meyer, George A. (1975), The two-word verb: A dictionary of the verb
preposition phrases in American English, Mouton, The Hague
21. Pye, Glennis (1996), ˝Don’t Give up, Look it up! Defining Phrasal Verbs for
the Learner of English˝, EURALEX ’96 Proceedings, 697-704.
22. Riguel, Emilie (2014), ˝Phrasal verbs, “the scourge of the learner”˝, Papers
from the 9th Lancaster University Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics &
Language Teaching 2014, Vol. 9, 1-20
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90
89
23. Rodriguez-Puente, Paula (2019) The English Phrasal Verb, 1650-Present:
History, Stylistic Drifts and Lexicalisation, Cambridge University Press
24. Schachter, Jacquelyn (1974), ˝An Error in Error Analysis˝, Language
Learning, 24, 15-26.
25. Šestić, Lada (1994), English for Mechanical Engineering Students, Engleski
za studente mašinstva, Univerzitet u Sarajevu, Zenica
26. Strong, Brian (2013), ˝A Cognitive Semantic Approach to L2 Learning of
Phrasal Verbs˝, The Language Teacher, JALT SIG, Special Issue, 28-31.
27. Thim, Stefan (2012), Phrasal Verbs: The English Verb-Particle Construction
and its History, De Gruyter Mouton
28. Thom, Daniel (2017), A Cognitive Linguistic Approach to Phrasal Verbs: A
Teacher’s Guide, An Honors Thesis, Western Oregon University
29. WorldSift (2021), A Software Tool, available on https://wordsift.org [accessed
on 6th July 2021]
30. Yildiz, Mustafa (2016), ˝A Cross-Linguistic inquiry into the Potential Reasons
for the Avoidance of English Phrasal Verbs: The Case of Turkish and
Norwegian EFL Learners˝, The Linguistic Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, 124-140.
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90
FRAZNI GLAGOLI U DISKURSU
MAŠINSTVA: STUDIJA SLUČAJA
Sažetak:
Provedeno je nebrojeno mnogo istraživačkih studija koje pokrivaju širok spektar aspekata koji se dovode
u vezu sa fraznim glagolima u engleskom jeziku. Međutim, frazni glagoli u mašinskom inženjerskom
diskursu su jako malo istraženi, posebno u nastavi engleskog za posebne namjene u
bosanskohercegovačkom kontekstu. Ovaj rad je imao za cilj istražiti ulogu fraznih glagola u engleskom
tehničkom diskursu, identificirati najčešće frazne glagole u registru mašinskog inženjerstva, te odrediti
stepen poznavanja ovih konstrukcija među studentima Mašinskog fakulteta u Zenici..
Ključne riječi: nastava engleskog jezika struke; inženjerski diskurs; frazni glagoli; jednorječni
ekvivalent; tendencija izbjegavanja fraznih glagola
Adrese autorica
Authors’ address
Aida Tarabar
University of Zenica
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
aida.tarabar@unze.ba
Azra Hadžić
Steelmin BH d.o.o.
azrahaadzic@gmail.com
90
Aida Tarabar, Azra Hadžić Phrasal Verbs in Mechanical Engineering
Discourse: A Case Study
DHS 4 (17) (2021), 75-90