Phrasal Verbs and Associated Forms in Shakespeare (Author William Shakespeare‪)‬

This paper focuses on three aspects of phrasal verbs. Firstly, to what extent examples of phrasal verbs and associated forms in Shakespeare's works provide evidence for how phrasal verbs could have arisen and developed in English. (1) It is suggested that there were enough internal developments in the language to indicate that there is no need to look to other languages to explain the origin of phrasal verbs in English. Secondly, there is a discussion of what makes up a phrasal verb is, but accepts that their nature in Early Modern English is much more flexible than today. Finally, it offers some examples of how Shakespeare exploited this new development in the language and some of its benefits compared with forms consisting of prefix + stem. **********