我為甚麼不用「phrasal verb」這個名稱 (1)



最近我和家人去了一趟「staycation」。

我在酒店櫃台辦理入住手續時,忽然想起早前看到一位正在渡假的朋友,在社交媒體上寫:

We checked in the hotel after dinner. 



「Checked in the hotel」在結構上是錯誤的。朋友會這樣寫,可見他不清楚「check in」中的「in」一字在表達「到某地方報到」意思時的文法結構角色是什麼。

他應該是把這裡的「in」當成了 preposition,因此才會加入名詞組「the hotel」來組成preposition 的詞組「in the hotel」,以修飾動詞「checked」。

可是,「check in」中的「in」其實並非preposition,而是個單一個字的副詞。

「in」這字在英文其實是有兩個版本的 -- 作為 preposition 的版本(發音時,音調是低一點的),以及作為單字副詞的版本(發音時,音調是高一點的)。

例如:

They played in the park.

I believe in you.



上述兩句中的「in」都是 preposition 的「in」。它分別與名詞組「the park」和「you」一起組成了preposition 詞組「in the park」和「in you」。

不過:

We checked in.

They went in. 



這兩句中的「in」則不是 preposition,而是單字副詞的「in」。它自己單一個字修飾動詞「checked」和「went」,以表達兩句中各自的意思。

「check in」中的「in」是修飾動詞「check」的單字副詞,表達出「登記到達」的特定意思。這個表達方式中的「in」並不是preposition 的「in」。

我的朋友顯然不清楚這點,所以誤將「check in」中的「in」用作preposition來組出介詞組「in the hotel」,也因此造成結構上的錯誤:


We checked in. 

We checked in *the hotel*. ❌


由於這個「in」是自己單字修飾「checked」的,名詞組「the hotel」不會與它組成詞組「in the hotel」。

這個句子的結構中,沒有位置去放置名詞組「the hotel」,也就是說,加入了「the hotel」,句子的結構出現了問題。

當然,假如想使用「check in」這動詞加單字副詞的表達方式,同時又想補充有關「the hotel」的資訊,我們可以加入一個額外的修飾詞組。

例如:

We checked in at the hotel. 


例句中的介詞組「at the hotel」便是額外的修飾詞組,修飾「we checked in」這整個行動。它不屬於「check in」的一部分。「check in」的部分,「in」是自己單字修飾「check」的。

也當然,除了「check in」,還有其他表達方法也可表達同樣意思。如果你使用的是其他表達方法,你便需要知道該表達方法的不同部分的結構特徵是甚麼,才能用得正確。

例如:

We checked into the hotel


這表達方法也包含了動詞「check」,只是,這個表達方法中,「into」則是個preposition。修飾「check」的,是個由「into」引出的介詞組「into the hotel」。

所以,即使「check in」 和「check into  (something)」看起來很像,表達的意思也幾乎一樣,但卻是兩個有不同結構特徵的修飾語。

「check in」中的「in」自身是一個單字副詞,而「check into  (something)」的「into」則是 preposition,需要連接名詞組以組成 preposition 詞組:

We checked in at the hotel. 
(「checked」被「in」單字修飾,以表達其特定意思)

We checked into the hotel. 
(「checked」被preposition 詞組「into the hotel」修飾,以表達其特定意思)


假如你不清楚這兩個表達方式中的「in」和「into」的結構差異,便可能會像我那位朋友一樣,寫了錯誤的句子而不自知。

像「check in」和「check into (something)」這類形的表達方法,坊間多稱為「phrasal verb」(詞組性動詞)。

相信你也曾經學過這術語,但我覺得,對於真正想要結構準確地使用此類表達方法的學生,「phrasal verb」這名稱可以說是毫無幫助。

從我上面寫的內容,你能看出我不喜歡這術語的原因嗎?

讓我下週再揭曉吧。

小練習

以下句子中的「check in」用得正確嗎?

  1. My parents checked in before us and are in their room already. 

  2. The CEO checked in the most expensive hotel in the city.

  3. They didn’t know they were supposed to check in at the front desk.



____________________

(English version)

I recently did a "staycation" at a hotel with my family. 

When I was checking in at the reception desk, I thought about a social media update from one of my friends on vacation earlier that week, which said: 

We checked in the hotel after dinner. ❌


"Checked in the hotel" is not structurally correct. This mistake shows that my friend had misunderstood the grammatical role of the word "in" in the expression "check in" (which has the specific meaning of "registering one’s arrival at a hotel, at the airport, etc.") 

When my friend wrote this sentence, he must have thought that the word "in" is a preposition. 

Because of his misunderstanding, he added the noun phrase "the hotel" to "in" to form the prepositional phrase "in the hotel," as a modifier to the verb "checked." 

However, in the case of the expression "check in," the modifier "in" is actually not a preposition but a single-word adverb.

The word "in" actually has two "versions" -- one version as a preposition (lower-pitched in pronunciation) and another version as a single-word adverb (higher-pitched in pronunciation).

For example:

They played in the park.

I believe in you.


In these two sentences, the "in" is a preposition. It combines with the noun phrases "the park" and "you" to form the prepositional phrases "in the park" and "in you."

But:

We checked in.

They went in


In these two sentences, the "in" is not a preposition but a single-word adverb. "In" modifies the verbs "checked" and "went" by itself to express the respective meanings of these expressions.


My friend did not understand this. As a result, he mistook the "in" in the expression "check in" for a preposition and formed a prepositional phrase "in the hotel" with it.

By doing so, he made a structural mistake:

We checked in

We checked in *the hotel*. ❌



The noun phrase "the hotel" cannot form the prepositional phrase "in the hotel" with "in" because this "in" is not a preposition.

The noun phrase "the hotel" is simply left "hanging" in this sentence because there is no place for it -- and so the sentence is structurally wrong.

Of course, if we want to keep the expression "check in" and add the information about "the hotel," we can always add a separate modifier phrase.

For example:

We checked in at the hotel. 


In the case of this example, the prepositional phrase "at the hotel" is a separate modifier that modifies the action of "we checked in." It is not part of the expression "check in."

And of course, this is just about the specific expression "check in."

There are other expressions that express the same meaning. If you use another expression, you have to know what kind of modifier that expression has in order to use it correctly. 

For example:

We checked into the hotel. 


The expression here involves the verb "check" as well, but "into" is a preposition. The modifier in this expression is a prepositional phrase with "into" -- "into the hotel."

So, even though "check in" and "check into (something)" sound similar and express (basically) the same meaning, these two expressions have specific modifiers that are structurally different.

The "in" in "check in" is a single-word adverb by itself, and the "into" in "check into (something)" is a preposition, and it requires a noun phrase after it to form a prepositional phrase:

We checked in at the hotel. 
("checked" modified by "in" alone to express its meaning)


We checked into the hotel
("checked" modified by "into the hotel" to express its specific meaning)



If you don’t know the structural difference between these two modifiers, you would not be able to avoid a mistake like the one my friend made in his post. 

Both expressions like "check in" and "check into (something)" are often called "phrasal verbs."

You have probably learnt this term before -- but I find it very unhelpful for students who want to use expressions like "check in" accurately. 

Can you think of the reason(s) why I don’t find this term useful, based on what I wrote above?

I will explain more next week.

Mini Exercise

Are the following uses of the expression "check in" structurally correct?

  1. My parents checked in before us and are in their room already. 

  2. The CEO checked in the most expensive hotel in the city.

  3. They didn’t know they were supposed to check in at the front desk.


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