Phrasal verbs are idiomatic expressions that consist of a verb and a postposition and form a new meaning, which is often difficult for students to understand. The main meaning of the verb turn is to turn, return, change direction, spin, rotate. When adding postpositions up, down, off, away and others, the meaning of the verb changes. Its semantic coloring depends on the context in which the given word is used.
The phrasal verbs turn with the postpositions up, over, on, off are regular verbs and when used in the past tense, the suffix -ed is added to them.
Polysemy of phrasal verbs
When studying phrasal verbs, students face certain difficulties. The complexity of the perception of English phrasal verbs is due to a significant difference in the meaning of the progenitor word and the modified one that appears when used with a postposition. Turn up is a phrasal verb that, depending on the context, can change its meaning unpredictably. And if its primary semantic meaning is “to turn”, then in combination with up this word can play a completely unexpected role. In cases where the postposition up is close to the primary meaning"up", phrasal verbs turn are easier to understand.
Examples:
- It was cold and she turned up her coat collar. – It was cold and she turned up the collar of her coat.
- The ends of her red shoes turned up and looked funny. – The toes of her red shoes turned up and looked funny.
Examples of using the phrasal verb turn up
The phrasal verbs turn up are often used figuratively. This causes some difficulties both in communication and in translation. These values need to be remembered:
1. Increase the volume, raise your voice, increase the level of water pressure (gas), air flow.
- He turned up the volume and I could hear every phrase. – He turned up the volume so I could hear every phrase.
- We turned up the volume to high levels and enjoyed the magic of romance. – We turned the volume up to full blast and enjoyed the magic of romance.
- It is stuffy in here. I must tell Kate to turn up the air. – It's stuffy in here, I have to tell Kate to add some air.
2. To come, to appear (often suddenly).
- Bill turned up unexpectedly. – Bill came unexpectedly.
- Sorry, but Dorothy hasn't turned up yet. – I'm sorry, but Dorothy hasn't shown up yet.
- She doesn't even want to turn up. – She doesn't even want to come.
- My new neighbors turned up in early June. – My new neighbors arrived at the beginning of June.
3. To find something (often accidentally), to discover.
- Police seachers didnot turn up any suspicious subjects. – The police did not find any suspicious items.
- It is difficult to turn up something in this dark room. – It's hard to find anything in this dark room.
- At last I have turned up this house! – I finally found this house!
- I was unable to turn up my garage keys. – I couldn't find the keys to the garage.
Synonyms and antonyms
Phrasal verbs turn up have a wide range of synonyms and antonyms. They are used depending on the situation of use and the style of the text. Verbs are often used as synonyms: increase, amplify, boost, raise, appear, access, detect, expose, find out. Antonyms: miss, lose, overlook, mislay, pass over, misplace and others.
Turn down has, respectively, the opposite meaning: make it quieter, lower your voice, turn it off, refuse, reject, turn down and others.
Turn is a phrasal verb, examples of which can be found both in spoken and written literary speech. Learning a foreign language requires patience and perseverance. English phrasal verbs have a special specificity. Reading fiction and periodicals, watching video files will help to learn them. And, of course, a very important step in learning is direct communication with native speakers.
