u/UniversityMotor5408

The metaphorical use of ‘up’ to mean ‘more’ and ‘down’ to mean ‘less’ – often in terms of power, control, importance, prestige, success and happiness – is widespread in English (and many other languages). and of course it’s not just the words ‘up’ and ‘down’. It’s other words that convey the same meaning too. Here are a few. Can you think of any others?

up = more

up – look up to

upper – upper class

high – high office

highly – highly likely/confidential

highness – your royal highness

height(s) – at the height of your powers

top – top secret

over – over 50%

overly – overly enthusiastic

above – above average

down = less

down – look down on

below – below par

under – be under sb’s thumb

below – below 50%

low – low status

lowly – lowly origins

bottom – hit rock bottom

deep – in deep trouble

depth(s) – be out of your depth

 

I've just had a bit of a disagreement with someone on another thread about prepositional verbs (dispose of, rely on, etc). I was arguing that they're not phrasal verbs and it seems the general consensus is against me on this. I accept that - but my question is why?

The argument against my view is that the meaning of dispose of is different to the meaning of dispose on its own. I'm not sure I agree, and I certainly don't think that's true of rely in rely on. A couple of examples:

A: How did you dispose of the batteries?
B: Dispose? We didn't dream of throwing them away.
I came up with this on the other thread to suggest that of doesn't contain the meaning. The other person said this sounded wrong to them, and that they'd say:
A: How did you dispose of the batteries?
B: Dispose of? We didn't dream of throwing them away.
To me, this doesn't sound very natural, but I accept it's not totally wrong.

What about?:
A: Who did you rely on?
B: Rely? No-one! We didn't trust anyone.
This sounds fine to me.

And finally:
A: We've run out of milk.
B: Run out? Oh no!
This is a phrasal prepositional verb. To me, the meaning is contained in run out, and the of is purely prepositional. Am I wrong? What am I missing?

I've just had a bit of a disagreement with someone on another thread about prepositional verbs (dispose of, rely on, etc). I was arguing that they're not phrasal verbs and it seems the general consensus is against me on this. I accept that - but my question is why?

The argument against my view is that the meaning of dispose of is different to the meaning of dispose on its own. I'm not sure I agree, and I certainly don't think that's true of rely in rely on. A couple of examples:

A: How did you dispose of the batteries?
B: Dispose? We didn't dream of throwing them away.
I came up with this on the other thread to suggest that of doesn't contain the meaning. The other person said this sounded wrong to them, and that they'd say:
A: How did you dispose of the batteries?
B: Dispose of? We didn't dream of throwing them away.
To me, this doesn't sound very natural, but I accept it's not totally wrong.

What about?:
A: Who did you rely on?
B: Rely? No-one! We didn't trust anyone.
This sounds fine to me.

And finally:
A: We've run out of milk.
B: Run out? Oh no!
This is a phrasal prepositional verb. To me, the meaning is contained in run out, and the of is purely prepositional. Am I wrong? What am I missing?