Diachronic Analysis of Phrasal Verbs in English Scientific Writing

Abstract

Phrasal verbs (PVs) are a specific type of multi-word expressions and a specific feature of the English language. However, their usage in scientific prose is limited. Our study focuses on the analysis of phrasal verbs in the scientific domain using information theory methods to describe diachronic phenomena such as conventionalization and diversification regarding the usage of PVs. Thus, we analysed their developmental trajectory over time from the mid-17th century to the end of the 20th century by measuring the relative entropy (Kullback-Leibler divergence), predictability in context of the phrasal verbs particles (surprisal), and the paradigmatic variability using word embedding spaces. We were able to identify interesting phenomena such as the process of conventionalization over the 20th century and the peaks of diversification throughout the centuries.