VPCs are one of the most problematic areas for EFL learners. Unfortunately many pedagogical approaches to VPCs give extra importance to the verbal element, and the few theoretical accounts focusing on the particle might still benefit from a sounder basis to sustain their proposals and the development of appropriate pedagogical materials. This book intends to provide for this theoretical basis by taking a particle-centred perspective to VPCs. After an updated account on the semantics of particles, it focuses on their contribution to VPCs and their interaction with contextual elements to yield specific meanings. Our claims are illustrated through the analysis of different VPCs combining with In and On. All uses of these prepositional and phrasal verbs are classified in different stages of a lexicalisation continuum and explained under the same parameters, hence reducing the significance of the traditional phrasal-prepositional verb distinction. This book is the embryo for new lines of research on particles and VPCs and the creation of pedagogical materials for EFL learners; therefore it might be especially useful to researchers and EFL teachers interested in space semantics and VPCs.

Studied English Philology and received his European Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics at University Jaume I (Spain). His main research interests embrace, among others, cognitive linguistics (space semantics and linguistic categorisation), VPCs, and the applications of corpora in EFL contexts. He is a lecturer of Linguistics at University Jaume I.