I verbi sintagmatici: problemi di classificazione e di denominazione

The paper deals with the topic of the terminological variety used to name the constructions resulting from the combination of a verb and a particle (Engl. phrasal verbs, particle verbs, verb-particle constructions; It. verbi sintagmatici, costruzioni verbo-locativo, verbi analitici), such as, for example, Engl. to run away, It. correre via. The terminological dispersion exemplified by the different names for these multiword expressions is only partly due to (existing) problems with the delimitation of this specific construction. We believe that the need for standardisation of linguistic terminology can be conveniently addressed only if the level of grammatical description of the individual languages (which should aim at completeness by using descriptive categories specific for any given language) is kept separate from that of comparative concepts, whose purpose is to define concepts which can be employed for detecting similarities and differences among languages.