I phrasal verbs italiani: il test della transitività
Italian Phrasal Verbs: The Transitivity Test

Summary/Abstract: About two decades ago, the study of the phrasal verbs in Italian began, considering them equivalent to the English phrasal verbs, although there are some differences. Among these there are anomalies in the Italian phrasal verbs, according to their idiomatic and/or literal use, because, for example, if we analyze a phrasal verb like "mettere sotto", by applying the transitivity test, we understand that it is a phrasal verb only if it is used idiomatically because in a sentence like “mettere sotto un gatto”, “un gatto” (a cat) is the object of the phrasal verb; if you consider instead a phrase like “putting your shoes under the bed”, it means that “under” represents the head of the noun phrase “under the bed” and, therefore, in this case, it is not a phrasal verb, but a verb and a preposition.

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