English Three-word Phrasal Verbs with Special Reference to Pied-piping Possibilities

This paper addresses the discrepancies between descriptions used in English grammar books and real language usage. Specifically, it deals with Yule's (2006:179) unsatisfactory description that in relative clauses preposition-stranding is obligatory with three-word phrasal verbs. This paper will disprove Yule's (2006:179) statement by presenting corpus examples where the preposition of the three-word phrasal verb is pied-piped. For example, look forward to allows pied-piping in relative clauses. The paper also discusses the pedagogical implications of the corpus analysis.