Topography of phrasal verbs

Question

Is there an exhaustive list of the prepositions/adverbs/particles that can contribute to a phrasal verb?

And is there any 'verb-part' that can be used with the entire list?

Answer 1

I've no idea if it is an authoritative source, but Phrasal Verb Demon cites these:

About, across, apart, around, aside, away, back, by, down, forward, in, off, on, out, over, round, through, together, up

Though it doesn't say that this is an exhaustive list.

Maybe I should write a script to analyse their dictionary to find out the 'winner'.

Answer 2

I'm quite sure there's no exhaustive list for the same reason that there's no dictionary that defines all the words. The language is fluid and evolving all the time. However, there are certain words that occur in phrasal verbs more often than others. You can add to your list: for, under, after, ahead

Answer 3

The 'Oxford Dictionary of phrasal verbs' (1993 & perhaps later editions) includes other particles in their list of 'idioms' (their term) (I'd prefer multi-word verbs as the term for these multi-word structures):

rise above

go / come up against

go / run aground

get along

get along with

set apart

absolve from

rip / tear into

get out of

go overboard (about / for)

work towards

abscond with

How unitary these constructions are (ie should they rather be considered verb + head of prepositional phrase structures) is often debatable.

I'd certainly consider fall among(/st) (thieves) unitary.

ADDITIONAL:

I've rediscovered the following (Multi-word Verbs in Early Modern English, Claridge):

The following list of possible particles in phrasal verbs is based on those in Quirk et al (1985:1151), Cowie and Mackin (1975:lxxx) and Fraser (1976:5), as well as my own data (cf. also Bolinger 1971:17f):

aback, aboard, about, above, across, after, ahead, along, apart, around, ashore, aside, astray, asunder, away, back, behind, by, counter, down, forth, forward/s, home, in, off, on, out, over, past, round, through, to, together, under, up

This is not a complete list (which might be hard to achieve anyway, according to Bolinger) ...

The italicized items in the list can be used as prepositions [ie take a noun group] as well.