Test for intransitivity of verbs?

Question

Is it true that if any verb is immediately followed by a prepositional phrase, then it has to be an intransitive verb?

As a counter example, I need a sentence which:

(i) has only one verb, and

(ii) the verb should be of only one word, and should not be intransitive and immediately followed by a prepositional phrase

(iii) follows subject-verb-object order strictly

(iv) has as few clauses and conjuncts as possible

(v) doesn't alter normal sentence construction

Answer 1

It's untrue that the verb is necessarily intransitive. You can walk down the street, but you can also walk the dog. All it means is that the verb is being used in an intransitive fashion.

Idiomatically, we rarely put a prepositional phrase between the verb and the direct object. We can show to the door an uninvited guest, but it's more common to do the other way around.

Of course, many individual prepositions become attached to verbs (sit down, walk around, show up) and often that preposition-like particle (not a phrase, just a single word) is left next to its verb. Do you throw up your lunch or throw your lunch up? Do you beat down the grass or beat it down? Piss off your spouse or piss it off?

(Funny how you always put the particle after the object, if the object is a pronoun. You almost never "throw up it" or "piss off her". Funny language, English.)

Answer 2

In general, it's not advisable to rely too heavily on rules like this that refer to the linear word order of items in the sentence.

In English (and in languages in general) there are always cases where, e.g. for rhythmic reasons, elements can move outside their "canonical" position. (This process is sometimes referred to as "move alpha" in more technical descriptions.)

So for example, with the verbs "put", "place" etc, the locative complement would tend to come before the direct object complement depending on the relative length and information status (new, already mentioned/assumed, focussed etc) of these two complements-- notice how in these sentence pairs, (a) is matural in case 1, but (b) is more natural in case 2:

1(a) He put the books on the table.

1(b) ??He put on the table the books.

2(a) He put on the table three books that I never even knew had been published.

2(b) ?He put three books that I never even knew had been published on the table.

Answer 3

This 'test' is well-motivated, but there are too many exceptions; for example:

1. Passives:
   "The book was stolen by the child." steal is transitive, and the prepositional by-phrase indicates the agent.

2. Phrasal verbs:
   "John showed off the jewels." The verb here is really show off, a transitive phrasal verb meaning 'display'.

3. Verbs with variable transitivity:
   "John ran to the store." vs. "John ran the store". In the first, ran is intransitive, in the second transitive.