Is people in he looks down on people a direct object or an object of a preposition?
I'm confused because looks down on is a phrasal verb, which should mean that on isn't a preposition.
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Why should it mean "on" isn't a preposition? It certainly is a preposition. – user178049 Oct 23 '20 at 14:59
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Does that mean that "on" is NOT part of the phrasal verb? – Joshua Oct 23 '20 at 15:55
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In English traditional grammar, a phrasal verb is the combination of two or three words from different grammatical categories — a verb and a particle, such as an adverb or a preposition — to form a single semantic unit on a lexical or syntactic level. – kiamlaluno Oct 24 '20 at 12:14
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It's still a verb followed by a preposition, but they are a single semantic unit. – kiamlaluno Oct 24 '20 at 12:16
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1Oh, so "on" functions as both a phrasal verb AND a preposition. I thought it was an either/or situation. So that means that "people" is an object of a preposition. – Joshua Oct 24 '20 at 16:27
