If we can “give someone a call”, why can't we “give a phone call”?

Question

According to Cambridge Dictionary a phone call (also phonecall) is something that you make, and provides the following examples

1. Will you excuse me? I need to make a phone call.
2. I've got a few phone calls to make.

Collins Dictionary defines phone call as:

If you make a phone call, you dial someone's phone number and speak to them by phone.
3. Wait there a minute. I just have to make a phone call.

However, there's also the expression “give someone a call” which Cambridge says:

give someone a call/ring

• Give me a call/ring (= phone me) when you get back from holiday.

Longman offers numerous examples and suggest that call can be substituted with buzz and in British English with either ring or bell. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say “give somebody a bell”, but the BBC's website Learning English confirms that it is indeed a valid British expression.

The snippet below is taken from an English language course book called Complete Advanced by Cambridge Press. In this exercise, students are asked to replace the verb underlined with give or make or mark it as correct.

6. In my boss's absence, I give telephone calls to customers, clean desks, and write emails.

The correct answer for Q6 is “I make telephone calls…”. Why would “give a call to a customer” or “give telephone calls to customers” be incorrect? When we give a call to someone, we manually select their number and “dial” it.

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Is there a reason we don't say "make someone a call” even when it involves “dialling” i.e. making a telephone call? And vice-versa, if we can “give someone a call”, why can't we “give a phone call” too?

_{P.S Q7 is correct!}

Answer 1

A lot of your initial reasoning is around the expression 'to make' a phone call, which is different from 'to give' someone a call.

'Give (someone) a call' follows the same construction as other idiomatic expressions relating to contacting someone. "Give (someone) a knock" means to call at their door; "give (someone) a shout" means to get in touch by any means. Other slang expressions for making phone calls include "give (someone) a ring" and "give (someone) a buzz".

This would suggest that "give (someone) a call" developed from existing idiomatic language for communication, whereas to 'make' a call is language that developed specifically in connection with the technology of telephony. This is further evidenced by the fact that, when we use the verb to give, there has to be an object and a recipient either stated or implied. This language focuses on who you are contacting as much as, if not more than, the means of doing so. That isn't the case when we say we are 'making' a call - it is entirely optional whether or you not to choose to say to whom the call is being made (eg "Excuse me while I make a call", or "I'm going to make a call to my parents"). Arguably, 'making' calls focuses on the use of the phone.

There is no reason at all why you can't say "give (someone) a phone call" - it's just more common to say 'call'. Likewise, you can "make a call" without using the word 'phone'. The word is tacit, or implied.

Also, there is a difference between the way we use 'call' as a verb in connection with the telephone compared to calling at their door. Certainly in British English we would say "I'm going to call my dad" for a phone call, but "I'm going to call on my dad" to mean call at his door. However, in business, in-person visits to clients may be referred to as "calls" (a noun) in the same way that instances of phone contact are. This makes it more likely that someone saying "I'm going to make some calls" may need to qualify it by stating either phone calls or perhaps house calls. Certain contexts require specificity that others do not.