Question
Ames didn’t hesitate. He crawled forward on his hands and knees and seized Ollie Dinsmore by the arms. For a moment he felt the rising Dome scrape the middle of his back, glassy and hard, and there was time to think If it comes back down now, it’ll cut me in two. Then he was dragging the boy out.
Question: Then he was dragging the boy out. == Then he was dragging OUT the boy. Right? If not, why?
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Answers · 4
1
"Drag out," as a phrasal verb to mean "continue longer than necessary," can also be separated. "They dragged the meeting out longer than necessary." So I disagree that the structure changes the meaning. Context changes the meaning. Since a boy can't be continued longer than necessary, we know that "drag out" here means "pulling outside."
"He was dragging out the boy" sounds unnatural, though, but I think you were just clarifying the meaning, right?
1
Then he was dragging the boy out. ≠≠ Then he was dragging OUT the boy.
The structure here changes the meaning.
In the first sentence 'dragging' is a verb and the meaning is clear - he was dragging the boy out (...out of something/somewhere).
In the second sentence, 'dragging out' is a phrasal verb which means - to make something continue for longer than necessary. For example - Let's drag out this meeting until lunchtime.
Due to the meaning of the phrasal verb 'dragging out' it is incorrect when used with 'boy' - how can you make a boy 'continue for longer than necessary'?
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