verbs - Why is "rollback it" incorrect?


I recently wrote the following sentence:



Please roll it back.



But if I were to describe the action on its own I would say:



This rollback was due to objections by the original author.



If I want to use "rollback" as a verb I have to split it up with an "it". My best guess is that "rollback" seems to be a compound noun birthed from a verb+adverb but we never got a verb compound form. Thus, the following is still incorrect:



Please rollback it.



Is there a term to describe the specific pair of "roll" and "back"? Describing this specific action will always need both words and the action itself now has an appropriate noun. But where did the combined verb form go?



Answer



Roll back is a standard phrasal verb. Roll is the verb part, and back is the particle.
Rollback (stress on first syllable) is an event nominalization from roll back (stress on second).


As a phrasal verb, roll back participates in the usual alternation with direct objects:



  • Roll the carpet/budget back. (Vb + Noun DO + Particle -- OK)

  • Roll back the carpet/budget. (Vb + Particle + Noun DO -- OK)

  • Roll it back. (Vb + Pronoun DO + Particle -- OK)

  • *Roll back it. (Vb + Particle + Pronoun DO -- NOT OK)


So there are two reasons why *rollback it is incorrect:



  1. rollback is a noun derived from roll back, and not a verb itself, so it can't take a direct object.

  2. roll back is a phrasal verb and must place pronoun direct objects between verb and particle.


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