Re: Word Up!

Hi, all,

I don't think that the particle "up" is meaningless, although is does have
more than one meaning, and would doubtless seem redundant to the speakers of
languages with lots of single-word verbs that do the work of English phrasal
verbs.

"up" can make the verb stand for an action done until it can't be done
anymore.   To eat the soup may or may not involve eating all of it, but to
eat the soup up involves eating all of it.   To tie someone up involves
roping someone into some predetermined state of immobility, beyond which
further tieing is redundant.

A paper which is written up is finished.
A house that is burned up is burned to the ground.
(Yes, if a house burns up, it's burned down.)

"up" can also signify greater degree or effort, as in "dress up" (dressing
more formally, carefully, elaborately)    To tighten something up involves
more effort than just tightening it.

"up" can also signify an increase in the behavior or attitude signified by
the verb.

A person who is cheerful was not necessarily less than cheerful before, but
a person who cheers up was.  So, too, with being perky vs. perking up.   A
person who listens may have been listening before, but "Listen up"
presupposes that the people being addressed need to start listening or
listen more intently.

Jim


> >One more question, and I just noticed this.  I used the expression "spice
> up"
> >in two posts.  I was thinking how I could've avoided being redundant.  I
> >recalled various expressions involving verb + "up":>
>
> What a useful and totally meaningless little word.  No wonder foreign
> students go crazy.  Here's a few more:  write up; burn up; listen up
(which
> for some reason really grates on me, maybe just because it fairly
recent)...
> perk up, cheer up-- which a friend of mind likes to portmanteau into cherk
> up.   Note too:  write down, burn down, and ....
>
> >dizzy up (I have no idea what this one means) (Neither do I)
> >tie up  -- tie down
>
>
> >tighten up -- tighten down (practically synonymous)
>
>
> >dress up -- dress down (2 meanings! dress casually/scold)
>
> Another dreaded one is get/got-- an Indonesian student once asked me what
> "we got talking" meant, and out of context I was stumped.  Then he showed
me
> the textbook.  More British than American I think; wouldn't most of us say
> "we got to talking...."? though I have heard it both ways in the US.
>
> Ah... get up, get down. Yeah!!!