*change* + preposition (was: change > change out)

[Damien Hall]

This may well just be coincidental, but (also anecdotally) I have noticed
another, well, change going on with *change*, in some people's BrEng at least:

*change* > *change up*

as in

'I haven't got any Euros at the moment, but I suppose I'll change some money up
on the boat'

(said just before a trip from England to France on the ferry.  Intonation made
it clear that this was a phrasal verb *change up* + PP *on the boat*, not
simplex *change* + PP *on the boat*;  it's actually difficult to find examples
that are disambiguated by not being followed by a PP, since it seems that
*change up* is for money only, and you have to do that somewhere.)

It's a subject of indignation in a way similar to Jim's, at least for my sister,
whose boyfriend it is who says this, causing her to rant that there's no reason
for the *up* and it should just be *change*.  But my casual impression is that
I've heard it from others too.  I suspect that there are contexts in which
*change up* is already part of the 'standard' lexicon (apart from gears, which
can be but aren't always changed up), but I can't come up with any.

So this just adds to Jim's question.  I am hearing *change up* where I would
expect *change*.  Is there something about *change* that invites its
specification by a preposition in general, in the way that Doug indicated for
*change out* in particular?  That seemed to me a good explanation for *change
out* and it would be nice if it could be generalised.

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania