*change* + preposition

[James C Stalker]

I don't watch baseball much, but I did watch some of the World Series.  The
announcers in describing pitches and pitching strategies would say something
like "he threw (or should have thrown) a change up."  So what is a change up
and how might it fit into this discussion?

JCS


Damien Hall writes:

> Two responses to my observation of *change up*:
>
> =================
>
> I wonder if the meanings of "change" (change as in money) is prompting
> the added  "up" for clarification.  "I'll change some money" wouldn't
> work, would it?  It would have to be "exchange".  Prefixes becoming
> particles is common.  Could "change out" and "change up" could both be
> used  with the same meaning in your example?
>
> =================
>
> Well, I "change money" frequently whenever I travel abroad.  Though I
> usually avoid patronizing the shadowy characters who accost tourists in
> some countries saying, "Change money?  Change money?"  I never heard a
> black marketeer offer to "exchange money" or "change up money."  (But then,
> what do they know?)
>
> Peter Mc.
>
> =================
>
> *Change* for money works for me too.  That's the only thing I say, in fact, when
> I mean 'change into a different currency':  'exchange' would prompt the
> (interior) question 'For what', but 'change some money' *means* 'change it into
> a different currency.  I think you're right that the added *up* is for
> clarification, though.
>
> To answer the second question, I don't think that *change out* could be used for
> money.  *Change up* isn't in my dialect either, but I have never heard the
> person I know who says *change up* for money say *change out* for it.
> *Exchange money* seems slightly more plausible to me but, again, it's not in my
> dialect.
>
> Damien Hall
> University of Pennsylvania
>



James C. Stalker
Department of English
Michigan State University