*change* + preposition

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:39 PM -0500 3/18/05, James C Stalker wrote:
>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?
>
A slow pitch, released with the same motion as a faster pitch.
Crucially, the batter is presumed to be expecting a fastball, and the
pitcher "changes up" on him.  You color analysts can decide how it
fits into the discussion, I'm just the play-by-play guy.

Larry

>
>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