- By Jim Evans
- Entertainment
Print 
Smart TalkSMART TALK by Dr. Viva Palaver
OPEN UP: Here's the kind of discussion that interests therapists at the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired. As staff psychologist, I'm working on a paper about this.
At a recent staff meeting in Strunk Hall, we wondered why "up" can appear after so many verbs when the speaker intends no feeling of direction, and sometimes not even a sense of increase. I'd better explain.
We classify fill up, rise up, stack up, and swell up as impairments because each is redundant. Up adds nothing to the meaning of each verb. It serves only to reinforce to idea of increase already inherent in each verb's meaning. Like running the water during tooth brushing, it makes a scintilla of sense, no more.
But open up? Why open up anything? How does up help here? Sign up, wrap up, clean up, and wash up also puzzle us.
Please don't shut up. If any readers have theories about the origin or reason for the superfluous use of up, please write to the Institute, care of this publication. I'll add your theory to my paper.
----
v4i29