Just heard on the radio: "they'll keep upping up the pressure".

I've heard a redundant "up" added to many verbs, but never the verb "up" itself! What do you all think of it?

I think it's exactly the kind of thing I'd have noticed and commented on.

Of a similar nature is something I've not only heard, but occasionally found myself using.

The phrase "go and..verb" to express intention is pretty common.

"I'll go and see."
"Go and make a cup of coffee."
"Go and jump in the lake."

It sounds decidedly odd when it's combined with the verb "go", and this may well be a regionalism, but I've heard and used things like

"I'll go and go to the shops."

But around here it gets even better because there's also the perfectly standard "going to... verb" to express intention and I've heard, and again used, the mash up of the two constructions

"I'm going to go and tell him what I think."

And of course the ultimate form

"I'm going to go and go to my brother's house."

Try parsing that and explaining it to a student who has encountered it in the wild!

quote:

Just heard on the radio: "they'll keep upping up the pressure".

I must have missed this post before. "upping up" the pressure doesn't sound like anything I've heard. Americans, what do you think?

On the other hand, in a Google search, I did find this pdf from the NIH (2003) about the struggle in Turkey to obtain tobacco control legislation ("Turkey: upping up the anti"). Funnily, at least on my Google screen, this topic was third on the list.

quote:

Turkey: upping up the anti

They mean ante, not anti I assume.

I was thinking they meant both meanings. What is that called?

A pun.

Isn't there another word? It's something like double entendre, though this context isn't risque.