Why look UP, tidy UP, look DOWN

[msmob]

What's the grammatical construct that has us locking up, locking down, etc,. ?

[SANDRO43]

What's the grammatical construct that has us locking up, locking down, etc,. ?

Prepositional verb, a construct typical of Germanic languages, e.g. abfahren, gegenfahren, weiterfahren, etc. etc.

[msmob]

You can tell the English speaking nations that do not teach grammar constructs in their own language 

Thanks for the prompt response...

[BdHvA]

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word in the English language, and that is "UP." 
It's easy to understand UP, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?  Why do we speak UP and why are the politicians UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? 

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, we warm UP the leftovers, and we clean UP the kitchen We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP an old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special. 

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. 
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is sun UP. 

[msmob]

Dear Sandro

I didn't doubt you - but sought further examples and now I'm not sure my exampes aren't PHRASAL verbs ?

http://www.thoughtco.com/phrasal-verb-1691624

[John Gaunt]

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word in the English language, and that is "UP."
It's easy to understand UP, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?  Why do we speak UP and why are the politicians UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, we warm UP the leftovers, and we clean UP the kitchen We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP an old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is sun UP.

How about the age old ‘UP YOURS’?

[msmob]

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word in the English language, and that is "UP."
It's easy to understand UP, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?  Why do we speak UP and why are the politicians UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, we warm UP the leftovers, and we clean UP the kitchen We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP an old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is sun UP.

'We'- as in those using 'PROPER English' - do not say 'close UP'' in the context of locking UP the shop for the night   or '1/4th' ( a quarter ) or 'stopped UP' ( blocked ) ...

Our BdHvA is ( possibly)  cooped UP - (but that's an adjective ? ) so I wish him well !

[SANDRO43]

now I'm not sure my exampes aren't PHRASAL verbs ?

Another label for the same construct, grammatical definitions are not shared universally A rose by any other name...

BTW, Ancient Greek also used it, e.g. καταβάλλειν (katabállein) is composed of κατα (down) and βάλλειν (to throw, to put) and can be used in conjunction with other words to indicate "spears thrown down from the city walls", or "to smack a payment down of the table".

κατάβασις (katàbasis, meaning "descending") produces katabatic wind, the wind that carries high-density air from a higher elevation down a slope under the force of gravity.

ανάβασις (anàbasis, an "expedition up from") is the most famous book of the Ancient Greek professional soldier and writer Xenophon, also rendered as The March of the Ten Thousand or The March Up Country.

etc.etc.

[ML]

Reminds me of our 'take off clothes' and 'put on clothes.'

I was with a gal who had pretty weak English, but still no interpreter required.

At her place, she mentioned it was a little bit warm.

I told her she could take off her blouse (we hadn't previously gotten to that stage.)

She asked what was 'take off.'

I told her to look it up on her electronic dictionary (this was moons ago).

She found that airplanes 'take off.'

This lead to a lot of fun and laughing discussing some of our idioms.

Never did get around to the 'take off' during this session.