split up vs split

Packard said:

"Up" appears in lots of situations where it was never invited. In most cases "split" is fine without the "up" interloper.

Other situations where "up" appears uninvited:

fill up (verb)
start up (verb)
print up
fix up
etc.

PaulQ said:

In English phrasal verbs, up usually means "completely" or "to the end." or "all". However, as you can see, the difference is mainly emphatic. In a few cases, there is a real difference:

taraa said:

Thank you!!
Does "up" show "completeness" like what PaulQ said here:

Packard said:

I don't hear that emphasis in "split-up".

Some of these phrases have become "nouns".

A fill-up, a split-up, a break-up, etc. have all become recognizable nouns. So using the verb form is very logical, but not required.

They had a relationship, but they split over his drug use. 👁 Tick :tick:
(verb form)

They had a relationship, but they split up over his drug use.👁 Tick :tick:
(verb form)

The split-up over his drug use was not long-lived as they reunited three months later.👁 Tick :tick:
(noun form)

The split over his drug use was not long-lived as they reunited three months later. 👁 Tick :tick:
(noun form)

taraa said:

Does "up" show "completeness" like what PaulQ said here:

taraa said:

Can "up" here be dropped? What is the difference between "split" and "split up"?
"In this type of distribution, a client or server may be physically split up into logically equivalent parts, but each part is operating on its own share of the complete data set, thus balancing the load."
Distributed Systems, Tanenbaum

Steven David said:

Yes, it's possible to leave out "up" after "split" in this particular sentence. However, it's better to leave it in the sentence.

"Up", in this example, and others, provides emphasis or greater clarification.

split them up - This means they're completely split. They are split in a noticeable and very obvious way. "Up" is a location, and "up" tells us that the splitting is in plain view and easy to see. This is, of course, an abstract view of splitting up.

The writer says "physically split up". However, this is still a rather abstract idea.

Here is "split up" in the physical sense of "splitting up".

The cabin owners split up the firewood among themselves. Everyone had enough for a campfire over the weekend.

Again, "up" signifies completion and that the splitting up is noticeable and in plain view. The splitting of, or the dividing of, the firewood is up where everyone can see it. Again, this is abstract. The only way to see the splitting up is to view the firewood in separate piles for each cabin owner. Then we can see that the firewood is, in fact, split up.

"Up" means something in "split up" or "divide up". If "up" didn't mean anything, then we could probably say "split down" or "split around". But we can't say either of those. And, in "split up", "up" goes with "split" for a reason. It's not just because someone felt like saying it. Each word has meaning.

In context, there's also an implied prepositional phrase.

They split the firewood up "into four piles".

And, of course, we notice that the same thing happens in your example sentence.

Packard said:

I think the main reason you would use "split up" (verb form) is because "split-up" (the noun form) is so commonly used.

Of course I might have that backwards.

For example I would guess that "a fill-up" (filling the gas tank of your car to "full") probably came from "fill-er-up", instructions to the gas station attendant (when such attendants existed).

se16teddy said:

I think that with “break”, and “smash” it can go further and suggest “into several or many parts”. Perhaps not so much with “split”.