Hello everyone on the forum! My name is Mark, and i'm from China. In Barney Stinson's exact words: "what up?"
Here's the thing that I'm asking for help: Many a discussion have been produced regarding the right use of "end up the mess" back in a renowned forum in China. Let's say there's A and B, holding two opposite opinions.
It all started with A randomly mentioning "I'm recording this audio to end up the mess". What he was trying to manifest was that he was recording that audio in hopes of bringing the mess (an irrelevant topic) to an end. A argued (1) that according to American Heritage Dictionary, up could be "Used as an intensifier of the action of a verb", thus the use of "end up the mess" makes absolute sense in replacing "clean up the mess" or "end the mess" (2) a bunch of "end up + the + noun" (such as end up the meeting) are being used in either offcial reports or informal documents by native speakers. (3) Mark Twain once used "end up the war" (to mean end the war) in a book.
Party B insisted that it's NOT correct to use "end up the mess" when you actually are meaning "clean up the mess", because (1) end up is an already existed phrase that literally means that "to be finally in a particular situation or place". "end up the mess" could be vague and misleading, thus wasn't and will not be used. (2) just because "up" could be used as intensifier, doesn't mean that each and every "up" that follows verb is intensifier! otherwise how do you explain "the price went up" etc.
So, the questions are:
(1) Do native speakers ever use "end up the mess" to mean to "bring an end to the mess", or in A's own words, to use "up" as intensifier (whilst still meaning end the mess), in their daily lives?
(2) Is it grammarly correct of that use?
thank you so much!
Regarding from China,
Mark