bring over (PHRASAL VERB [TRANSITIVE]) : to take someone or something from one place to the place where someone else is, especially their home. Macmillan Dictionary
- I’ll bring my holiday photos over when I come.
What "over" does add (as meaning) to the above sentence?
Is there any difference in meaning between the below?
- Can Jake bring over his baseball cards?
- Can Jake bring his baseball cards?
Intuitively, I feel like the addition of "over" implies that the destination is a house. I can think of a few phrases that fit this description:
Several friends came over [to my house] for dinner.
Jake brought his baseball cards over [to his friend's house].
Sandy's friends brought sleeping bags and slept over [at Sandy's house].
I can't think of an example where you would use one of these without implying that the destination is a house. For example, you wouldn't really say "I'm at work, do you want to come over and pick me up?" Or, "I brought all my books over to school."
I know this isn't a very scientific answer and some will disagree, but as a native speaker I feel like that's the shade of meaning that "over" gives in this case.
The addition of "over" adds the information that the object is brought from a point of origin to the destination. Just writing bring does not include any information about the source/point of origin of the object. For example,
Can Jake bring over his baseball cards?
The speaker is implicitly adding the information that the object (baseball cards) is to be brought from its initial position (wherever Jake has kept them) to the destination (wherever the speaker wants Jake to get them to).
Writing the same sentence without the "over" does not add the information about the initial position/ place of origin of the object. It, however, still suggests about the destination of the object.
