Re: Translation challenge: Would you go out with me?

Fwiw, this native Anglophone would never interpret "would you [like
to] go out with me?" as anything other than a one-time invitation.
While "they are going out" can readily mean "they are involved in a
romantic relationship", that's not how you would ask someone to enter
into such a relationship.   You might ask someone to "go with you" or
"go steady with you", but those are asociated with adolescence (with
its relatively limited opportunities for proper dating).  Adults would
presumably start with the isolated invitation and let the level of
involvement increase naturally over time...

On 11/28/06, Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> wrote:
> Sai Emrys wrote:
>
> > On 11/28/06, caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...> wrote:
> > > Would you go out with me? = Would you go on a date with me?
> >
> > To me, it's more like = "please agree to enter into a quasi-longterm
> > relationship of the sort known as "boyfriend/girlfriend" [or boy/boy
> > or whatever per orientations]". Though your version also.
> >
> > It's not necessarily a "for one date" request. Though I guess I left
> > that ambiguous in the OP; my apologies. Not sure if it'd be ambiguous
> > in your language(s) or not.
> >
> Kash: it wouldn't be ambiguous, if I had the right words for it :-)); the
> Kash after all are as concerned as we are with "going out" in the sense you
> give.
>
> I have "accompany, go along, ~ride (with)" that could be used for the
> one-time invitation, best with a prep.phrase saying where--
>
> Standard everyday:
> melo/ka numba? (yambi, ri [place])--
> want/Q go.along (with.me, to ...)
>
> but that could also be used for mundane things like going shopping, and when
> offering someone a ride.
>
> Actually, as a direct invitation to enter into something like a LTR (or even
> STR), it would most likely be communicated telepathically; we assume there
> has already been some "dating". But at the moment, we don't have a way to
> discuss it verbally with someone else--
> "Wow, I asked him/her to go (out) with me, and he/she agreed!!" or
> "I'd really like to go (out) with XXX". More research needed.
>
> An idea for "date"-- some variation on "yam" (with), as the French are said
> to use "avec" (or used to).
>
> Idle question: what is "a date/to date" in other natlangs (and conlangs too
> of course)...?
>
> Roger, long past thinking--sad to say-- of going with someone :-(((((((((
>

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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