Those senses might be connected but differing in direction, having a ask is
someone badgering you to do something you find hard and / or dislikable,
while making an ask is you badgering someone to do something hard and / or
dislikable. Had to think about it a little.
O.K.
On Tue, Apr 9, 2019 at 2:31 AM Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I do not have a personal experience of asking someone to marry me - I got
married once but I dont really remember asking.
But I think the Mac Millan entry which I posted above might shed some
light on it, there is 'ask' as in having a very difficult and challenging
task and the idiomatic 'make an ask' as in asking for a (perhaps hard)
favor.
O.K.
On Tue, Apr 9, 2019 at 2:24 AM John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
It is actually not that hard. Don’t mistake “the ask,” a noun phrase that
implies the target is being asked for something important, typically, in
sales or fundraising situations, something expensive, for the everyday verb
“ask.”
Another example might be asking someone to marry you, “the ask” = “will
you marry me?” That could also be described as “a big deal.”
Yet another example from personal experience is the advice I got from a
political fundraiser. When you approach a wealthy donor, don’t ask for a
few dollars. Shake his hand, look him in the eye, and say, “You look like a
three (or four or five) zero donor to me. The appeal to vanity works really
well. If he doesn’t give you thousands of dollars he is still likely to
give you hundreds.
Cheers,
John
Sent from my iPad
On Apr 9, 2019, at 9:14, Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It is still an ask for me to distinguish this usage.
On Tue, Apr 9, 2019 at 2:10 AM John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
A Google search for “the ask” produces a rich body of data from which I
infer that “the ask” is frequently used in discussions of sales and/or
fundraising, denoting the point in the conversation at which the critical
question appears, will the target buy the offer.
One link is to a novel in which our friend David Richie might be
particularly interested.
The Ask
by
Sam Lipsyte <https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2282.Sam_Lipsyte>
(Goodreads
Author)
3.28 · Rating details
<https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6698001-the-ask#> · 6,248 ratings
<https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6698001-the-ask#other_reviews> · 937
reviews
<https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6698001-the-ask#other_reviews>
Milo Burke, a development officer at a third-tier university, has “not
been developing”: after a run-in with a well-connected undergrad, he finds
himself among the burgeoning class of the newly unemployed. Grasping after
odd jobs to support his wife and child, Milo is offered one last chance by
his former employer: he must reel in a potential donor—a major “ask”—who,
mysteriously, has requested Milo’s involvement. But it turns out that the
ask is Milo’s sinister college classmate Purdy Stuart. And the “give” won’t
come cheap. Probing many themes— or, perhaps, anxieties—including work,
war, sex, class, child rearing, romantic comedies, Benjamin Franklin,
cooking shows on death row, and the eroticization of chicken wire, *The
Ask *is a burst of genius by a young American master who has already
demonstrated that the truly provocative and important fictions are often
the funniest ones.
Cheers,
John
Sent from my iPad
On Apr 9, 2019, at 0:26, Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I am not, but Merriam Webster has taken notice of the fact that "get"
and 'ask' are being used as nouns.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/a-take-on-the-phrase-good-get
On Mon, Apr 8, 2019 at 5:16 PM Torgeir Fjeld <t.fjeld1@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dear all,
Reading the news, the following linguistic innovation offered itself:
May’s official spokeswoman said: “This is obviously a unique European
council specifically focused on Brexit. The PM set out a clear ask in
terms
of an extension and it is important that she set out the rationale for
that.”
(
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/08/theresa-may-resume-talks-labour-find-brexit-compromise
)
Is anyone here familiar with the noun "ask" and its present usage (as
per corpus based approaches, over and against the Chomskeians)?
Mvh. / Yours sincerely,
Torgeir Fjeld
https://torgeirfjeld.com/
Download the Introduction to my latest book -- rock philosophy:
meditations on art and desire -- for free from https://bit.ly/2vMGwVs.
Get a 24% discount by using code CFC159723D56 on checkout at the publisher
https://vernonpress.com/book/494. It is also available from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Philosophy-Meditations-Art-Desire/dp/1622734416/
