To go + gerund (go fishing etc)

Question

My question is aimed at the constructions of this structure "to go + doing something" which are: to go fishing, to go dancing, to go jogging and so on. I need some explanation about the verb "go" in them. As far as I understand "go" doesn't imply some "moving" on the part of the speaker in such phrases. If I say "I go jogging" it means that "I jog", right? However, I have noticed that native speakers say such things as "I am going jogging now", which basically means " I am leaving right now in order to go jogging." or "I am going to jog." As a result of this I find a few discrepancies.

1) If "I go jogging" = "I jog" then "I am going jogging" should mean "I am jogging (now)." but it means "I am going to go jogging." Is my observation correct?

2) If I say it in the past "I was going jogging yesterday" will it mean that "I was jogging yesterday" or "I was going to go jogging yesterday" or both?

For question (2), people don't say "I was going jogging". They say "I went jogging" or "I was jogging." Evidence from Google Ngrams. — Peter Shor, Sep 08 '14 at 10:29
Yes, they say "I am going jogging", and your observation about what it means is correct. — Peter Shor, Sep 08 '14 at 10:31
OK, would it be correct to say "I was going jogging yesterday when the telephone rang." — user1425, Sep 08 '14 at 10:34
That sounds to me like you actually were jogging when the telephone rang (so it would have been a cell phone). But if you said "I told my wife I was going jogging", that would mean you were about to go jogging when you told her. — Peter Shor, Sep 08 '14 at 10:35
Oh, it gets much worse, and it's not logical. The reason why the progressive feels funny is because of the Doubl-ing constraint, which amounts to a distaste for saying a constituent with two -ing verbs in a row, e.g, many people find I like keeping running much worse than I like to keep running. And not every verb will work with the V-ing construction; I had a question (no. 4, pg. 2) about that in my freshman grammar class midterm exam. — John Lawler, Sep 08 '14 at 14:00
possible duplicate of Do the -ing and to-infinitive "verbs" that follow catenative verbs always take the grammatical function of "noun"? [Answered there] — Edwin Ashworth, Sep 08 '14 at 16:04
Edwin Ashworth, my question covers the role of the verb "go" questioning whether it has something to do with literal "going", that is, moving which seems to be true in "I am going jogging" as it means "I am on my way to go jogging". It's not about catenative verbs as such. — user1425, Sep 09 '14 at 06:40

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 09 '14 at 18:46

"I go jogging" - This is awkward and not heard very much, even though it's gramatically correct. "I {verb}" - like "I go," "I walk," "I run," etc. are not really used to describe first-person physical movement actions - unless you are narrating, describing, or emphasizing immediate activity (nine times out of ten, you will hear/read "I am going to the park," not "I go to the park.").

However, you could say "I go jogging" in a sense to mean it's something you do regularly, not something you are currently doing.

"I am going jogging" - This means you aren't jogging now, but are about to start jogging. "I am going to go jogging" is equivalent.

"I was going jogging yesterday" - This means at some point in the past you were jogging, then finished jogging or aren't jogging any more. The jogging here is a distinct past event that does not continue into the present. "I was jogging yesterday" is equivalent.

"I was going to go jogging yesterday" - This means that yesterday, you wanted to jog, but got interrupted before you could start. You are heavily implying you didn't successfully start jogging yesterday.

As far as why people say "going jogging" instead of "jogging" - "going jogging" sort of implies it's more of an event to that person - something like "going to the movies", where as plain "jogging" is just something someone does. Someone who doesn't ordinarily jog might be more likely to say "going jogging" than just "jogging" - though the difference in meaning isn't really that strong.

''I am going to go going''-''I am going jogging'' are not the same. I am going to go jogging implies that you are planning to go jogging in the future, whereas, ''I am going jogging'' means that you are on your way to a place to go jogging(its already planned, and the time interval is very short to carry out the action) — John Arvin, Apr 04 '18 at 12:22

To go + gerund (go fishing etc)

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