She fought with me

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Metamorfose
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She fought with me

Post by Metamorfose » Tue Jan 27, 2009 1:43 am

Given the sentence:

She fought with me.


According to what I looked up, it means that me and she were allies. Does this sentence for you could also convey the idea that she fought against me?

Thanks

José
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fluffyhamster
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Post by fluffyhamster » Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:16 am

It's hard to say exactly what it means out of context, but I suppose it could generally more "often" (to a greater number of decisive informants, if not in actual usage) mean 'We were allies' than 'We had a fight; We (then) fought (each other)'.

Then again, perhaps not...

That is, the exact phrase 'I fought with' (I like to first deal in what I myself might very well also have experienced!) produces the following results on the first page of Google (I've added content from the linked pages to help make the meaning clear):
x3 (or should that be, x1?) I Fought with Custer: The Story of Sergeant Windolph, Last Survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn - Amazon.com, Google Book Search, shopping.msn.com

x2 I Fought with Geronimo (by Jason Betzinez, the cousin and lifelong associate of Geronimo) - Amazon.com, alibris.com

I fought with those flv embed modules for Drupal too. I think I came out victorious. Kinda. Lost a pinky in the battle. - twitter.com

"I Fought With My Heart instead of my Brain": Gambian Boxer Badou Jack has been reflecting on his defeat at the Beijing Olympics by an Indian national Vijender Kumar in the Middle weight (75kg)... - thepoint.gm

I Fought with a Bum today. Sort of. Also, it turns out you can’t blog about it on your Blackberry while you are in the process of screaming at a scrawny bum. - subwayblogger.com

'I fought with girl then she fell from bridge' - accused - AN AUSTRALIAN court heard yesterday that the man accused of murdering British backpacker Caroline ... - news.scotsman.com

I fought with my friend.....can anyone solve the prob???? - in.answers.yahoo.com
If we count the book titles as only counting once each (i.e. conveying that particular meaning only the "once", in the process of writing the book), then there is only a 2:5 ratio of "Ally" to "Opponent" examples in this little snapshot.
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Forgorin
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Post by Forgorin » Fri Jan 30, 2009 6:20 am

The first thing that came to my mind was that she fought against him.
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Lorikeet
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Post by Lorikeet » Mon Feb 02, 2009 12:36 am

Me too. I thought they were fighting against each other.
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woodcutter
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Post by woodcutter » Mon Feb 02, 2009 2:02 am

He fought with me probably suggests a soldier buddy, while she fought with me suggests an agressive female opponent, if the speaker happens to be a grizzled male.....
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mesomorph
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Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 1:04 pm

Re: She fought with me

Post by mesomorph » Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:14 pm

Metamorfose wrote:Given the sentence:

She fought with me.


According to what I looked up, it means that me and she were allies. Does this sentence for you could also convey the idea that she fought against me?

Thanks

José
Yes.
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Sevans
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Joined: Thu Mar 05, 2009 3:08 am
Location: Lincoln, Nebraska

Post by Sevans » Sat Mar 07, 2009 7:49 pm

Yeah. It is all context. I could mean that somebody fought with you or against you. It could be somebody having an argument with you.

"She fought with me to help get the legislation passed."

"I wanted to get the legislation passed, but she fought with me and delayed it."
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