Why is 去 ("to go") in 也不去考虑以后会是怎样 ("...and don't think about how it will be in the future")?

Question

In the book 活着 (audio book, around 6 minutes 55 seconds into 第01集), we have:

我只是感到和她在一起身心愉快，也不去考虑以后会是怎样。

Google Translate gives:

I [我] just [只是] feel [感到] happy [身心愉快] with her [和她在一起], and [也] I don't [不] think about [考虑] what it will be [会是怎样] in the future [以后].

It mostly makes sense, but I don't understand why there's a 去 ("to go") in there. Maybe it combines as 不去 ("to not go"), but it still doesn't make much sense to me.

Question: Why is 去 ("to go") in 也不去考虑以后会是怎样 ("...and don't think about how it will be in the future")?

Answer 1

It's an interesting question.

It's worth to know that "(不)去 + verb" can be considered as a fixed expression in Chinese. For example, （不）去做，（不）去想， （不）去听， （不）去玩， （不）去说，... ...

The literal meaning of （不）去 is "（not） to go". Let's say 我去看你， meaning I go see you.

Its literal meaning can be extended when the following verb doesn't require you to go literally, such as the verb 想, 听，说 and etc. It implies that you would get another place or take another time to do something. I found this dictionary definition can help:

• 用在另一个动词前， 表示要做某事.

你去问一问：please go and ask.

我们自己去想办法： We'll find a way out ourselves.

For more detailed explanation, 我去考虑一下 vs 我考虑一下, 我去考虑一下 means I will go offline to think about it or I will take another time to think about it. Well, 我考虑一下 doesn't specify when I will think about it and it could mean to think about it right now or I will think about later on(offline).

Hope this can help.

Answer 2

To determined the role of '去' in "也不[去]考虑", let's remove it and see what the sentence say.

"也不考虑" = "not even consider"

"也不(去)考虑" = "not even (process to) consider

We can see 去 indicates 'process to' for a non-action verb

In "我要去打仗", '去'(go) is the auxiliary verb and '打仗'(fight a war) is the main verb

In "去考虑未来", '去'(process to) is the auxiliary verb and '考虑' (consider) is the main verb

without the auxiliary verb '去', you'll get "我要打仗" and "考虑未来"

One more example of '去' change the meaning of a sentence:

• 用水灭火 = 'use water to extinct fire' but it is ambiguous enough to be twisted as 'use water, extinct fire'

• 用水(去)灭火 = use water to (process to) extinct the fire (No ambiguity. We now know it clearly that you are using water to extinct fire, not use water in one hand, extinct the fire on the other hand by kicking dirt over it)

Answer 3

I think it can be translated as "not going to" instead of "to go"