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I am reading the novel The Elephant on Karlův Bridge by Thomas Trofimuk. In this book, there is passage describing a dancer talking to her therapist about a song that is haunting her. The therapist asks her:

Does it[the song] have a history with you? Do you have a history with it?

In a former post, mstorkson mentioned that 'We have a history'

implies that there was something negative between the two.

Therefore I understand there was something negative between the dancer and that song. But does swapping the subject and object make any difference?

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  • Please cite the source of the quoted text. (And is there a quotation at the end of your question? I don't see where it begins.)
    – MarcInManhattan
    Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 2:26
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    Without knowing the context, I imagine the swap was because the therapist corrected themselves to use the much more idiomatic construction. People have histories with things or other people. It’s not common to talk about a thing as having a history with a person.
    – Paul Tanenbaum
    Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 3:02
  • @MarcInManhattan I made some revision, thanks for your reminder.
    – Gabby
    Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 3:55
  • I am not sure that it implies something negative. But, perhaps the author is being poetic. Putting it both ways like that implies the possibility of some sort of deeper possible connection with the song, like a two-way relationship (it can have a history with you, and you with it). I.e., more deep than a regular song.
    – BigMistake
    Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 4:33

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