Why is it incorrect?: "Persuading (pushing) me off to..."

I am trying to understand the logic of grammar and semantics in this specific context, and to what extent to "push" the boundaries within language-common-sense (I have read the various threads here on the topic of "off").

Standard usage example

"Pushing them off to..." (to the corner, to the side, etc.)

If the adverb off amplifies the value/significance of the verb push, clarifying that the thrust is away from certain limits, why it could not do the same with the verb persuading?

Example question:

"Persuading them off to.." (another physical location or a mental position)

There is some overlapping in meaning:

Push Cajole Persuade

Any thoughts?

Solution 1:

"Pushing" may be used in a physical sense: "The panicked crowd pushed over anything and anyone in its way." It may also be used figuratively: "His father pushed him to study harder." The verb "persuade", however, may only properly be used to mean to change someone's opinion or decision (including a decision to take, or to refuse to take, some physical action), by means of argument, threat, or reward. The key is that persuasion is not used to physically force someone to change location or action, but rather to indirectly cause a relocation or an action by changing the will of the person being persuaded.

Your example, "Pushing them off to the side.." seems to be a non-physical situation where "them" is involuntarily being metaphorically relocated. They ("them") aren't being persuaded to decide to move to the side, but rather forced "to the side" against their firm will to remain.

"Off" in your example is simply an adverb that indicates (barely) where "them" has been pushed. "Off" may be used with "push" in either a tangible or intangible sense: "He was pushed off the cliff", or "He was pushed out of his job". It is not proper to say "He was persuaded off the cliff". Even in the rare instance where someone is talked into committing suicide, one would have to say, "He was persuaded to commit suicide". In English one can not be

Using "persuade" only to mean changing someone's mind is probably the safest course.

Solution 2:

1) There is neither motion nor location in the verb persuade that could be intensified with an adverb.

2) The off really modifies the prepositional phrase rather than the verb and suggests a further distance from the speaker, even if only an emotional one. Someone off in the corner is more sidelined than someone merely in the corner, while "off to the side" seems more out of the way. The push is just how they got there.