alkaspeltzar
Member
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2006
- Member Type
- Other
- Native Language
- English
- Home Country
- United States
- Current Location
- United States
What do we really mean when we say:
"The list contains the people" or "My ideas are contained in the book"
I get contained can mean hold, as in "my cup holds/contains water", but in my two examples above, isn't it being used abstractly? I mean a list is not physically holding people, but just mentioning them. As are my idea, they are more or less represented or embodied by the book.
So it begs the question, what does contain mean really in these examples and how can they use it?
Just confused, i read the dictionaries, but then seems to just confuse me more and give little help. Hoping someone could dumb down the explanation of the meaning for me. Thanks
"The list contains the people" or "My ideas are contained in the book"
I get contained can mean hold, as in "my cup holds/contains water", but in my two examples above, isn't it being used abstractly? I mean a list is not physically holding people, but just mentioning them. As are my idea, they are more or less represented or embodied by the book.
So it begs the question, what does contain mean really in these examples and how can they use it?
Just confused, i read the dictionaries, but then seems to just confuse me more and give little help. Hoping someone could dumb down the explanation of the meaning for me. Thanks