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贯穿/横贯 Traverse


buanryoh

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Usage Examples:

这条铁路横贯五省。

这条铁路贯穿南北。

友爱的精神贯穿在我们的班里。

这项政策应该贯穿于整个工程。

Is the only difference between 贯穿 and 横贯 that 贯穿(于) can also refer to something traversing a non-geographical object?

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贯穿 implies penetration, through something, while 横贯 is laying across, on top of something. they are quite different from the start.

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It's advisable to be circumspect when comparing two words through the results of a Chinese-English dictionary. As Farka mentioned, when used with geographical objects 横贯 would mean 横着贯穿, therefore 横贯 could also be interpreted as penetrating something. The real difference appears to be that 贯穿 can take a non-geographical noun as its object.

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1 dont think 横贯 means literally 横着贯穿 or 'penetrate horizontally' when used in geographical terms, but rather to 'traverse horizontally', which is quite a bit on the surface.

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“横贯”在汉英词典中的解释(来源:百度词典):

1.going through from east to west

2.to traverse

I think more example can make more understand

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the only example i can think of is an undersea tunnel, which sometimes uses 横贯 for penetrating under the seabed. i dont even remember seeing chinese use this for subways, though a subeway track is pretty much like an undersea tunnel...

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