| 词组 | chain reaction |
| 释义 | chain reaction Your dictionary can tell you that chain reaction, in general (not technical) terms, means "a series of events so related to each other that each one initiates the next." This notion underlies the use of the word in physics and such figurative uses as this one: • ... ploughed into the car ahead, starting a 10-car chain reaction that left eight people seriously injured —Eric Timm, New Zealand Woman's Weekly, 6 Jan. 1975 Copperud 1964, 1970, 1980 complains, however, that chain reaction is often misused in being applied to instances in which events do not follow one from another. He cites as an example (based on one given in Bernstein 1965) a report of a single event that set off a chain reaction of telephone calls—in other words, a rapid succession of events, all following a single cause but not following one from the other. We find a similar use in this report on race riots in 1967: • The worst came during a 2-week period in July, first in Newark and then in Detroit. Each set off a chain reaction in neighboring communities —Report ofthe National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, 1968 We need to notice two things here. First, Copperud is measuring uses like these by dictionary definitions and no dictionary seems to recognize such use. Second, this is a figurative use, not a literal use. A figurative use can be inspired by any of several aspects of a literal term and not every writer will think of the same one. The Kerner Commission report quoted above used chain reaction metaphorically for a series of similar events that were triggered by a primary event and that happened in rapid succession, even though they were not dependent one upon the next. Another aspect of a chain reaction is its cumulative effect: • West Berlin's political crisis could start a chain reaction undermining the Social Democratic-Liberal coalition —Christian Science Monitor, 19 Jan. 1981 • ... were alert to a possible "panic" (a domino chain reaction of firms unable to meet debts on margin) — Richard L. Strout, Christian Science Monitor, 3 Apr. 1980 The notion that a chain reaction may become self-sustaining can underlie other uses: • ... the movie is expected to trigger a self-sustaining chain reaction of U.F.O. sightings —Boyce Rensber-ger, N.Y. Times, 9 Dec. 1977 We see no real problem in these uses. It is unrealistic to expect that every writer will seize on the same aspect of something as evocative as a nuclear chain reaction when using the term figuratively. Dictionaries will eventually catch up with what has happened with this term. |
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