Seeing clearly: Frame Semantic, Psycholinguistic, and Cross ...

CHAPTER 2. A FRAME SEMANTIC ANALYSIS 108
the trees) to an abstract, interpersonal domain (She couldn't see through the scheme). 15
see x through
(67) a. We had enough wood to see us through the winter.
b. Do you really have the courage to see such an audacious plan through?
c. Friends will often see you through (hard times).
d. Our country will see the war through to victory.
e. Brown: Theresa had seen him through the right college, into the right frater-
nity, and . . . safely married to the right sort...
This collocation means to carry out a task until it is complete, or to help someone until the
end. It is based on the life is a journey (Lako 1987:439) metaphor, which implies that
di culties in life are obstacles on the path, and overcoming di culties is passing through
the areas of obstacles. The second NP (the object of through) can be omitted in cases of
de nite null instantiation. In one variant, the seer is either a consumable resource (often
money, but not time) or a person who provides such a resource, the seen(x)isahuman,
andtheNPobjectofthrough is some sort of di culty, which may be DNI in appropriate
contexts (Ex. (67-c)). In another variant, the seer is a person, the seen(x) is a task,
and the NP is either an expression meaning `the end' or `success' (Ex. (67-d)) oraDNI
with the same meaning. Ex. (67-e) is an interesting example of conjoining senses without
creating the feeling of zeugma, or perhaps better said, the skillful literary use of zeugma;
we have see x through followed by what are probably best considered two examples of
condition.
y'see
(68) a. You see, there's only so much medicine can do in this case.
b. I've been there before, y'see, so I know myway around.
c. Brown: You see, she's on a diet.
d. Brown: . . . \You see, both of them, I mean the President and Je Lawrence,
are romantics.
e. BNC: \You see," he said, \all bureaucracies are one bureaucracy."
15 Cf. Section 3.3 for discussion of the notion of metaphorical motion of the gaze.