“空穴来风”的用法及其他: 谈由词语“误用”引发的语言变异

Examining some examples in contemporary Chinese, we can see that the meaning and the usage of the idiom of “空穴” has changed quite a lot. The comparison of the explanations in more than 20 dictionaries has verified the fact. The change of the meaning and usage of the idiom, to some extent, is a result of the misunderstanding and mis-use of the idiom by the language users. And the theory of the folk etymology can give an explanation of the misunderstanding and mis-use of the idiom. Besides the idiom of “空穴”, some other idioms which we use in our daily life have also changed their meanings and usages. It deserves our consideration in dealing with the language changes resulted from the misunderstanding and mis-use by the language users.