Burma Road
1
7.2
- proper noun
:
Ruta de Birmania
- In response to Japan's invasion of China, the Allies prioritized the Burma Road for transporting military supplies.
- Burma Road supply line
- Burma Road supply
Examples
-
In response to Japan's invasion of China in 1937, London rejected a naval show of force to punish Japan, instead choosing to provide a loan to China for its defense and military supplies via Hong Kong and the new Burma Road.
Academic text (2004) -
He was an Army engineer who helped build the Burma Road as well as the Pipeline.
Blog text (11) -
"Barak's reminiscences of Marcus intrigued the American, especially the account of the "Burma Road."
Fiction book (1993) -
The first Allied supply convoy on the newly reopened Burma Road reaches China from India.
-
U.S. and Nationalist Chinese infantrymen capture Mogaung, a key town along the Burma Road during World War II.
Surface Forms
Morphology
A learner who knows 'Burma' and 'road' will immediately understand this refers to a road in Burma, so the basic referential content is compositional. However, the full meaning — a specific historic WWII supply route with strategic wartime significance — is a lexicalized, culturally specific sense that cannot be derived from the constituents alone, so only partial transparency applies.
Etymology
Burma Road is the name of a real road built in World War II to bring military supplies from Burma into China. Trucks had to drive over steep, rough mountain paths and through thick jungle, so the road became known as a 'lifeline' that kept China supplied, and today Burma Road still refers to that important supply route.