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I'm currently reading a screenplay regarding to Oda Nobunaga.

In one of the character line, it is written that

あなたは死して尚、この僕を囚えようというのですか?

Base on my search, it seems that the kanji 囚 is associated with word like capture and imprisonment, while 囚人 means prisoner.

However, I am unsure about the meaning and grammar of 囚えよう in this context.

Is it possible for someone to elaborate more on this?

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  • ん? もしかして... you're unsure of the ~よう part? とらえる -> とらえよう(volitional form)
    – chocolate
    Jan 12, 2019 at 9:10
  • @Chocolate I was unsure of the ~よう part at first, but I understood it now. I don't want to confuse other people, so I edited the question to volitional form.
    – Maru
    Jan 12, 2019 at 10:48

1 Answer 1

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It's intended to be a conjugation of とらえる "to catch/seize/grasp/capture etc". In this case, of course, you can understand that they mean "captivate" with the assistance of the kanji 囚.

Funnily, I guess you won't find the written form 囚える in most dictionaries. That's because the kanji 囚 is normally only assigned to the paired intransitive verb とらわれる. This asymmetry comes from that only とらわれる has an extended meaning "be in capitivity; be confined", not just being caught. That said, those who know the other one would feel nothing difficult to read it とらえる by analogy, and infer that it means "put someone into captivity".

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