meaning - What is the "fundamental" difference between ‘search’ and ‘seek’?



So why do human beings spend so much time playing? One reason is that we have time for leisure; animals have very little time to play as most of their life is spent sleeping and (2)________ food.


Source: Cambridge English, FIRST 1 (2014): Test 1, Reading and Use of English paper



The following options are given:


A. searching ; B. looking; C. seeking; D. gaining


The answer given in the book is C, which is fine by me, in fact in the EL&U archives I found this question: "Seek" vs."search"; the accepted answer with twelve upvotes says:



[…] However, they are really quite different. One fundamental difference is that the object of seek is the item you are trying to locate, whereas the object of search is the place you are looking in. […] Also, seek implies that the seeker knows that the item they are looking for does exist. Search has no such implication.



Which confirms the "correct" answer is seeking. The other reason for it being the only answer possible is that we normally use the preposition ‘for’ with the verb search.



  1. ‘search food’ (NO)

  2. ‘search for food’ (YES).


Which brings me back to the EL&U question. If ‘food’ is the object of seek, as stated in the accepted answer, and a fundamental difference between seek and search; why do native speakers tend to say search for food?


enter image description here


The above Google Ngram seems to strongly suggest that searching for food is perfectly grammatical.



  • If native speakers say seek food, and search for food; what is the fundamental difference between the two?



Answer



Since the object of search would be a location (not the thing searched for), "food" cannot be used on its own as the object, as you have noted.


Instead, when we say "search for food", the "for food" is a modifying clause to clarify what we are searching for. It needs "for" precisely because "the object of seek is the item you are trying to locate, whereas the object of search is the place you are looking in."


Notice that even with "for", the clarifying clause is not serving as the object of "search". This becomes more clear if we include an actual object. For example:


search the room for food


"the room" is a location and is the object of the search. "for food" is still only a modifying clause that clarifies what the search is for. It doesn't thereby become the object of "search". Therefore, "search" and "seek" are indeed still different in the way you originally noted.


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