-- 1 He is working in many areas.
-- 2 He is in a difficult field.
-- 3 There are many subareas in linguistics.
-- 1 The scientists forged ahead.
-- 2 We're reaching uncharted territory,
-- 3 The theory breaks new ground,
-- 4 The scientists have covered a lot of ground in the last 100 years.
-- 5 They are making headway,
-- 6 There are many new frontiers of science,
-- 7 This could lead to new fields of research,
-- 8 That is still a wide open field.
-- 9 Your dissertation should stake out new territory, preferablyvirgin territory.
-- 10 The researchers surveyed the new material.
-- 1 In the search for a cure, they left no stone unturned.
-- 2 They unearthed new evidence.
-- 3 They found a goldmine of new material.
-- 4 They uncovered a few gems in doing their research.
-- 1 This is a fertile area for research.
-- 2 This topic would allow you to plow a new area in the field.
-- 3 This is a barren topic.
-- 4 The climate is good for producing some solid research.
This interacts with the Theory as Plants metaphor territory (for agriculture or resources),when a student enters into a new field of study, he is likelyto spend a considerable amount of time becoming aquaintedwith it.
Eve Sweetser & JE & AG & Babette Jackson (185, '87)