What exactly does 捉え直す mean?


The term `捉{とら}え直{なお}す` has come up in three different essays in my JLPT
practise book, and I can't determine exactly what it means.

My understanding of `捉{とら}える` is that it means "to catch, to capture", and my
understanding of `直{なお}す` is that it is "to fix, to restore". Of course, each
of these has other meanings as well, but it hasn't helped me to try and
consider the myriad combinations of each word's nuances.

"To capture and fix"? "To catch and restore"? The literal combination isn't
very evocative.

`捉{とら}え直{なお}す` doesn't have a direct entry in any dictionary I've looked, nor
has a Google search come up with much.

What does it mean, exactly?

Here is an example sentence where it is used (though it may be a little opaque
without the rest of the essay to support it):

>
> 場所{ばしょ}に根{ね}を生{は}やし、場所{ばしょ}と接続{せつぞく}されるためには、建築{けんちく}を表象{ひょうしょう}としてではなく、存在{そんざい}として、捉{とら}え直{なお}さなければならない。

WIthout having clarity about `捉{とら}え直{なお}す`, my attempt to translate will be
half-baked, but here is a rough attempt: "Cultivating the roots of a place, in
order to connect with the area, not as an emblem of the construction, the
reality (existence) has to be _caught and repaired_."




Japanese can form compound verbs readily, and only a subset of them end up in
dictionaries, usually after they've been lexicalized (reinterpreted as a
single element) and especially if they've been idiomatized (given an idiomatic
meaning you can't figure out from the individual elements, like 落ち着く). In
particular, certain verbs compound very readily as suffixes, giving the same
meaning no matter what the first verb in the compound is.

In this case, you can find the answer in EDICT under
[直す](http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E7%9B%B4%E3%81%99&eng=&dict=edict), marked
with the (aux-v) tag:

> 3: (Auxiliary verb) to do over again (after -masu base of verb);

The "-masu base of verb" in Japanese is called the 連用形, so let's look for
something that attaches after the 動詞の連用形 in 大辞林's entry for
[直す](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E7%9B%B4%E3%81%99&stype=0&dtype=0&dname=0ss):

> **動詞の連用形の下に付いて** 、より良い結果を得るために、いったん行なった動作をもう一度する意を表す。
>
> 計算し―・す
>
> 書き―・す
>
> やり―・す

The examples mean to recalculate, to rewrite, and to redo. Based on this, what
does 直す mean when you attach it to 捉え? I'd say it means **to recapture.**




Japanese can form compound verbs readily, and only a subset of them end up in
dictionaries, usually after they've been lexicalized (reinterpreted as a
single element) and especially if they've been idiomatized (given an idiomatic
meaning you can't figure out from the individual elements, like 落ち着く). In
particular, certain verbs compound very readily as suffixes, giving the same
meaning no matter what the first verb in the compound is.

In this case, you can find the answer in EDICT under
[直す](http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E7%9B%B4%E3%81%99&eng=&dict=edict), marked
with the (aux-v) tag:

> 3: (Auxiliary verb) to do over again (after -masu base of verb);

The "-masu base of verb" in Japanese is called the 連用形, so let's look for
something that attaches after the 動詞の連用形 in 大辞林's entry for
[直す](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E7%9B%B4%E3%81%99&stype=0&dtype=0&dname=0ss):

> **動詞の連用形の下に付いて** 、より良い結果を得るために、いったん行なった動作をもう一度する意を表す。
>
> 計算し―・す
>
> 書き―・す
>
> やり―・す

The examples mean to recalculate, to rewrite, and to redo. Based on this, what
does 直す mean when you attach it to 捉え? I'd say it means **to recapture.**

