with/by your hair

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Angliholic  #430260  Sat, 13 Oct 07 02:52 AM
Can you lift an elephant with your hair?
If your classmates were very strong, they should have been able to pick you up and swing you around by your hair.



Why does the first sentence uses with your hair while the second by? What are the different meanings between them? Thanks.
  
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CalifJim  #430272  Sat, 13 Oct 07 03:52 AM
with ______    using this tool
by _______     grasping a thing using this 'handle'

Can you cut this cake with this knife?
Can you pound this nail in with this hammer?
Can you clean the floor with this broom?

You should pick up this pan by the heat-resistant handle.
You should take the child by the hand and lead her away.
You should grab the snake by the head to prevent it from biting you.


So in the first case hair is being conceptualized as a tool for doing lifting; in the second case hair is being thought of as a place to hold on to a person.

CJ

  
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Angliholic  #430281  Sat, 13 Oct 07 04:20 AM

Thanks, Jim, for the beneficial and reasonable answer.

You're really beneficent.

  
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