What is the difference between "doing" and "making"?

It is generally believed that "do" means a specific action, and "zuo" means an abstract action. I have always thought this way, although I have a doubt in my heart. Concrete and abstract are relative. What should I do if I cannot distinguish between concrete and abstract. Recently I used the "Practical Chinese Textbook" (Volume 3) compiled by Beijing Language Institute and published by The Commercial Press, and found that the confusion was beyond my imagination:

Being a guest at the old captain's home (page 148) < /p>

The old captain’s wife, Mrs. Tian, ??and her daughter, Xiaohua, were cooking at home. When they heard that guests were coming, they hurriedly walked out of the house. (Page 149)

Normally, "being a guest" is more abstract than "cooking", and "cooking" is more concrete than "being a guest". However, the way the text is written is just reversed. Sometimes the writing in the book seems to be random:

If I feel a little uncomfortable, he will be busy calling the doctor, buying medicine, and doing this and that for me to take. (Page 107)

Aunt Ding said: "If I feel a little uncomfortable, he will be busy making this and that for me to eat." (Page 122)

Mrs. Brown sees When he saw the dumplings neatly placed there, he praised them and said: "How well done!..." (page 151)

In a moment, everyone will be invited to try the Chinese dumplings we made. (Page 167)

Some people have eaten it and said that the outside is made of flour and the inside is stuffed with meat and vegetables. It is very delicious; (Page 167)

This cannot help but make us think, is there any difference between "doing" and "making"?

We examined Qian Zhongshu's "Qi Zhu Ji", Lu Shuxiang's "Chinese Grammar Analysis Problems", and Li Rong's "Word Problems". The authors of the three books are all famous writers. Mr. Qian is famous for his extensive knowledge and strong memory, and his deep and subtle knowledge; Mr. Lu is delicate and meticulous, as clear as water, and is respected by others; Mr. Li is devoted to thinking, strict in asking others and himself, some people like it, and some people fear it. The result of the investigation was that none of the three gentlemen could completely distinguish between the two words.

Mr. Qian prefers to use the word "zuo". This can be known from the "preface to the revised edition" that comes into view as soon as you open "The Collection of Seven Suits":

Since the publication of this book, I have made some revisions. I thank Comrade Wei Tongxian for giving it the opportunity to be published. Comrade Xin Guangwei worked hard to help publish this book, and I would like to express my gratitude to him. By the way, three articles in "Collection" have been selected by the French scholar Mr. Yubai for my "Five Essays on Poetics" and have been carefully translated. In the "Afterword" of the translation, I also expressed the idea of ??"domestic sales". ” turned into a surprise for “export”.

The word "zuo" is also generally used in the book:

It does not make any valuation of old Chinese poetry and old paintings, but only explains the comparative estimation of poetry and painting by traditional Chinese criticism. . (1 page)

Critics in the new tradition can have a more comprehensive understanding of the works in the old tradition and make more objective assessments; (3 pages)

... Mrs. Er is a born fox, but she wants to be a hedgehog. (Page 26)

An artist made this illustration: (Page 46)

All of these illustrate or appreciate the meaning or art of the original work. (Page 93)

Literati have a good reputation and are jealous of each other. They have always been the butt of jokes... (Page 103)

A lonely martyr in the late Ming Dynasty and a literary attendant in the early Qing Dynasty tried to gave the same psychological answer. (Page 127)

However, we can also see examples of using "make", although there are very few:

...to lure people to love foreign works, as if playing matchmaking,... (Page 81)

If she "sings" tonelessly, she is obviously acting... (Page 86)

The common title has a meaning here Less commonly used modern meaning: does not refer to "German giants", but refers to British businessmen doing import and export business with Germany. (Page 91)

And you can actually find examples of the mixed use of "zuo" and "do" under the same conditions:

...A person's poetry and reasoning may be contradictory, " There is reason beyond reason in poetry." (Page 71)

The monk writes poetry, and of course he has the ancestral items from our store at his fingertips. (Page 74)

Although Song Qi's poems were deeply influenced by "Xi Kun Style"... (Page 21)

There is only one place where Mr. Qian used " "Do":

Suppose someone does an experiment... Of course no one has done this experiment, and it may not need to be done. (Page 105)

It seems that Mr. Qian also thinks that "experiment" is specific and should be used as "do".

Mr. Lu Shuxiang is the opposite of Mr. Qian, preferring to use the word "do". We can see this by quoting some sentences from the previous sections of the book. (Mr. Lu’s book has a section number before each section. We use the section number to indicate the source, so that people with different versions can check it.):

The first solution is to conduct more investigations on actual use cases.

(Foreword)

This article attempts to review the problems existing in the Chinese grammar system,... (section 1)

Of course, it is best to use letters as codes,... ( Section 3)

Generally speaking, there are two and a half things that can be used as the basis for grammatical analysis:... (Section 4)

You can also use 'morpheme' as the smallest unit,... …(Verse 9)

Please pay attention to the following three examples. Most people are accustomed to using "zuo", but Mr. Lu used "zuo". Especially in the form of "verb + zuo (to do)", Mr. Lu writes "to do": "called (verse 2)", "divided into done (verse 38)", "counted as done (verse 41)", "as done (verse 47)" "See as (verse 72)", "Translate as (Note 9)", etc. However, in the same situation, we also found the phenomenon of two words being mixed, for example:

Sometimes a preposition with a noun can be used as a predicate, such as: (page 120)

< p>The same section has:

Some prepositions can take an object as a predicate, so there is...

Prepositions with nouns and prepositions with objects refer to the same thing, but Use "zuo" once and "do" once. Others such as:

It neither has the main characteristics of a noun (being a subject or an object), nor does it have the main characteristics of a predicate, that is, a verb and a general adjective (being a predicate). (Verse 44)

There is almost no difference between using adjectives as predicates and intransitive verbs as predicates, and they do not need to be classified into another category. (Verse 62)

On the other hand, further analysis is needed to see what specific content it contains. (Verse 75)

It would be very interesting if someone collected the various diagrams and symbols that have been used or may be used in some analysis and made a comparative study. (Page 79)

Mr. Qian and Mr. Lu each have their own interests and seem to have their own obsessions, but they cannot avoid using different words in the same situation.

Mr. Li Rong, like Mr. Qian Zhongshu, also prefers to use the word "zuo". Here are three examples:

In the process of gradually realizing the four modernizations, linguistics and philology should make due contributions. (1 page)

In the text and title, the word "Zhuang" appears thirty-nine times, all of which are used as surnames. (Page 20)

There are various situations of variant characters. Here we only give a brief explanation of the wide and narrow functions. (Page 21)

This book is about philology, so there are many sayings that "a certain character is a certain" and "a certain character is originally a certain". These may be fixed sayings in philology and are not enough. certificate. However, the "V~" form in the whole book is written as "V for". In the book, there are "used as (page 21)", "read as (page 22)", "rewritten as (page 24)", "written as (page 9)" and "mistakenly". "Composition (10 pages)", "Descriptive writing (50 pages)", etc. However, we also found five examples of "do" written in it, one of which is "called":

My method of collecting data is not comprehensive and systematic. It requires too much manpower. Too long. (2 pages)

On the one hand, this will confuse general readers and promote this illusion. (Page 13)

"Clamping hands" means clamping the hands, so the word "clipping" is written as "holding" from the hand. The previous sentence also has the word "help" as a basis for imitating and adding hands. (Page 45)

When later generations copy ancient books or engrave ancient books, they sometimes make mistakes accidentally. (Page 74)

Errand is related to doing things, so it seems to be written as "errand". (Page 93)

The third example can be compared:

Intentional rewriting is often based on unintentional innovation... (Page 76)

A careful reviewer like Mr. Li cannot avoid mixing the two words, which shows that the two words are actually indistinguishable. ①

Three

Since the two words cannot be separated, can they simply be merged?

Let’s talk about the direction of merger first. It is obviously not possible to merge "make" into "do". We cannot let the fixed writing methods of "work", "composition", "style" and "works" change their appearance. The advisable merge direction can only be and "do" as "zuo". It’s not like no one has tried this method. Mr. Lao She's "Luotuo Xiangzi" has an index, and we looked it up by the way. The whole book only has "zuo" and not "do". "Camel Xiangzi" is a successful work, which can prove that there is no problem with merger.

However, we estimate that if we have to cancel the word "do" and only use the word "zuo", people who want elegant writing will not be able to pass it. Therefore, another way to take care of the current situation is to continue to separate the two words, but to modify the current standards for separation. Abstract, concrete standards have proven unfeasible. First, we cannot divide human activities into simple abstract and concrete categories. Second, even if we divide them into such categories, we can only develop a long list for people to follow, but cannot turn it into simple rules. Let people take control. Therefore, the feasible way is to combine grammatical classification, just like at the beginning of this century, "di" was abolished and returned to "de", and grammatical standards were used to allocate the three words "de", "di" and "de".

One way to consider is to write "do" as the predicate verb and "zuo" as the fixed word.

This can ensure that all existing words are written in the current way, such as:

Writing, work, composition, homework, style, role, as (noun), as (verb), author, work, pairing, To cancel, to have fun, to give up, to work and rest, to cheat, to do evil, to fight, to make things happen, to call the shots, to commit crimes, to do things (= methods)...

There is no need to hesitate when writing the following:

< p> Cook, cook, make dumplings, do needlework, do homework, do composition, do work, explain, make reports, make plans, make plans, do this, do that, do things, do things (Taoist practices) ...

In addition, "verb + zuo (to do)" is always written as "zuo". Forms of this type all express a conceptual or meaning of the result of an action rather than the specific action added to the object. Writing this way is also consistent with the current usage habits of most people.

What is more difficult are those situations where it is not clear whether it is a word or a phrase, such as:

Writing poetry ~ making poetry ~ making people ~ doing things ~ doing things

Maybe there should be strict rules. (I tend to analyze it as a structure, so I advocate writing it in the following form. From this point of view, this method is not a foolproof solution after all, but fortunately there are not many.)

In this way, our suggestion becomes if If it's elegant, just follow the method we proposed; if it's secular, follow Lao She's method and write "zuo" in everything. ②

Four

However, it should be pointed out that elegance and customs change with the changes of the times. In ancient times, there was "zuo" but not "doing". Here are one example from bronze inscriptions, two examples from The Book of Songs and two examples from The Analects of Confucius, all of which are models of ancient culture.

"Guo Jizi Bai Pan": In the 12th year of Guo Ji, in the first month of the year, at the beginning of Ji Dinghai, Guo Jizi Bai Zha (composed)

Treasure plate.

"The Book of Songs·Jie Nanshan Zhi Shi·Yu Wuzheng": When you left home in the past, who will be your roommate?

"The Book of Songs·Zhou Song·Heaven Made": Heaven makes high mountains, and the king is in ruins.

"The Analects of Confucius·Xue Er": Those who do not like to commit offenses but are fond of making trouble are those who do not exist.

"The Analects of Confucius·Xue Er": Telling without writing, trusting but fond of the past, stealing and comparing it to me, Lao Peng.

"Guangyun" does not include the word "zuo". It was not until "Jiyun" that it pointed out under the word "zuo": "The common word 'zuo' is not right." In other words, until that time , "do" was included in calligraphy books as a "vulgar word", and was considered wrong. If you think "classical" is "elegant", writing "Zuo" all the time would be to abandon the vulgar and go for elegance.

Notes

① Of course we cannot rule out the possibility that several gentlemen’s works may have been misprinted when they passed through the typesetting room. But the differences between these gentlemen are still very clear. In particular, the two linguists' different treatment of "verb + zuo (to do)" cannot be the attention of the typesetter. In addition, Mr. Lu's work was also included in some later published collections. Some of the wording has been modified, but the use of "zuo" and "do" has not changed. It can be seen that the alternate use of the two words is not the same in Mr. Lu's work. Absolutely exclusive.

② There is only one word that will cause trouble when writing "zuo" all the time. This is the word "pretentious". However, our ancients seem to have already encountered this problem and have prepared a rare word in the language. A complete synonym for "fabricated".

12 Answers: Anonymous 2008-1-15 14:02

Let me comment>> Related content What is the difference and usage of "do" and "zuo"? 1 2007-4-11 What is the difference between doing and zuo? What is the difference in usage? 4 2006-5-24 What is the difference and usage between "doing" and "zuo"? What is the difference between "make" and "make"? 8 2008-8-11 The usage difference between doing and doing 6 2006-7-24 The usage and difference between doing and doing 7 2006-4-25