Comments on: The Riches of the Language

By: ximeng

ximeng — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:45:12 +0000

兜 to carry as if in a bag, my dictionary has 小姑娘的衣襟里兜着几个苹果

By: ximeng

ximeng — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:46:28 +0000

Maybe 掬? Not sure about the differences between the ones you’ve already got.

By: uln

uln — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:52:39 +0000

I would also say that one condition for inclusion, although it was not clear in the post, is that it can be used in the typical construction “X +着+Object+走路, for example, so it is purely a word that means carrying. Other words, athough very similar, have more the meaning of “get” or “pick”, such as 捡 or 取。

I want to stick to characters that can be used to translate the verbs “carry” or “take”.

By: uln

uln — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:39:08 +0000

Mmh. I have already added the pinyin but now I am hesitating whether to add the new words.

The reason is that, although your characters are completely valid, their meanings are already covered by characters on the list. The point being that I want to show different characters that show different nuances in one kind of action, rather than characters that are complete synonym but originate for dialectal/historical/other reasons.

So the question you might be able to answer if you are Chinese is: are your 荷 and 担 any different from 背 and 扛？

As for 揪, I have the feeling that it doesn’t introduce any new meaning to the other “grasp” verbs, and a quick search on google for “揪着” shows that it is most often used in abstract contexts as in 揪着我的心, which does not really convey the realmeaning of carrying something.

Please feel free to disagree

By: uln

uln — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:08:00 +0000

Hi Ximeng, thanks a lot! It’s been ages I don’t update my little carrying list. I will add the tones as well.

By: ximeng

ximeng — Sun, 17 May 2009 10:13:02 +0000

担 dan1 carry on a shoulder pole

By pinyin I meant tones, you’ve got the pinyin already.

By: ximeng

ximeng — Sun, 17 May 2009 09:56:57 +0000

揪 jiu1 hold tight (e.g. rope). Btw pinyin would be good for these!

By: ximeng

ximeng — Sun, 17 May 2009 09:53:15 +0000

荷 he4: carry on shoulder or back

By: uln

uln — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:53:24 +0000

Hi Gudong,

Thanks a lot. Chinese language will never cease to amaze me.

I will update the list as soon as I can get back to my normal connection (I am away on holidays these days).

By: gudong

gudong — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:08:32 +0000

The meanings of 握 and 抓 are quite different.握 means to hold with fingers bent and COMBINED when you 抓 something with fingers fully separated.

Here are some others:
托：to hold in the palm of the hand
拈：to hold with two fingers (gently)

By: Time for Resolutions | CHINAYOUREN

Time for Resolutions | CHINAYOUREN — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:08:48 +0000

[...] that come looking for lessons of Chinese: Be patient, I will be doing more soon. For the moment the carrying thread has been updated with 2 more carrying characters, thanks to VIP contributor XiaoLu. If you [...]

By: uln

uln — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:26:25 +0000

Hi Joel, good to see you. I don’t know, I guess those words are not strictly necessary to survive, as you can always just say take/拿. But then, life would be so dull without the unnecessary.

BTW, I really liked your Alibaba post. I hope next week I have more time for blogging and commenting coz now I’m really stuck with work.

Chinese readers: no suggestions to carry things?