叫 — Pivotal verb: subject tells or gets a named person to perform the following action; that person is both the one called and the one who acts.

TSUMUGU · TBCL 3 (est.) · 語法

叫 grammar point · tier 1 · causative 叫 (tell/get someone to do something)

· jiào

Pivotal verb: subject tells or gets a named person to perform the following action; that person is both the one called and the one who acts.

Hook inherited from 讓.

Pivotal verb

框 · Frame

[subj] 叫 [person] [verb phrase]

觸 · Trigger

You direct another person to carry out an action; the person you name is the one who then does it.

序 · The move

1Place the one giving the order as subject; put 叫 after it.Is the subject someone with standing to direct, not merely asking a favour?

2Name the person being directed immediately after 叫.Does this person both receive the call and perform the next verb (the pivot)?

3Attach the action that person is to carry out as a full verb phrase.Could you replace 叫 with 請 and it would turn into a polite request instead of an instruction?

例 · Examples

1我叫get/tell (someone to)人someone — the pivot去買go buy便當回來come back。

I'll get someone to go buy lunchboxes and bring them back.

界 · Boundary

請

叫 directs from standing — you tell them to do it; 請 defers — you ask them as a favour. Same pivot shape, opposite footing.

讓

叫 issues the action — you set them off doing it; 讓 permits or allows the action — you let it happen. 叫 starts it, 讓 clears the way for it.

✗ 我叫了他去買便當。 → ✓ 我叫他去買便當。 (叫 takes no 了 between it and the person; the aspect rides the second verb.)

✗ 我叫去買便當人。 → ✓ 我叫人去買便當。 (the directed person sits right after 叫, before the action.)

✗ 老師叫我們的功課做完。 → ✓ 老師叫我們把功課做完。 (the pivot is a person, not a thing; an object needs 把 inside the second verb phrase.)

English "have/make someone do" drops the second "to" (have him go), which matches Chinese, but learners overcorrect by inserting 去 or 來 mechanically; in Chinese the second verb is bare and only takes 去/來 when motion is meant.