憑grammar point · tier 1 · by means of 憑 (on the strength of X)
· píng
Coverb naming the backing a result is gotten through — the strength, grounds, or credential you draw on; it fronts before the verb, where it carries the outcome.
字源 FORM what the parts do
馮 píng sits whole on top, on loan for the sound. A heart 心 leans beneath it. As a coverb it names what the heart sets its weight on: the strength, the proof, the right you go by, and the result rides out from there. 憑什麼 — on the strength of what.
故事 STORY a scene to remember it by
The heart settles its weight onto a backing it trusts, and the result swings out off that one footing.
You got the result through one backing you could stand on — your own effort, a qualification, a piece of proof — and you want to name what entitled it.
序 · The move
1Name the one backing the result stands on: the strength, the grounds, or the credential you draw on.Is it a warrant the result earns its footing from, not a tool you operate? On the strength of X, not with X.
2Put 憑 + that backing in front of the verb phrase it makes good.Drop 憑 and the backing no longer entitles the outcome — 憑 is what pins the result to it.
3Keep the result clause after, with its own completion.The sentence reads as got-this on-the-strength-of-that, one footing carrying one outcome.
例 · Examples
1他憑píng — on the strength of, by means of自己的努力nǔlì — effort, hard work考上kǎoshàng — pass the exam and get in了全國最好的設計學院。
On the strength of his own effort he got into the best design academy in the country.
憑 names the backing the result is entitled to — the grounds or credential you go by (憑努力 — earned it on the strength of effort). 靠 names the support you set your weight on to bring it off (靠努力 — leaned on effort to manage it). Warrant-for vs prop-under; 憑 carries the 憑什麼 sense of by-what-right, 靠 does not.
憑 goes by a backing that entitles the result (憑經驗判斷 — judge on the strength of experience). 用 picks up a tool and wields it (用尺量 — measure with a ruler). Go-by vs operate-with.
憑 draws on a backing the result earns its footing from. 按照 conforms the action to a rule or plan laid out (按照規定 — do it the way the rules say). Draw-on vs match-to.
✗ 他用自己的努力考上了 (effort wielded like a tool) → ✓ 他憑自己的努力考上了 (effort as the backing the result stands on)
✗ 他憑得很好 → ✓ 他做得很好 (憑 governs a backing, never takes a degree complement itself)
✗ 我憑這張票就能進去 (placed after the verb) → ✓ 我憑這張票進去 (憑 + backing fronts before the verb it makes good)
English 'on the strength of' and 'by means of' trail the backing at the end ('he got in on his own effort'). Chinese fronts 憑 + that backing before the verb, where it carries the result.