Usage of kai1 (开)

[tony1343]

Hi,

I'm hoping someone could help me out with how to use kai1 (开). I know it can mean "open" as in shang1 dian3 kai1 men2 le.

However, from Pimsleur's I see that it is also used in the context of "hui kaide hen hao" - "the meeting went very well" and "hui kaide hen changde shijian" - the meeting lasted a very long time.

I've also learned that it can be used as in "kai1 che1" - "drive a car."

I'm hoping someone can give me a little more information on this word or a link to somewhere that can help. When I look up kai1 in a dictionary I get "open / operate (vehicle) / start." So this makes sense for the my 1st and 3rd examples, but I'm confused on the 2nd one. Obviously, this is a word with multiple meanings, but I don't understand how to use it in the second sense, besides merely regurgitating the sentences from Pimsleurs.

Thanks so much.

[skylee]

This is a useful reference -> http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/cgi-bin/agrep-lindict?query=%b6%7d&category=wholerecord

[iaidai]

In Chinese, kai1 has many meanings. In the context of “hui kai de hen hao”, the meaning of “kai” is means “put up”, or “have”.

In addition, “kai1” also has some other meanings. For example, “kai guo”(set up a new country), “kai” also means set up or establish. Sometimes “kai1” can mean write. For example, “kai fa1 piao4”(invoice).

[adrianlondon]

开会, verb, to have a meeting

http://www.xuezhongwen.net/chindict/chindict.php?wdqchs=%E5%BC%80%E4%BC%9A

[Luobot]

However, from Pimsleur's I see that it is also used in the context of "hui kaide hen hao" - "the meeting went very well" and "hui kaide hen changde shijian" - the meeting lasted a very long time.

Here's a guess regarding why 开 (kāi) might be used to indicate that the meeting lasted a long time. In addition to the most common meanings of 开 ("open, start, drive a vehicle") and the zillions of other meanings that 开 assumes depending upon the other characters it teams up with and/or the context of the sentence in which it's used, I found in my pocket Oxford that 开 also has a little noted grammatical function: When used after a verb, 开 indicates outward movement. With that in mind, 开 perhaps takes the act of meeting and, in conjunction with 很长的时间 (hěn cháng de shíjiān), pushes the meeting out, making for an interpretation that the meeting 会 extended out 开 a long 长 time 时间.

Its use in the other sentence to say that it was a good meeting could be that 开 also means to blossom, like a flower; so in effect, we have a meeting that blossomed and therefore was a good meeting.

Again, this is just a guess, not an authoritative answer.