由or被

[Pedroski]

6. 这件事 _______ 公司负责。

 

Is there any good reason why I should choose ‘由’ and not ‘被’？Is ‘被’ wrong or just unusual?

[Hofmann]

Wow...nobody answered, huh?

 

Basically, 被 doesn't mean "from."

[anonymoose]

How does your girlfriend explain it, or did she just respond with a litany of profanities unbecoming of an educated woman?

I would say it is something like this:

被 implies an action is done to the object. 负责 is not an action (i.e. not an event where something happens to the object), and therefore does not go with 被.

Basically, 被 doesn't mean "from."

I don't understand this reply. Are you implying 由 means "from" in this sentence?

[tooironic]

At first I thought this would be an easy question to answer, but it seems I was wrong.

 

It is true that 负责 can be used as a transitive verb - e.g. 他负责招生 ("He is responsible for student enrollment") - but for some reason it does not usually collocate with 被 but rather 由. Thus, for example, you should say 招生由他负责, but not 招生被他负责.

 

One simple explanation is that 被 is commonly used with actions that have negative consequences.

 

他被杀了。He was killed.

他被经理解雇了。He was sacked by the manager.

我的问题都被你回避了。My questions were all evaded by you.

 

But this explanation is not very convincing since it doesn't explain why 由 is used instead of 被. I'll see if anyone else can come up with something better. My feeling is 被 indicates something that has happened, while 由 indicates a state or status, and that in Chinese responsibility is something one has inherently, not something that you can actively take on.

[陳德聰]

I believe #4 is on the right track. I agree that 被 is generally negative, and 由 does not have any such connotation.

 

被 seems to be used with verbs that constitute "events", one-time verbs that are not continuous, e.g. 發現，傻，罵，偷

由 is used with verbs that involve an ongoing (I don't know if I would say state necessarily here) process or an ongoing action, e.g. 負責，承擔，構成

 

I think translating 負責 as "to be responsible for" essentially covers that, since the only way we could arrive at 被 would be if you are reading 負責 as "to take responsibility for".

 

I think both whether the sentence has a negative impact on the speaker and the verb type are relevant constraints.

[Pedroski]

Someone gave me this sentence, which is nearly the same: 这件事 被 公司解决。

 

@anonymoose: gf said something like ‘不要打扰我，让我睡觉 (expletives deleted)'

[anonymoose]

Structurally it's the same, but not semantically. 解决 is an action which has a clear effect on the object. In other words, the action changed the 事 from a state of not 解决 to a state of 解决. 负责 on the other hand isn't. That's why I said in #3 that 被 is only used with actions which have an explicit effect on the object.

[ZhangJiang]

这件事被公司负责了，你再找其他事去。The company has taken charge of the business. You need to find something else.

 

So one simple answer is that when 被 is used, the verb has to appear with particles 了、着、过 or adverbs with similar functions, like 已、将、正在, while 由 just need a two-character verb.

 

I agree with the above that 由 indicates an ongoing process, and sometimes it implies a requirement or obligation.

Some other interesting findings:

这个问题被公司解决了 = 公司解决了这个问题：The company has solved the problem.

这个问题由公司解决了 = 由公司解决这个问题了： Now it's the company's responsibility to solve the problem.

[Pedroski]

Quote from stackexchange:

 

It (被） always requires verbs to be perfective (~ become meaningful by the end of the action), because what's important is the result.

 

这件事 由 公司负责。means the company has not yet assumed responsibility? They will/may/shall assume the responsibility??

 

So, if I added a 了 to no. 6, I could happily use 被？？

 

6. 这件事 _______ 公司负责了。

[Tiana]

This is an interesting question

 

In addition to what has been said above about the difference between 由 and 被 in the OP's sentence, 这件事 由 公司负责, I'd say two things:

1. Both 由 and 被 can be followed by some type of "agent" (公司 in this sentence), the agent followed 由 tends to be a body designed, assigned or voted to act as a duty. There is no such a tendency with 被 (eg. 被他发现)

2. Following 由, some "agent" is to be specified (eg. 由 他 负责). There's no such a requirement for 被, and it can therefore be directly followed by the main verb (eg. 被发现).

 

So, if I added a 了 to no. 6, I could happily use 被？？

6. 这件事 _______ 公司负责了。

 

I would say "yes", in limited contexts.

[陳德聰]

I would say "yes", but the meaning is not the same.

 

這件事被公司負責了

and

這件事由公司負責

 

Are not the same thing.

这件事 由 公司负责。means the company has not yet assumed responsibility? They will/may/shall assume the responsibility??

The company assumes responsibility for this. (ongoing)

[skylee]

被負責（了） sounds really odd/ bad. But maybe this is just me.

[陳德聰]

To me it changes the original meaning of 負責 to become a one-time action that finishes in the moment it is performed, which I understand but am not inclined to ever say.