设立 vs 成立 vs 建立

[DrWatson]

What is the difference in 设立 vs 成立 vs 建立?

When I look these up in CE dictionaries it says "establish".  But in a textbook I was looking at (which of course did not explain the difference!) both were used back to back, and I wonder if there is a nuance.

 

去年公司已经在北京设立了一家分公司，最近又计划在广州成立一家分公司，。。。

 

Is 设立 for something already established, and 成立 for something that has not yet been started?  And I feel like perhaps 建立 has more to do with construction and structures, but am I reading too much into that?  建立 is not in the sentence, but I found it as a synonym.

[gwr71]

If I may try. Please forgive me If I don't get it right.

 

The company has already established a branch at Bei Jing last year, and recently planned (in the process of )  to establish/set up  a subsidiary at Guangzhou.

 

Please let me know if I got it right or close to it.  I can only hazard a guess that the two verbs are used interchangeably with no significance.

However, there may be a reason why each verb is specifically used. There are many knowledgeable persons in this forum and they can help you further.

[roddy]

Off the top of my head, and bearing in mind these are preferences rather than hard and fast rules:

 

建立 is more abstract. You use this for, eg, diplomatic relations. You might 建立 a new welfare system, but you'd need to 成立 or 設立 the actual bodies to implement it. 

 

成立 and 設立 are very similar. 成立 is closer to 'found' and so is a bit grander - there are many examples of a 成立典禮， fewer of a 設立典禮。 

 

Everyone can pick that apart now while I get on with what I actually wanted to say. 

 

 

Bear in mind these aren't meaning issues, they're usage issues. A good dictionary might help with them (particularly if you pay close attention to the example sentences), but there are specific books for this. I'm not going to track down a current one, but here's an older and hard to get one. (and say what you like about new vs old hsk, I've yet to notice the new HSK spurring the same quality of linked text and reference books)

 

If your dictionary really is just giving 'establish' as the only information for all three, it might be worth looking for another dictionary. But also, you're getting beyond the scope of the simpler dictionaries. 

[There There]

设立 branch office (actual body but small)  

成立 corporation/group(actual body bigger than you could 设立)

建立 dynasty/great achievements (something intangible)

[DrWatson]

Thank you all for the explanations, I think I understand it better now. And yes, I think it is time to invest in some good dictionaries.