拉投资, 写毛笔, 寄航空: objects of way, tool, material or purpose
【高85】宾语 / sentence components
Tone colorsā tone 1á tone 2ǎ tone 3à tone 4a neutral
After certain verbs the noun is not what you handle but the way, tool, material or purpose of the action. 写毛笔 does not mean "write a brush" but "write with a brush", and 拉投资 is not "pull an investment" but "go and look for investors".
Four kinds of object are taught here. Way (方式): 寄航空 (send by airmail), 存了个活期 (put one's money in a current account), 寄顺丰 (send by courier). Tool (工具): 写毛笔 (write with a brush). Material (材料): 盖一张报纸 (cover with a newspaper). Purpose (目的): 拉赞助, 拉投资 (look for sponsors, for funds), 跑项目 (chase projects). These verb + noun blocks are compact and colloquial: they replace longer wordings such as 用毛笔写 or 为了拉投资而奔走.
But they are fixed by usage. Learn them as collocations and do not build new ones on the model of 写毛笔. In every other case keep 用 (tool, material) or 为了 (purpose). The noun may take 个 or a measure word (存了个活期, 盖了一张报纸), but it is not followed by a second object.
Examples
这份文件很急，我们寄航空吧。
Zhè fèn wénjiàn hěn jí, wǒmen jì hángkōng ba.This document is urgent, so let's send it airmail.
我存了个活期，要用钱的时候随时能取。
Wǒ cún le ge huóqī, yào yòng qián de shíhou suíshí néng qǔ.I put it in a current account, so I can withdraw it whenever I need money.
爷爷从小学书法，到现在每天还写毛笔。
Yéye cóng xiǎo xué shūfǎ, dào xiànzài měi tiān hái xiě máobǐ.Grandpa has studied calligraphy since childhood and still writes with a brush every day.
夜里太冷，他在腿上盖了一张报纸就睡着了。
Yèlǐ tài lěng, tā zài tuǐ shang gài le yì zhāng bàozhǐ jiù shuìzháo le.The night was so cold that he covered his legs with a newspaper and fell asleep.
这个月我一直在外面跑项目，几乎没回过公司。
Zhège yuè wǒ yìzhí zài wàimiàn pǎo xiàngmù, jīhū méi huí guo gōngsī.All month I have been out chasing projects and have hardly been back to the office.
为了做出第一款游戏，他们两年来到处拉赞助、拉投资。
Wèile zuòchū dì yī kuǎn yóuxì, tāmen liǎng nián lái dàochù lā zànzhù, lā tóuzī.To get their first game made, they spent two years looking everywhere for sponsors and investors.
Common mistakes
✗ 她画电脑。 → ✓ 她用电脑画。 (the short form only works for set pairs such as 写毛笔; elsewhere 画电脑 reads as "draw a computer").
✗ 写毛笔 read as "write a brush" → it means "write with a brush": the noun says with what, in what way or for what purpose one acts, and it is not what undergoes the action.