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Why is 来 used in the following sentence? For some context, this is a line from a text used in the second workbook of the New Practical Chinese Reader series (pg. 93). In the text a teacher is explaining to his students how to use the word '东西'. The student uses it incorrectly, and the teacher says the following:
‘这个句子也不对。因为‘东西’一般不能用来表示人。同学们，要记住，说别人，‘不是东西’ 是骂人的话，不能随便更用’
Why is 来 used?
The answer to the question explained the function of 来 as a preposition (in order to; so that) that connect two related verb phrases, but here '用 ~ 来' can be simply explained as 'use ~ to'; (被)用来 as (be)used to
"(把)'东西'用来 表示人" = "(take) 'things' to be used to indicate human"
"用('东西')来 表示人" = "use ('things') to indicate human'"
“因为‘东西’一般不能用来表示人” = "because 'things' usually cannot be used to indicate human"
In the text you posted. 东西 (things) is the topic and 不能(被)用来表示人 (cannot be used to indicate human) is the comment
Why is 来 used?
It's a style thing (and an indication of an older language, I think).
You may choose not to use it:
因为‘东西’一般不能用表示人。
Also, you may write:
因为你一般不能用“东西”来表示人。
来 and 去 are both used in this way as directional indicators, just like in German. (English has largely given up this practice.)
Language makes a lot of shortcuts: if you use something, you must have got it from somewhere.
In this case：
"You cannot take the word 'thing' （东西） from（来） your vocabulary and use （用） it to indicate （表示） a person （人）"
那个东西！
I just read about an African laughing tree when I saw this post.
来回： v. [来来去去] move back and forth
来回：literally: from (and) return
当风吹来时，
When the wind blows from,
皮蕊在里面来回滚动，
the pistils inside roll from and back,
当风吹来时，果实随风摇动，皮蕊在里面来回滚动，不断撞击薄脆的外壳，发出类似人类“哈哈”的笑声，因此，当地人称它为“笑树”。
哈哈！
