The word 作者 is formed by combining two characters: 作, which means "to make" or "to create", and 者, which is a nominalizer indicating "the one who" or "the person that". When placed together, they create a new, single concept where the literal sense of "the one who creates" crystallizes into the specific meaning of "author" or "writer". This is a classic example of Chinese word formation through the logical and semantic compounding of meaningful components.