You have two documents. THey both certify, they both provide certification. You are right that certification is a process and a certificate is a document. But what your bureaucrats call the process of certification is carried out how?
By providing a second, different document. Both documents are certificates. Both documents certify. Both documents provide certification.
The bureaucrats have decreed that the one document, which they call a certificate, certifies x and y and z. They also decree that document 2 (certificate 2) should not be called “a certificate” but a “certification.”
They are illiterate. And their stupid illiteracy produces confusion. If they just used clearly distinct words to label document/certificate 1 and document/certificate 2, things would be clearer.
Linguistically speaking, there is no difference between a certificate which certifies and produces certification and a certification which takes place by means of a certificate.
The bureaucrats won’t call the second certificate a certificate but will call it a document.
If you can’t see that the distinction they make between certificate and certification is entirely artificial and created by them, I’m sorry.
They could avoid all this by using clearly distinct words for the levels of certification provided by the two distinct documents/certificates.
But they don’t. And you’ve drunk their lilnguistic koolaid.
What's being certified here are the facts of a particular birth. The parents and doctor actually do most of the certification. The facts which they certified were recorded on a typed birth certificate.
A certificate shows what has been certified by those qualified to certify the facts. The old birth certificate showed what had been certified 48 years ago for Obama.
No one today who wasn't there can certify what happened 48 years ago. They can do one of two things:
1. Certify that they are providing a true copy of an original birth certificate from 48 years ago. No process involved, just copying a source document.
2. Certify that they have examined available records and reproduced the 48 year old information on a new print out. The are certifying, 48 years later, that they have examined available records and transposed it via computer to a new printout, certifying that the information gathered is correct. They went through some certification process 48 years later to verify the information presented on a new document.
There's a difference. Sorry you can't see it. The two should have different designations.