Chinese grammar — the ba structure ba zi ju 把字句：is ba a verb, a preposition, or a coverb? Understand the usage of ba structure and 鄧麗君Teresa Teng 把愛埋藏在心窩 ba ai cang zai xin wo Bury Love In The Hearts

The BA-construction (把字句 ba3 zi4 ju4 ) is an extremely important syntactic structure in Chinese, which is frequently used in daily Chinese conversation.

Ba3 has been a quite special Chinese linguistic phenomenon and drawing a lot linguists’ attention to decide whether it grammatically belongs to verb category or preposition category.

Let’s look a sample ba3 structure

我把书放在桌上。
Wo3 ba3 shu1 fang4 zai4 zhuo1 shang4.
I put the book on the table.

Argument one ********* Ba3 as a verb*******************

For those linguists argue that the BA-construction should
be considered as a Verb, as the first verb in this type of serial-verb constructions.

Subject + V + Noun phrase + V + Noun phrase
我 开 车 去 书店。
wo3 kai1 che1 qu4 shu1 dian4.
I drove car and went to bookstore.

These linguists don’t think the ba3 is a preposition phrase because unlike a
prepositional phrase, the BA-construction can not be moved to the beginning of the sentence.

If we go with this theory, then our sentence would be translated like

我把书放在桌上。
Wo3 ba3 shu1 fang4 zai4 zhuo1 shang4.
I took the book and put on the table.

Ba3 is not a preposition, because

把书 我放在桌上。
ba3 shu1 wo3 fang4 zai4 zhuo1 shang4.

this sentence doesn’t look right.

Argument two *************** ba3 as a preposition word **************

The second group of linguists argue that ba3 structure is a prepositional
phrase with ba3 as the head word and followed by a Noun phrase complement which is moved in front of the transitive main verb ( transitive verbs are verbs have their object following them) in the sentence.

So this structure would be like:

Subj. + Ba3 (as the head word of a prepositional phrase) + noun phrase + transitive verb

They have two supportive facts to enforce this argument:

Those are:
First, most of time, ba3 doesn’t function alone as the main verb or predicate in a sentence. Like we don’t say wo3 ba3 shu1 le5. 我把书了。Also particles (the aspect attachments), such as le5, guo4, zhe5, can be used as one of the conditions to test whether or not the word is a verb. They said if those particles are attached to the BA3, the whole sentence will look weird and become grammatically wrong. Like wo3 ba3 zhe5 shu5. 我把着书。 It surely doesn’t make any sense in modern Chinese conversation.

The third group ************ ba3 as a coverb******************

There are some smart linguists combined both arguments about the BA-construction and call the ba3 as a “coverb” (literally: a sub- verb 副动词，次动词) which shares the properties of both a verb and a preposition. Isn’t this a very smart assertion? They think ba3 originally is a verb, but it does not really serve the verb function, instead it serves prepositional function.

*************************** From my point of view *************************

From my point of view, I think it is not a good approach to generalize all the ba3 structure usages and say it is a verb phrase or it is a preposition phrase or it is somewhere in between a coverb? We need to examine the usage of ba3 case by case.

A:

Usage of ba3 as a verb:

First, let’s take a look at ba3 as a main verb cases.

Use ba3 as a verb, ba3 means to hold; to contain; to grasp; to take hold of. Etymologically, ba3 is a Pictophonetic character, so called (形声字 xing2 sheng1 zi) . The radical 扌 (hand) suggests the meaning, while the radical 巴 provides the sound.

1. **把**酒话桑麻
ba3 jiu3 hua4 sang1 ma2
Holding the wine (cup) and talking about mulberry trees and hemp.

2. 他**把**着我的手。
ta1 ba3 zhe5 wo3 de5 shou3
He holds my hand.

Usage of ba3 phrase as verb phrase

3. 他**把持**着特权不放。
Ta1 ba3 chi2 zhe5 te4 quan2 bu2 fang4.
He grasps the privilege and doesn’t want to let go of it.

So, you should see, when the ba3 is really being used as a verb, it must be able to go well with zhe5 ( a particle to show the continuing motion of an action). In classic literature, like sample 1, the usage of words is more concise, so the zhe5 着 is omitted.

B

Ba4 zi4 ju4 把字句 the ba3 structure — When the object of the verb got moved to the front of the verb, we need to put ba3 in front of the object.

Normally, for transitive verb, the structure is:

subject + verb + object (past tense particle)
我 打 他 了
wo3 da3 ta1 le5
I hit him

We can change this sentence as ba3 zi4 ju4 (ba3 structure) by moving the object to the front of verb and add the ba3 before the object, like this:

subject + ba3 + object + verb (past tense particle)
我 把 他 打 了。
wo3 ba3 ta1 da3 le5.
I him hit

Next let’s further our thinking about Ba3 structure with this question — Use ba3 or not to use ba3?

To be or not to be. To use ba3 or not to use ba3?

If someone wants you to open the door, the person can say to you with these two options:

请你打开门。
qing3 ni3 da3 kai1 men2.
Please open the door.

or
请你把门打开。
qing3 ni3 ba3 men2 da3 kai1.
Please open the door.

What the difference between these two sentences? You might say “See, the English translations are all the same, it is not a big deal. How about let’s forget about Ba4 structure?” Good suggestion I would say; but sorry, as a Chinese teacher, I feel that I have to try my best to explain, so that my students would get a better understanding about Chinese grammar structure. If you don’t mind, please read on…

When you compare these two sentences, the first obvious difference is
1. there is a ba3 in the second sentence.

and if you see more closely, you know

2. the words order is different in the sentences.

When we want to emphasize something, we usually put the thing we emphasize first. For example, we would say

I want to go to school tomorrow.
or
Tomorrow, I want to go to school.

These two sentences both are sentences of statement; both tell us the same things. But, from the word order, we know that in the second sentence, tomorrow is the emphasis.

So, the same apply to our ba3 structure sentences.

请你打开书。
qing3 ni3 da3 kai1 shu1.
Please open the book.

or
请你把书打开。
qing3 ni3 ba3 shu1 da3 kai1.
Please open the book.

Both sentences are commands. However, the first sentence emphasizes the action — open– and the second sentence emphasizes the object –the book–.

So, if you want to focus on the action, you don’t have to use ba3.
But, if you want to focus on the object, then you need to use ba3.

You **can’t** say

请你书打开。
qing3 ni3 shu1 da3 kai1.
Please book open.

For book can’t do the action -opening- itself. It needs a person to do that effect to it. So, the usage of ba3 in the future tense, can be considered as an active action marker, and inform you that the subject is going to do something to the object . The usage of ba3 structure in the past tense sentences specifies that the result of an action affects a particular object, but not the action itself.

For example:
Wo3 ba3 shu1 si1 po4 le5.
我把书撕破了。
The usage of ba3 here shows the subject’s action affects the book and it also emphasizes on the object -book–, instead of action -tearing.

************************ My conclusion ***************************

So, what is my conclusion for the ba3 structure? I think, in Ba3 structure, ba3 is more like a preposition word (jie4 ci2 介词) than a verb in ba3 structure. The definition for preposition is — A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence; the word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition.

In ba3 structure, ba3 is used as connecting preposition which links the pronoun and the object, and it also has two functions — serves as direct object marker and active voice marker. So, I would like to define the ba3 as jie4 zhu4 ci2 介助词 (prepositional helping word)

Subject + 把 ba3 + noun + verb

The jie4 zhu4 ci2 介助词 (prepositional helping word) 把 ba3 is used after the subject and before a noun to connect the subject and the noun, and to show that that noun is the object of the sentence. It also means the subject is the person that does the action, so ba3 also works as an active voice marker — the subject takes the noun and does something to it.

For example:
Subject + ba3 + object + verb
Ta1 ba3 wo3 de5 fan4 chi1 le5.
他 把 我的饭 吃了｡
He ate my meal.

With the ba3 in front of the noun, we know it serves as direct object marker, so we know the directive object is 我的饭 my meal. We also know the subject is the person who did the action, for ba3 is an active voice marker. Remember when using the 把 ba3 structure, the verb must be a transitive verb which takes objects. The object must be an actual or concrete object or person.

Ba3 is a very interesting discussion topic, you are welcome to tell me what is your thinking on it 🙂

Hope you enjoy today’s many Chinese sentences a day! Now I need to find a song:) It is hard to find a ba3 把 song you know? But, here you go, this is a classic 🙂

鄧麗君Teresa Teng 把愛埋藏在心窩 ba3 ai4 cang2 zai4 xin1 wo1 Bury Love In The Hearts 1976 Live

Now, you should know that ba4, besides works as a linking word, it is an active voice marker, and it is also a direct object marker to indicate that 爱 ai4 is a direct object in this sentence.