City University of Hong Kong CLASS CLASS
Making Sense of Grammar
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asked Dec 8, 2020 in Questions about Chinese Grammar by Ariel (34,480 points) | 175 views

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Dative constructions generally involve verbs of physical action, like 给 gěi ‘give to’, 递 dì ‘hand to’, 交 jiāo ‘hand to’/‘submit to’, 还 huán ‘return to’, etc. However, verbs like 告诉 gàosu ‘tell’, 通知 tōng zhī ‘inform’/‘notify’, 教 jiāo ‘teach’ and 叫 jiào ‘call’/‘address as’, all of which involve some form of communication, can also form dative sentences:

我朋友告诉我一个秘密。

Wǒ péng yǒu gào sù wǒ yī gè mì mì 。

(秘密 mì mì direct object, 我 wǒ indirect object)

My friend told me a secret.

秘书通知他一件事。

Mì shū tōng zhī tā yī jiàn shì 。

(一件事 yī jiàn shì direct object, 他 tā indirect object)

The secretary notified him about something.

她教她女儿英语。

Tā jiāo tā nǚ ér yīng yǔ 。

(英语 yīng yǔ direct object, 她女儿 tā nǚ ér indirect object)

She taught her daughter English.

大家叫我老王。

Dà jiā jiào wǒ lǎo wáng 。

(老王 lǎo wáng direct object, 我 wǒ indirect object)

Everybody calls me Lao Wang.

[1] Yip, P. C., Rimmington, D., Xiaoming, Z., & Henson, R. (2009). Basic Chinese: a grammar and workbook. Taylor & Francis.
answered Dec 8, 2020 by Ariel (34,480 points)

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1,614 questions
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207 comments
15,645 users