City University of Hong Kong CLASS CLASS
Making Sense of Grammar
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What are the semantic differences between 她到碼頭搬東西 and 她搬東西到碼頭?
asked Mar 7, 2018 in Questions about Chinese Grammar by admin (25,520 points)
edited Apr 26, 2018 by admin | 200 views

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她到碼頭搬東西 (tā dào mǎ tóu bān dōng xī/ She was at the port carrying cargo)  means she did the action of 搬東西 at the place of 碼頭.

她搬東西到碼頭 (tā  bān dōng xī dào mǎ tóu/ She carried the cargo to the port)  means she 搬東西 to 碼頭.

The VP 搬東西 (bān dōng xī/ moving stuffs) requires a PP as a goal argument. We can’t say 我搬東西 (wǒ bān dōng xī) without any location or goal. It has to take a PP which can be either pre-verbal (means location) or post-verbal (means goal).

answered Mar 7, 2018 by admin (25,520 points)
edited Apr 26, 2018 by admin

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