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Making Sense of Grammar
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What is the feature of dǎ(打) in verb phrases such as 打算, 打聽 and 打斷?
asked Apr 6, 2018 in Questions about Chinese Grammar by admin (25,520 points)
reshown Nov 26, 2021 by admin | 114 views

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the literal meanings and actual meanings of the verb phrases 打算, 打聽 and 打斷 are listed below: 

打算 (beat and calculate) means "plan or intend to do something"; 打聽 (beat and listen) means "ask about"; 打斷 (beat and break) means "break or interrupt."

These verb phrases fall into the category of dǎ+VP construction. In this construction, the verb is the emphasized nucleus and “打” gradually loses its original characteristics as a verb and become an empty verb either in word class or meaning. 

And Hong (2015) pointed out that it is ungrammatical and meaningless if the two parts of Da + X has no connection either in word class or in meaning, such as 打吃,打買,打賣,打裝. All of them are meaningless and illogical in the modern Chinese.

It can be concluded that the verb can be licensed into the  dǎ+ VP construction unless it is logical and meaningful in semantic and syntactic.

answered Apr 6, 2018 by admin (25,520 points)

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