Collocational Preferences of the Ba 把Construction in Mandarin: A Corpus Analysis of Verbal, Prepositional, Nominal and Measure Word Uses

The Bǎ 把 construction, considered a disposal construction (Li, 1974, p. 200), is likely one of the most debated constructions in linguistic studies of the Chinese language. With much linguistic debate on the parameters, required and optional uses of the construction, and even how to translate the meaning of the construction into English (Zhu & Gao, 2013, p. 297-302), this construction is arguably one of the hardest for native English-speaking Chinese language learners to grasp. This study will not further critique and define the parameters of the ba construction or the appropriate translation, but instead explore the limitations of influential views of this construction, plausible historical sources and grammaticalization of its meaning, and cognitive associations of this construction. The research will support the hypothesis that native speakers cognitively associate the idea of “hold”, “grasp” or words of similar meaning to verbal, prepositional, nominal and measure word uses. We use a corpus analysis to find prototypical and peripheral uses of the construction to illustrate corresponding cognitive associations on the lexico-grammatical continuum, which could prove helpful in the design of teaching materials (Holme, 2012) that underscore cognitive associations that speakers of Mandarin make with the use of ba.