Alternation ‘BA Alternation’ (Coded)

The BA construction in Mandarin is often termed the Disposal Construction or sentence pattern because it expressess how a pre-verbally placed object introduced by BA is disposed of. The functional motivation for fronting the object pre-verbally is that the sentence information focus needs to be placed on the post-verbal element so that all the other unimportant elements, mainly the object, must be moved across the verb in a leftward way. For that reason, a complement is often used to follow the verb in order to show the focus information, or the end result of the actions denoted by the verb, i.e., how the object is disposed of or in what state it is left or affected. Understandably, if the focused information is implicated, the use of the complement is optional.

Verb Meaning Verb form Basic coding frame Derived coding frame Occurs Comment # Ex.