A Tale of two sentences

jckeith
May 14, 2009, 04:42 AM posted in General Discussion

I'm trying to figure out how these two sentences differ gramatically, if at all.

1. 把书放在桌子上。 (Put the book on the table).

2. 把书从书包里拿出来。(Remove the book from your book bag).

It seems to me that their structure is as follows:

1. 把(direct object)(verb)(prepositional phrase)

2. 把(direct object)(prepositional phrase)(verb)

So, why aren't the two sentences arranged in the same manner? Did I get the grammatical structure wrong? Or can they be rearranged? Any insights would be appreciated.

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skyfx
May 14, 2009, 05:03 AM

jckeith 

you can also say "从书包里把书拿出来" --->from your book bag remove the book.(prepositional phrase)(verb)(direct object)

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miantiao
May 14, 2009, 05:13 AM

@jckeith

of course the above sentences are very formal, too long, and just not used very much in everyday speech.

把书拿出来。

把课本拿出来。

since all know where their books are, there is no need to state it.

take your books out!

 

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jckeith
May 14, 2009, 05:16 AM

@skyfx

Thanks. That makes more sense. Can you also say "把书拿出来从书包里"?

@miantiao

Thanks for the pointers. I definitely don't want to sound like a robot, as Ken might say.

I'm still interested in the grammatical issue here though. Namely, these two sentences appear identical in composition to me, but they can't be (or can they?) structured identically.

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miantiao
May 14, 2009, 05:18 AM

@jckeith

no

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skyfx
May 14, 2009, 07:31 AM

@jckeith

 "把书拿出来从书包里" is wrong,you should say"从书包里把书拿出来".

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miantiao
May 14, 2009, 08:31 AM

@jckeith

you could also say

把书包里的书拿出来。