把 bǎ

The bǎ construction is a grammatical construction
in the Chinese language.
In a bǎ construction, the object of a verb is placed
after the function word 把 bă,
and the verb placed after the object,
forming a subject–object–verb (SOV) sentence.
Linguists commonly analyze bǎ
as a light verb construction or as a preposition.

Function

The bǎ construction may only be used
in certain contexts, generally
those in which the verb expresses "disposal" of,
or action upon, the object.

According to Wang Li,
"the disposal form states how a person is handled, manipulated, or dealt with; how something is disposed of; or how an affair is conducted," or, in other words, "what happens to" the object.

Therefore, it is generally used with verbs that are high in transitivity, a property that describes the effect a verb has on its object; bǎ does not occur grammatically with verbs that express states or emotions, such as "love" and "miss," or with verbs that express activities that have no effect on the direct object, such as "sing" and "see."

The direct object of a bǎ construction must meet certain requirements as well. It is usually definite, meaning that it is specific and unique (as in phrases beginning with the equivalent of this, that, these, or those).

It may sometimes also be generic, such as "salt" in the sentence "She sometimes eats salt thinking it's sugar."

The object of a bǎ construction is nearly always something that both the speaker and hearer know about and are aware of.

Formation

"Subject + 把 + Direct Object + Verb"

Example:
我把那些食物都吃光了。
wǒ bǎ nà xiē shí wù dōu chī guāng le。
我把那些食物都吃光了
I have all those food eaten.
【I eat all those food】
saya memakan semua makanan tersebut sampai habis.

你要把这本书读完。
nǐ yào bǎ zhèi běn shū dú wán。
你要把這本書讀完。
you must finish reading this book.
kamu harus membaca buku ini sampai selesai.

Notes:

SOV
In linguistic typology, a subject–object–verb (SOV) language is one in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence appear or usually appear in that order. If English were SOV, then "Sam oranges ate" would be an ordinary sentence, as opposed to the actual standard English "Sam ate oranges". The label is often used for ergative languages such as Adyghe and Basque that do not have subjects but have an agent–object–verb order.

Direct Object
In many languages, the patient of a ditransitive verb is marked in the same way as the single object of a monotransitive verb, and is called the direct object. The recipient has its own marking, and is called the indirect object.