5

Could someone please explain this sentence structure?

衣服也落在了房间内.

What does the 了 mean here? Is it pronounce le or liao?

Becky 李蓓
  • 16,291
  • 9
  • 49
  • 165
rabbid
  • 823
  • 5
  • 13
  • 2
  • The usage is "used after the verb or adj. to indicate completion": The clothes have been forgotten in the room. 2. It is pronounced as le 3. Note that 落 here sounds là.
    • – Stan Nov 12 '13 at 11:36
  • Thank you. So 落在is a verb that is pronounced la zai? Why is the 在needed? Cant this be written as 落了? 谢谢 – rabbid Nov 12 '13 at 11:41
  • 1
    Here, "落了" (là le) is wrong. A conversation can be "A: 你落了什么东西没有? B: 我落钱包了!" But if you want to add the information of *place* where the specific thing is forgotten, "落在" is a conventional form to express that. BTW, the sentence can also be "衣服也落在房间内了". – Stan Nov 12 '13 at 11:57
  • 2
    @Stan I'm actually really confused here. Why is 了 after 在? The verb is 落, and 在房间内 is the complement indicating location. – Stumpy Joe Pete Nov 12 '13 at 16:46
  • @StumpyJoePete: Academically speaking, it is quite complex. First, these two structures would be easily mixed up: 1) v + complement(prep+了+obj). 2) v + complement(v+了+obj). The 了 in both of them can be put at the end of the sentence. 孤影萍踪's example "她一挥手碰 翻了 水杯" is the second case (as 水杯翻了 is a complete sentence). For this second case, this paper 结果补语小句分析和小句的内部结构 explains it as the issue of tense. For the first case, I agree with 孤影萍踪 to my language sense, but I don't know if there's any standard explanation :) – Stan Nov 13 '13 at 02:10
  • @Stan That sounds really interesting. I think it really deserves more explanation. I think that most of the time, you have V+了+在Place, but some verbs can be V在＋了+Place. I did a quick google search for "了在" and 输，落，and 长 were common verbs taking this form. Maybe it's just lexical which verbs can do this, or maybe there's some structure I don't know. – Stumpy Joe Pete Nov 13 '13 at 05:54
  • @StumpyJoePete: Not only 在. Many prepositions work in this way: 1) 他撞 到 了树上. 2) 他走 上 了一条不归路. 3) 他丢 下 了孩子. etc. Hmm, so let's wait for someone who can clearly explain this -- though I think 孤影萍踪's answer is good enough for a quick understanding. – Stan Nov 13 '13 at 06:47
  • @Stan Those are different... you don't ever say 他撞了到树上. With 在, it's usually connected to the place and not the verb that precedes it (e.g., 手机丢了在异地可以报案吗?). – Stumpy Joe Pete Nov 13 '13 at 15:40
  • @Stan Actually now that I think about it more, I think it's a distinction between Complements and Adjuncts. Usually location phrases are adjuncts (and would therefore never have 了s stuck in the middle of them), but sometimes they can act as complements (of result, like the 到 example). I guess I had just never seen such an example before. – Stumpy Joe Pete Nov 13 '13 at 18:07
  • @StumpyJoePete: Your example is interesting. I had thought "V+了+在Place" was a typo because I couldn't recall an example. But if rigorously checking the example, it is grammatically wrong and only acceptable in spoken language: the subject for 丢 is 手机, but the subject for 报案 should be a person. Yes we often omit it in spoken language, but a pedant would say like "手机丢了, 我在异地可以报案吗?" then it is another structure. – Stan Nov 14 '13 at 01:24
  • let us continue this discussion in chat – Stan Nov 14 '13 at 01:27