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I find sentences with 把 intriguing. I wonder why the Chinese language developed this usage. I, wrongly, made the assumption all sentences that use 把 like this can be simply rearranged.
I have this sentence from my text book:
它把灵魂塑造看得和学问同等重要。
So if I rearrange:
What motivates the use of 把 in Chinese？
把 ([介] 1) means 将.
(1) 表示处理、处置的意思。(treating) 如：“把门关上”、“把脸洗净”。
(2) 表示致使、导致的意思。(leading) 如：“把他惹恼了”、“把你气哭了”、“把我急疯了”。
把 or 将 is used in front of the object when we move the object to the front of the verb.
它把“灵魂塑造”看得和“学问”同等重要。
把...看得 = 视
它视“灵魂塑造”和“学问”同等重要。(The verb is in front of the objects.)
The character [把] or [將] directly placed before an [object] is called 'dispositive marker'. The role of a dispositive marker is to dispose the object.
"我殺了" (I killed) is a phrase with only subject and verb.
To make "我殺了" a complete sentence and explain " who killed whom" we can place the object after the verb and write "我殺了[他]" (I killed him). It is a simple SVO sentence. The emphasis is on the subject and it's action.
Or you can insert [ dispositive marker+object] between the subject and the verb and write " 我[把他]殺了" (I killed him) . The emphasis is on the object that is being disposed by the verb. ('whom was killed by me' is the more important information than 'I killed someone)
In "送走他", [送] is the main verb, [走] is the resultive verb particle that indicate result of the action. The object [他] is placed directly after both.
In "送他走", the object [他] is inserted between the verb, [送] and its resultive particle [走]
Both phrases above focus on the verb
In "把他送走" , the object is being disposed by the verb 送走
The focus in this sentence is the object being disposed by the subject in the method of the verb.
('whom is being sent away' is the more important information than 'the subject send away someone')
In "打他一頓", [打] is the verb, [他] is the object,
This sentence focus on the verb 打.
In "將他打一頓" the object, [他] is disposed by the verb [打]
The focus in this sentence is the object being disposed by the subject in the method of the verb.
('whom is being beaten' is the more important information than 'the subject beating someone')
You cannot use dispositive markers if the verb doesn't dispose the object
For example :
看他一眼 cannot be rephrased as 將他看一眼. - look at an object doesn't change the object's situation (should be 對他看一眼)
回答他 cannot be rephrased as 把他回答 - 回答 is not an action verb that can dispose an object ( should be 向他回答)
“把”字句 S.+把+O.+V.+something
The 把-sentence indicates that an action is applied to somebody or something with emphasis that action will bring about a result. So here “something” is result.
她把鸡蛋吃了。 “她”is the Subject. “鸡蛋”is the Object. “吃”is the Verb. “了”is the result.
我把书包放在桌子上。 “我”is the Subject. “书包”is the Object. “放”is the Verb. “在桌子上”is the result. 他 把 我的自行车 借 走了。
If you want to know about the 把 sentences and 被 sentences， you can check this video http://www.hanbridgemandarin.com/course/demo/%E6%8A%8A-sentence-and-%E8%A2%AB-sentence
I don't know how correct this source is, but, it could possibly be because it makes the sentence easier to understand because we know the object sooner.
Especially, if one were to hear the object first, it gives them more time to decipher meaning, given the similarities in pronunciation.
As it stands, this is just accepted convention, and it is that way and we must follow it as such.
