Taxonomy of meanings for 把:　　

  • 把 bǎ (OC: praaʔ MC: pɯa) 博下切 上 廣韻：【持也執也博下切一 】
    • CLASSIFIERS
      • ncpost-V{NUM}.+Nclassifiermeasure word
    • HANDLE
      • nhandle
    • HOLD
      • vt(oN)omgrasp, grip (a contextually determinate object) in one's hands
      • vtoNgrasp, grip (a physical object, often an object with a handle) in one's hands
      • vtoNinchoativegrasp, grip (a physical object, often an object with a handle)TW
    • LENGTH MEASURES
      • ntwo spans
    • OBJECT MARKER
      • vtoN1.adVtoN2N1=concreteobject marker in the disposal form

Additional information about 把

說文解字: 【把】，握也。从手、巴聲。 【博下切】

    Criteria
  • HOLD

    1. The most current general and neutral word for holding something in any way concrete or abstract is chí 持 (ant. shī 失 "lose hold of").

    2. Zhí 執 is often inchoative "take hold of", and then comes to mean "hold on to, keep holding" as one goes along.

    3. Cāo 操 refers to holding and holding onto something, often taking it along as one goes along, sometimes wielding it as a weapon.

    4. Bǐng 秉 refers to clasping something firmly, often solemnly with both hands, and sometimes several things so as to hold and keep them together and not to let go.

    5. Jiá 挾 refers specifically to holding something under one's armpit, but the word also has some more generalised uses.

    6. Wò 握 and bǎ 把 are rather dramatic words referring to gripping something and not letting go of it.

    7. Gǒng 拱 refers to holding something politely in both hands.

  • SELF

    1. The most general-use word referring to oneself is jǐ 己, and this word refers regularly to the highest subject in the whole sentence in which it occurs. In reflexivising object position of a main verb it serves as a "heavy" reflexive pronoun like German "sich selbst", Latin se ipsum.

    2. Zì 自 is preverbal and typically makes any transitive verb it precedes reflexive, when another object is present it refers to an action being performed not by any other subject than the grammatical subject. As a reflexivising pronoun often glossable as 自己把自己 the pronoun has the double function of emphatic subject AND identical object.

    3. Shēn 身 typically refers to the subject in a contrastive way, and the word is often hard to distinguish from the nominal concept of a PERSON. Adverbially, the word is different from PERSONALLY in that it does not connote distinction in the agent.

    4. Gōng 躬 is a fairly rare archaic and idiomatically restricted word referrring to the agent himself.

    Word relations
  • Contrast: (HOLD)秉/HOLD Bǐng 秉 refers to clasping something firmly, often solemnly with both hands, and sometimes several things so as to hold and keep them together and not to let go.
  • Synon: (HOLD)持/HOLD The most current general and neutral word for holding something in any way concrete or abstract is chí 持 (ant. shī 失 "lose hold of").
  • Synon: (HOLD)操/WIELD