Question about (放)在 and 了

[Don_Horhe]

This question arises from this thread, in particular what gougou said - 'I also would feel more comfortable not saying 放在了地上 - which apparently native speakers feel very comfortable saying' and the fact that I've seen other such constructions in textbooks - '我把花盆放在了窗台上。' and one from today's 综合 class - '海尔把重点放在了在美国最有影响力的大连锁店上。' (in the second sentence, I also don't get why they put the second 在).

I never say (把某东西)放在了(某地方), I always put the 了 at the end of the sentence, my reasoning being that here 在 is a preposition, not a verb, just as I wouldn't say, for instance, 我把礼物送给了他 but rather .......送给他了.

[Daan]

It may simply have been used so often that the phrase '放在' has been lexicalised as a verb in its entirety. I have to say though, before reading gougou's post, I'd never seen this particular usage nor heard of it. One learns something new every day!

[leeyah]

To me both constructions sound equally nice and equally natural, each with it's own logic.

Even though in theory we are basically taught that 了 comes at the end of a sentence, I see 在 and the 了 following it in 把重点放在了在 functioning as a verb, just like 到 in 注意到了, or 完 in 用完了, used in this way for emphasis of the completion of an action, i.e. as a complement of result:

Verbs are often used as complements to indicate different resultative aspects of an action, such as wán完finish, jiàn见, dào到, zháo着, liǎo了, zhù住, dǒng懂, dòng动, kāi开, huì会, zài在, gěi给, chéng成, zuò作, wéi为, zǒu走, pǎo跑, sǐ死, tòu透, etc.

In which case the second 在 then comes quite natural as a preposition.

[skylee]

Re the 海爾 sentence. I think 了 can be omitted. But I don't know anything about Chinese grammar.

[HashiriKata]

I also don't get why they put the second 在

There's no such thing as 放在了在 but rather 放在了 X 上, where X is the noun phrase "在美国最有影响力的大连锁店". So the 2nd 在 is part of the noun phrase.

[Don_Horhe]

Oh, I see, the second 在 is part of the NP and not a place complement to the preceding verb.