owe · Mandarin · 欠 qiàn

Debtor, Creditor, Debt · bare double object · the Creditor unmarked · working claim, revisable

English owe is one lexical verb. The money line is a bare Creditor and one bare sum, owes me $5, or the sum and then to. Mandarin keeps a lexical verb for the debt. The seventh edition of 现代汉语词典 splits the character. 欠¹ qiàn is the yawn and the slight raising of the body: 欠伸, 欠脚儿, 欠了欠身子. 欠² is the verb this page records. Sense 1 is 借别人的财物等没有还或应当给人的事物还没有给. The examples are 赊欠, 欠账, 欠债, 欠情, and 欠着一笔钱没还. Sense 2 is 不够；缺乏: 欠佳, 欠妥, 欠火, 欠考虑, 万事俱备，只欠东风. Those two senses are not one frame. The yawn and the raising are not the debt.

The Debtor is the subject. The usage article, the text quoted for 吕叔湘 (ed.) 现代汉语八百词, heads 欠² qiàn as 〔动〕 and prints 他还欠着我的钱呢, 他欠了一身的债, and 我不欠他的. 他 and 我 are the subjects. The seventh edition’s 欠着一笔钱没还 does not spell a subject in that snippet. There is no case ending on the subject.

The Creditor, when it is its own object, is a bare inner noun. The usage article says the debt sense 可带名词宾语 and 可带双宾语. The double-object lines are 欠他人情 and 欠人钱财. 人 is the first noun. 人情 and 钱财 are the second. Nothing sits between them. 两岸通用词典 prints 欠了他不少人情. 了 follows the verb. 他 is the next noun. 不少人情 follows 他. There is no dative ending, because a Mandarin noun does not wear one. There is no preposition on 他 or on 人. The person is the Creditor because it is the inner object, the first of the two. The Debt is the outer object, the second. Word order is the mark.

That is the split from the siblings that mark the person. German schulden puts the Creditor in the dative, jemandem. Spanish deber puts the Creditor in a plus the dative clitic le / les. Czech dlužit puts the Creditor in the dative, komu. Mandarin 欠他人情 has none of those marks. English owes me $5 is the same order, person then sum, and both nouns are bare. English also prints the other order, owes £3 000 to her father. A 给 on the Creditor of 欠 is unprinted. It is not filed as a frame.

The seventh edition’s 给 article, preposition of handing over, says a verb that already has a giving sense may take 给 or omit it, and a verb that does not must take 给. The examples are 还（给）他一本书, 送（给）我一支笔, 捎给他一个包袱, and 留给你钥匙. The verbs named are 还, 送, 捎, and 留. 欠 is not named. The printed double object of 欠 does not put 给 in the parenthesis those giving verbs have. The Creditor stays the bare inner noun.

The Debt, or the amount, is the other noun. In the double object it is 人情, 钱财, or 不少人情. With the Creditor omitted, the seventh edition prints 欠账, 欠债, 欠情, and 欠着一笔钱没还. The usage article prints 欠债, 欠账, 欠人情, 他欠了一身的债, and 又欠下一笔债. 一笔钱 and 一身的债 and 一笔债 are the debt noun, with no second object beside them. CC-CEDICT, as MDBG serves it, glosses 欠债 “to owe a debt / the sum owed” and has no headword 欠钱. The money noun those entries print, with the Creditor left out, is 债, 账, or 钱 inside 一笔钱. A separate headword 欠钱 is not what they print.

The Creditor can also sit inside the debt noun, as a possessor, and then it is not an inner object. The usage article prints 他还欠着我的钱呢. 我的钱 is one object. 我 is inside 的. 两岸通用词典 prints 欠着人家的钱, the same packaging. 人家 is not a bare noun between the verb and a second noun. The usage article’s 我不欠他的 is 他的 with no spelled head. It is not 欠人钱财.

人情 stays on 欠. The seventh edition’s debt sense prints 欠情, under 应当给人的事物还没有给, with no separate person in that example. The usage article prints 欠人情 with no person, and 欠他人情 with the person. 两岸通用词典 prints 欠了他不少人情. CC-CEDICT glosses 人情 “human emotions / social relationship; friendship / favor; a good turn.” The favor is the Debt, the second noun when a person is there, and the only noun when the person is not. It is not a second lemma.

The lack sense is separate. The seventh edition’s sense 2 is 不够；缺乏, and the examples are 欠佳, 欠妥, 欠火, 欠考虑, and 万事俱备，只欠东风. No Creditor is in those lines. The usage article files the same gloss and says the verb 不能单独做谓语, and that it can take a noun, a verb, or an adjective as object: 这篇文章欠说服力, 欠火候, 办事欠考虑, 考虑问题欠周到, 身体欠佳, 又欠批评你了. 火候 is the thing one is short of. It is not a sum. 考虑 is a verb object. 周到 is an adjective object. 你 in 又欠批评你了 is the object of 批评, inside that verb object. It is not the Creditor of 欠他人情. 國語辭典 files a verb sense 缺少, 你还欠多少 and 这盘菜欠点儿盐, and files 欠安, 欠妥, and 欠考虑 under an adverb, 不夠、缺乏, milder than 不. The adverb label and the verb-object label are not the same analysis. Both keep 欠考虑 off the debt double object. 新华字典, as 汉辞宝 prints it, has the short lack gloss 短少，不够, examples 欠缺 and 欠安, and the debt gloss with 拖欠 and 欠账. It does not print a person beside a sum.

The numeral double object is printed on 该, not on 欠. The seventh edition’s 该² is glossed 欠, and the lines are 该账 and 我该他两块钱. 我 is the subject. 他 is bare. 两块钱 is the sum. No 给. That is the same order as 欠人钱财, and the sum is a numeral the 欠 article does not print. 我欠他一百块 reuses that order, the inner noun of 欠了他不少人情, and a sum. 一百块 is not the printed 两块钱, and it is not on 欠. The line is constructed. It is not filed.

English owe X to Y, the credit for a benefit, is not 欠. The seventh edition’s 归功 is 把功劳归于（某个人或集体）, and the line is 优异成绩的取得归功于老师的辛勤教导. The achievement is the subject, 优异成绩的取得. The source is after 于, 老师的辛勤教导. There is no bare inner Creditor and no sum. CC-CEDICT glosses 归功 “to give credit / to give sb his due / attribution” and does not file 归功于 as its own headword. The 于 is in the seventh-edition example. The live page is credit_MERIT · 归功于. 多亏 and 幸亏 are not that verb either. CC-CEDICT glosses 多亏 “thanks to / luckily” and 幸亏 “fortunately / luckily.” The seventh edition files 幸亏 as 〈副〉: 幸亏他带了雨衣，不然全身都得湿透. 他 is the subject of 带, not an object of 欠. The benefit is the following clause. Sense 4 of 亏 is glossed 多亏, and the line is 亏他提醒我，我才想起来. 他 is the subject of 提醒. 亏得 sense 1 is the same gloss: 亏得厂里帮助我，才渡过了难关. A headword page for 多亏 itself was not the article opened. The lines that carry the gloss are clauses, not 欠 plus a bare person plus a thing.

Where this diverges from English. English owes me $5 and Mandarin 欠人钱财 put the person first and the thing second, both bare. The divergence is what is not printed beside that order. English also prints to after the sum. Mandarin does not print 给 on the Creditor of 欠. German, Spanish, and Czech mark the person (dative, a plus clitic, dative). Mandarin does not. The seventh edition’s own debt examples of 欠 omit the person. The numeral line 我该他两块钱 is on 该. English I owe my success to my teachers keeps the thing in the object and the source in to, on owe. Mandarin prints that credit on 归功于, the thing as subject and the source after 于, or on the adverb 幸亏 and the 多亏 gloss of 亏, a clause and not a double object. 欠火候 and 欠考虑 are the lack sense. They are not a debt.

The usage article prints 了, 着, and 过 on the debt verb: 欠了, 欠着, 没欠过账. It also prints the result and direction compounds 欠得了, 欠不得, 欠下, 欠下去, and 欠到. Those are the printed aspect and directional marks. This page does not read them as a telicity claim. 欠账 in the seventh edition is a verb in sense 1, 〈动〉欠债, and a noun in sense 2, 〈名〉欠债. CC-CEDICT’s 欠债 gloss likewise has a verb and “the sum owed.” The noun reading is not a second argument frame. 國語辭典’s noun 旧欠未清 is the same split. This page records the verb.