The Chinese word 守夜 (shǒuyè), meaning "to keep watch at night" or "to stay up all night," is a verb-object compound formed by combining the character 守 (shǒu), meaning "to guard" or "to keep," with the character 夜 (yè), meaning "night." This structure follows a common grammatical pattern in Mandarin where an action verb is directly paired with its object, creating a precise and logical phrase that literally translates to "guard the night," effectively describing the act of remaining awake and vigilant during the nighttime hours.