The Chinese word 司令 (sīlìng, meaning "commander") is a classic example of a verb-object compound noun, formed by combining the verb 司 (sī, "to take charge of, to manage") with its object 令 (lìng, "command, order"). Literally meaning "one who manages/executes commands", the term semantically evolved through metonymy to designate the person in a military hierarchy who holds the authority to issue orders, thus becoming the standard title for a commanding officer. This formation follows the common Chinese morphological pattern where an action (司) and its target (令) combine to create an agentive noun describing the role of the person performing that action.