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The verb jít as a representative of a motion event in space in texts by non-native speakers of Czech

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2020

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to offer an analysis of the uses of the verb jít 'go' by non-native speakers of Czech. Using quantitative and qualitative analysis based on data drawn from the CzeSL corpus, we will point out the specifics of use of this important verb in the written communication of non-native speakers of Czech.

This research is not concerned with error analysis, but instead focuses on the overall picture of semantic uses of this verb by non-native speakers of Czech. The resulting analysis should contribute to a methodical description of the teaching of the verb jít within the grammatical and lexical system of Czech for foreigners.

The current paper is based on a learner corpus of Czech as a foreign language, the CzeSL-SGT (Czech as a Second Language). The CzeSL corpus contains 12,388 texts (960,000 words) and offers both linguistic and error annotation; the error annotation is based on two target hypotheses.

From these texts, 5,785 occurrences of use of the verb jít were excerpted and analysed for their valence and semantic patterns, prepositional co-occurrence, collocation and lexical use. The results of the analysis are discussed in the context of the individual levels of the Common European Framework of Reference.