The influence of prefixation on the verbal government in Czech (on the example of new verbs from the field of internet and mobile technologies)
Abstract
The present paper deals with changes of verbal government caused by prefixation of base verbs. It is known that verbs usually acquire accusative government by prefixation.
There are several cases though, when the transitivisation of a verb is not observed, for example when a verb is prefixed with po- and za- with delimitative meaning. Verbs with spatial meaning (and also verbs expressing metaphorical motion) are usually not transitivised by prefixation.
The subject of the presented analysis is nine word-formation nests from the field of internet and mobile technologies and communication. The analysis showed that most of the prefixed derivatives are transitive.
However, verbs with prefixes do- (meaning 'to terminate an action (for a longer period or definitely)'), po- and za- (both in delimitative meanings) are usually not transitive, even if they are derived from transitive base verbs. Metaphorical motion is typically expressed by the construction "prefix-V se' [k čemu/z čeho apod.]", in which accusative position is blocked by the morpheme se.