Abstract
Based on the data from the Czech learner corpora CzeSL and MERLIN, the paper focuses on the use of common light verbs (have, do/make, give, get, take) in non-native Czech. Furthermore, the use of other light verbs (bring, offer, keep, find, gain, lose, induce etc.) listed in Vallex
4.0, on-line Czech valency dictionary, is surveyed. Light verbs are semantically weak verbs complemented mostly with a lexically specific nominal expression, thus giving rise to partly idiosyncratic V-N collocations that present difficulties from the point of view of L2 acquisition. Therefore, such expressions allow to examine the idiomaticity and native-likeness of the language of L2 speakers. The observation of the use of the abovementioned V-N collocations by non-native speakers of Czech and its comparison with the data from SYN and ORAL, written and spoken corpora of contemporary Czech, lead to the following conclusions:
1) in non-native use semantically general verbs are overused, while more specific and native-like collocations are underrepresented;
2) the range of collocations at lower proficiency levels is restricted to several core expressions, which gradually improves at higher proficiency levels;
3) whereas lower proficiency speakers use collocations in order to achieve direct communicative goals, higher proficiency learners needs them to express abstract meanings and for academic writing;
4) errors in collocations prove that they are difficult to acquire and subject to cross-linguistic influence. Although collocations in learner language have recently received a lot of attention (Dąbrowska, Nesselfhauf, Durrant, Ellis, Gilquin, Herbst and others), they have gone unnoticed in the domain of L2 Czech so far. The paper shows the ways in which the available corpora of Czech may draw attention of Czech teachers and learners to formulaic language and also points out an urgent need for collocations learning tools responding to the needs of non-native speakers.