Czech verbs with preposition-less instrumental and their Chinese equivalents: the acquisition of instrumental constructions by Chinese learners of Czech

The paper examines how the frequent Czech verbs with the preposition-less instrumental case are conveyed in Chinese, a language without cases, and how structural differences affect its acquisition by Chinese speakers.

The Czech instrumental case can be understood as "a peripheral accessory (...) associated either with an activity or with another item" (Janda & Clancy, 2006, p. 181). In the former case, it designates literally or metaphorically a path through space or time, from which several meanings are derived: 1) an instrument (means), 2) a controlled item, 3) an item with a positive or negative emotional value. In the latter case, the instrumental describes labels/categories of other items.

This study is based on the 100 most frequent Czech verb lemmas with instrumental objects from the Czech corpus SYN2020. Based on their semantic classification and comparison with their Chinese equivalents, four verb groups are identified:

1. Verbs expressing ‘means/instrument’ correspond to the Chinese structure "to do sth. with the help of sth. / with an instrument" (ex. 1).
2. Verbs denoting actions and emotions lack a direct equivalent in Chinese and prefer the SVO order (ex. 2).
3. Verbs expressing labels, i.e. phases of an action or classification, correspond to Chinese structures with the verb 为 (wei), meaning "as" in English (ex. 3).
4. Some verbs have no systematic parallel in Chinese (ex. 4).

The empirical part of the research is based on a questionnaire distributed to B1-B2 Chinese learners of Czech (N=13), testing representative verb lemmas in each category. It consists of two parts:

1. A multiple-choice task, where respondents select a Czech structure based on a Chinese sentence.
2. A translation task from Czech to Chinese.

The questionnaire, including distractors, is designed to test the following hypotheses:

1. The first category of verbs will be the easiest to acquire due to semantic and syntactic parallels.
2. Learners will tend to use the accusative instead of the instrumental for the second category.
3. In the third category, students will insert 为 (wei) in the translation, meaning “to be” or “to act as”, to mirror Czech instrumental constructions.
4. Verbs with no systematic L1 equivalent, including some label verbs, will be the most difficult.

Preliminary results confirm most hypotheses. For verbs denoting actions and emotions, students frequently used the accusative instead of the instrumental. In the third category, the tendency to insert 为 (wei) appeared in the translation task. The results for the first group were less satisfactory than expected, possibly due to sentence complexity or individual differences. The last category had the lowest accuracy, likely due to both syntactic differences and lower verb frequency.

These findings offer insights into L2 acquisition regarding the (non-)correspondence of syntactic constructions in typologically different languages.

Examples

(1)                   Nahradil                      strom               květinou.

          replace_3.SG.PRET        tree_ACC           flower_INSTR

          他        用        花           代替了        树。

          he        with    flower    replaced      tree

          “He replaced the tree with a flower.”

(2)       a.          Pták    mává                křídly.

           bird     flap_3.SG.PRES   wings_INSTR 

           鸟儿   挥动         翅膀。                       

           bird     flap          wings

           “Bird flaps the wings.”

b.        Uprchlíci       trpěli                   hladem.

            refugee_PL    suffer_3.PL.PRET   hunger_INSTR

            难民              遭受了        饥饿（之苦）。

            refugees       suffered      hunger

            “Refugees suffered from hunger.”

(3)                      Stal se                       učitelem.

             become_3.SG.PRET      teacher_INSTR

             他       成为了            老师。

             he       became-as     teacher

             “He became a teacher.”

(4)                      Velká    síň      zela                     prázdnotou.

             big        hall     gape_3.SG.PRET    emptiness_INSTR

             大          厅        空          无一人。

             big         hall     empty    not a single person

             “The big hall gaped with emptiness.”