Something to talk about: The problem of the prepositional phrase in Dutch and Czech

Abstract

For foreign students, the prepositional object is among the most problematic syntactic features of the Dutch language, as its form presents strong similarities with the adverbial clause, but it has an object function. In some cases it is very difficult to even decide whether the prepositional phrase has an adverbial function or is an object comparable with the direct object. In this paper the Dutch prepositional object is compared with similar constructions in the Czech language. Furthermore, the function of the preposition and its categorisation are briefly discussed. The paper ends with some criteria for Czech-speaking students to recognize a prepositional object as such.