Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15291/csi.4907
Croatian Students and English Path Verbs – Evidence of Positive and Negative Transfer
Anita Memišević
; University of Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Rijeka, Croatia
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* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Both English and Croatian are satellite-framed languages, yet they differ significantly in how they express spatial relations. This contrast is particularly noticeable when comparing English path verbs and their Croatian counterparts. Croatian learners of English often struggle with using prepositions alongside certain English path verbs, leading to the production of incorrect sentences. However, with other English path verbs, their usage of prepositions tends to be accurate. This behavioural study aimed to investigate whether these difficulties might be attributed to transfer from Croatian. A total of 82 subjects participated and solved a cloze test containing path and manner verbs. The results suggest that strong negative transfer occurs with English path verbs whose Croatian equivalents are prefixed motion verbs gov-
erning prepositions cognate with their prefixes. Conversely,
positive transfer occurs in the case of English path verbs
whose Croatian equivalents are either prefixed or unprefixed verbs not accompanied by prepositions. These insights
may prove valuable in shaping more effective methods for
teaching prepositions.
Keywords
Croatian; English; path verbs; prefixed verbs; transfer
Hrčak ID:
342371
URI
Publication date:
26.12.2025.
Visits: 396 *