The purpose of this contribution is the presentation of preliminary results in
the analysis of the use of motion verbs in directed motion sentences in Czech
L2 by a group of tutored young adult learners. After having discussed the encoding
strategies of directed motion events in Czech, the paper presents the
results of the oral elicitation of the well known “Frog story” (1969) in Czech
by two groups, one of 10 Italian Intermediate learners of Czech and one of 10
Czech native speakers. Regularities in the use of motion verbs in Czech by this
group of learners are interpreted on the basis of the idiosyncrasies of the encoding
strategies of directed motion events in the two languages (Italian – L1 and
Czech – L2), and in particular on the basis of the restriction in the expression of
manner of motion in directed motion sentences in Italian.
