Slovak Collocations and Their Portuguese Equivalents: Divergences and Interference

Abstract

This paper deals with an analysis of collocations in Portuguese and Slovak based on research focusing on interference between Portuguese and Slovak, which is of great importance when studying and using a foreign language. A collocation represents a specific unit of meaning and plays an essential role in language education. On the basis of the findings obtained by comparing the structure of Portuguese collocations and their Slovak equivalents, we point out potential difficulties that may arise while using them in a foreign language. In the collocations of both languages we can observe differences at the semantic and morphosyntactic levels which are supposed to cause various kinds of interference.