Debtor, Creditor, sum · the verb dlužit · working claim, revisable
English owe is one lexical verb. The money line is a bare Creditor and one bare sum, owes me $5, or the sum and then to. Czech keeps a lexical verb for that debt. The Internetová jazyková příručka prints two dictionary blocks on the headword. Slovník spisovné češtiny (SSČ) heads dlužit as ned. and glosses it být dlužen. Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (SSJČ) heads the older spelling dlužiti, also ned., and the government is (komu co; ~). The Akademický slovník současné češtiny (ASSČ) heads dlužit as sloveso nedokonavé and gives the morphology (3. j., 3. mn. -ží, rozk. -ž, čin. -žil, trp. -žen, podst. jm. -žení). VALLEX 4.5 heads dlužit impf, lexeme dluzi1. The imperfective label is that morphological mark. This page does not read it as a telicity claim.
The Debtor is the nominative. ASSČ’s brace on the money sense is (kdo dluží {co; komu; za co; na čem}). kdo is the nominative. VALLEX sense 1, gloss být dlužen; nemít zaplaceno, marks ACT obligatory, form 1, the nominative. The spelled subjects are Neplatiči, Zaměstnavatel, and Podniky. Dlužím vám omluvu prints no separate nominative pronoun. The person is the verb form.
The Creditor is dative, komu. SSJČ’s formula is komu co. VALLEX sense 1 marks ADDR optional, form 3, the dative. The money lines fill it with mu, sestře, státu, bance, městu, and lidem. There is no bare Creditor and no to. SSJČ also prints d. u dodavatele under sense 1, with u and with no dative and no sum in that line. The formula does not list u. This page does not treat u as a second writing of komu.
The sum or the thing is accusative, co. VALLEX sense 1 marks PAT obligatory, form 4. SSČ prints dlužit sestře peníze. SSJČ prints dluží mu sto korun and d. (státu) daně, with the dative of státu in parentheses. ASSČ prints Zaměstnavatel dluží lidem výplaty and Neplatiči dluží městu za nájemné přes milion korun. VALLEX’s own money example is dlužit bance peníze za poplatky. The second VALLEX example, dlužit bance na daních, and ASSČ’s Podniky dluží státu na daních, spell no accusative. The frame still marks the patient obligatory. The lines do not show one.
The reason is za plus accusative. VALLEX files it as RCMP, typical, form za+4, and the title of that functor is recompense. The printed phrase is za poplatky. ASSČ puts za co in the money brace, and the line is za nájemné. SSJČ’s verb formula is only (komu co; ~). It does not print za on the verb. za is not the Creditor. The Creditor in the same ASSČ line is the dative městu.
Taxes can sit in na plus locative. VALLEX files REG, typical, form na+6, regard, and the example is na daních. ASSČ’s brace lists na čem, and the line is the same na daních, with the dative státu and with no accusative sum. SSJČ does not print na on this verb. That locative is not an accusative patient.
An apology or an explanation is the same verb, not a second lemma. SSJČ sense 2, být povinen něco učinit, prints dluží mi vysvětlení. SSČ prints dlužit vysvětlení, with no dative in that short line. VALLEX sense 2, gloss být povinen, marks ACT obligatory nominative, ADDR obligatory dative, and PAT obligatory, form 4 or an infinitive. The examples are dluží mi vysvětlení and dluží mi vysvětlit, proč nepřišel. Control is ACT: the debtor is the understood subject of the infinitive. ASSČ sense 2, brace (kdo dluží {co; komu; za co}), glosses a moral debt and, in the same gloss, být někomu za něco vděčný. The printed accusatives are omluvu, zprávu, and to: Dlužím vám omluvu za své chování, Dlužím vám zprávu, jak jsme dopadli, dlužím to svým předkům. za své chování is on the apology line. VALLEX’s obligation frame does not list za. Two ASSČ lines print za and no accusative thing: Dlužím ti za všechno, co jsi pro mě udělala and Rádiu Svobodná Evropa dlužíme za mnohé. Rádiu is dative.
být dlužen and být dlužný are the copular predicate, beside Swedish vara skyldig and Polish być winnym. The verb article still exists. Swedish has no lexical three-place verb for the debt. Polish files the short form winien as the money headword, and dłużny as the same frame. Czech files both the verb and the predicate. ASSČ’s morphology line on the verb prints the passive participle as trp. -žen, the masculine ending, and does not spell the other gender cells. SSJČ heads dlužný as příd. and says sense 1 is zprav. ve jmenném tvaru v ust. spoj. být dlužen. The example is je mi dlužen mnoho peněz, stokorunu, dative mi, short form dlužen, and the sums mnoho peněz and stokorunu. The same sense prints být d. za byt, with za and with no spelled sum and no spelled dative. SSČ marks senses 1 and 2 (jen jm.), only the short form, and then prints být dlužný za byt, the long form dlužný, in the sense-1 example. Sense 2 prints jste nám dlužni vysvětlení. dlužni is the short masculine-animate plural. The long-form nominative of that cell would be dlužní. A feminine debt clause, dlužna, is not among these lines. The IJP’s own example on the adjective page is the long form: Nezůstal nám nic dlužný, všechno splatil, dative nám, accusative nic. ASSČ’s idiom under the verb is co / kolik jsem dlužen?, glossed as what one has to pay. The adjective entry, as read, defines dlužný as the unpaid amount, dlužná částka, dlužné pojistné, dlužné nájemné, dlužných mezd, dlužné peníze, and prints co / kolik jsem dlužný?. It does not, in that text, repeat the dative-plus-accusative predicate. VALLEX’s passive of the verb is a different participle cell: komu je dluženo, neuter dluženo, dative komu, no agreeing debtor.
The credit sense, English owe X to Y, is vděčit. SSČ marks it ned. kniž. and glosses být vděčen, děkovat. The lines are vděčit přátelům za pomoc and vděčit náhodě. The second line has a dative and no za. SSJČ heads vděčiti, sense 1 kniž. (komu, čemu zač; řidč. co komu, čemu). The usual examples are v. přátelům za pomoc, v. rodičům za výchovu, and slovanské národy vděčí za své osvobození Sovětskému svazu. The thing is under za plus accusative. The person or the cause is dative, and in the last line the dative follows the za-phrase. The rarer pattern, marked řidč., is an accusative thing plus a dative: komu vděčíme toto setkání. toto setkání is not a sum. VALLEX, lexeme vdeci1, gloss být vděčný; děkovat, marks ACT obligatory nominative, ADDR obligatory dative, and PAT obligatory as za+4 or že. The example is vděčil otci za mnohé. There is no accusative form in that frame and no money line. A že-clause is in the frame and is not filled by the example. The IJP page for vděčit links SSČ and SSJČ. It does not link an ASSČ headword.
Where this diverges from English. English puts the Creditor in a bare object or in to, and the amount in one bare object, both on the verb owe. Czech dlužit is also a verb, so the divergence is the marking, not the absence of a verb. The Creditor is dative. The sum is accusative. za plus accusative is the reason, closer to English for than to to. na plus locative has no twin on the English verb page. The copular dlužen is a second cloth for the same debt, which English does not use. English keeps I owe my success to my teachers on owe, the thing in the object and the source in to. Czech prints that credit on vděčit, the source in the dative and the thing under za. Polish zawdzięczać puts the thing in the accusative. The usual Czech frame does not. Jsem mu dlužen sto korun za byt reuses jsem dlužen, the dative mu of the verb line, sto korun, and za byt. It is not one citation. It is constructed.
dlužit se and dlužit si are not this debt. SSČ glosses them vypůjčovat si. SSJČ prints d. se peníze, d. se ve spořitelně, and d. si knihy. The prefixes SSJČ lists, pro-, pře-, vy- se, vy- si, za-, za- se, sit on that borrowing pair. They are not filed here as a perfective of the debt verb. SSJČ’s expressive line čert mi to byl dlužen is glossed as something one should not have got into. It is not the money frame. VALLEX’s deagentive Komu se dluží peníze? keeps the dative and the accusative and drops the nominative debtor.