<![CDATA[Abstract. Constructing a sentence in a foreign language requires not only the language learner’s knowledge of grammatical rules, but also an understanding of the relationship between meaning and structure among the sentence-forming units. Based on the needs analysis derived from learner writing tasks data, which revealed that errors in the valency of locative verbs were the most prevalent, this study provides data, focusing on locative verbs followed by locative arguments in the corpus. This study underscores the fundamental role of locative arguments in shaping the valency of German verbs and highlights their importance for German language teaching, and generally for other foreign languages teaching. Verbs such as wohnen ‘live’, sich befinden ‘be located’, sitzen ‘sit’, wandern ‘wander’, and prallen ‘hit’ demonstrate that locative arguments are not optional adjuncts, but essential elements required to complete the semantic and syntactic structure of the verb. These verbs inherently encode spatial relations, whether referring to static location, position, movement, or interaction with a surface, and therefore rely on locative arguments as core components of their valency patterns. The data source is language-used data in the German language corpus from Sketch Engine. Using a qualitative method, this study analyses the semantic aspects of the locative verbs, starting from the lexical and grammatical meaning of the locative verbs, location marker features, as well as the comparison of the Aktionsart and semantic focus of the locative verbs with core locative arguments. By integrating insights from valency theory, semantic aspects, and recent corpus-based research, this study seeks to bridge the gap between linguistic theory and classroom practice. Ultimately, a deeper understanding of locative argument structures is expected to improve learners’ grammatical accuracy, communicative competence, and sensitivity to spatial meaning in German. The finding reveals that to describe the event as a whole, location is part of the meaning of the verbs. These variations are typically challenging for learners based on the results of their writing tasks. Therefore, these research findings from corpus analysis and the theoretical implications of verb valency reveal syntactic and semantic argument patterns that are useful for foreign language learners in understanding and producing sentences that are structurally and semantically coherent.Keywords: locative arguments, verb valency, corpus based, language teaching, semantic]]>
