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Relativisation in English and Nigerian Pidgin: A Contrastive lnquiry
Abstract
This paper undertakes a contrastive linguistics of relativisation in English and Nigerian Pidgin. The three main objectives of this paper are as follows: first, it undertakes an overview of Nigerian Pidgin as a neo-African language; discusses the benefits of Chomsky's Minimalist program that is adopted as the grammatical model for this study and it undertakes an overview of contrastive linguistics as a distinct field of linguistics. Secondly, the paper discusses a linguistic description of the derivation of relativisation in English and Nigerian Pidgin. Thirdly, the essay discusses the differences between relativisation in English and Nigerian Pidgin; it identifies the learning difficulties that a Nigerian pidgin speaker will encounter while learning relativisation in English. While relativisation is derived through wh-xp that moves from DP to spec-CP which leaves a co-indexed trace in English. In NP, relativisation is derived through the introduction of relative clause introducer "we" which functions like "that" complementizer since it is base generated at spec-CP. The semantic scope of "we" is extended to include the introduction of non-finite clauses and prepositional phrases in Nigerian pidgin.
... On the first hand, this notion is subject of studies on European languages (Cristofaro & Ramat, 2007), on specific Asian languages (Prasithrathsint & Yaowapat, 2009;Huang, 2008;Mohan, 2006;Dayal, 1996;Ning, 1993;Cole and Hermon, 2005; etc.), on specific American languages (Tarallo, 1983;Guerroro, 2008;Lander, 2006; etc.), on African languages (Biloa, 2020;Hiraiwa, 2003;Poulos, 1982;Kawasha, 2002;Makasso, 2010;Atindogbe & Grollemund, 2017; Nyameye Abunya & Kweku Osam, 2022, etc.), and on Australian languages (Kapitonov, 2016;etc.). On the other hand, relativization is also studied within the framework of English-Arabic contrastive analysis (Hamdallah & Tushyeh, 1998), of English-Nigerian pidgin contrastive analysis (Mowarin & Maledo, 2010), of English-Shupamen contrastive analysis (Yiagnigni Ngoungoua, 2020), etc. Specific text studies on relativization from English and French contrastive analysis may exist, but are uneasily found. Therefore, this work will focus on this issue with the aid of Naomi Alderman 1 's three (03) literary works and their French versions as our corpus sources. ...
Language in usage is the result of various operations. Linguistic operations are worth studying so as to uncover the subtleties which make languages to be unique in their inner organization. These operations occur within various linguistic units (words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, and texts) and can be studied at various levels of linguistic analysis (Dutoit, 2000). Provided the wide range of such operations, the notion of clause operations is therefore the subject of this article; more specifically, this study intends to contrast relativization from a syntactic and semantic point of view based on an English-French translation corpus (extracted from three novels by Naomi Alderman and their French translations). With the aid of the Meaning-Text Theory (MTT), the findings suggest that there are convergent and divergent syntactic properties, shared syntactic processes, and common syntactic functions related to the translational renderings of relative markers. Moreover, the contrastive analysis of relativization from a semantic viewpoint reveals some semantic functions undertaken by relative markers, some correspondence types between relatives of different versions of the corpus, and some translation procedures used by translators while rendering the overall meaning of the source text.
Contrastive analysis (CA) is used in the study of language as a method of explaining why some features of a target language are more difficult to learn than others. It is predicated on the assumption that the structure of an already internalized language will influence the learning of another language. In this Chapter, we provide a contrastive analysis of the verbal group structures of English and Urhobo (Niger-Congo), to give insights into the effective learning of both languages. Urhobo belongs to the South Western Edoid language groups of the Benue Congo family. It spans nine local government areas in Delta State, where it is the dominant language. It is also spoken in some communities in Bayelsa, Edo and Ondo States. The verbal group which functions at the predicator position, is a mandatory element in Urhobo and English sentences. The structure of both languages was contrasted using Halliday’s systemic grammatical model (Halliday in World 17:241–292, 1961). Findings reveal that there are phenomenal differences between their VG structures with few similarities. Furthermore, knowledge of these differences and similarities will facilitate the learning of the verbal group structures of English and Urhobo.KeywordsContrastive analysisContenative constructionExponenceUrhoboVerbal group
Thesis (Ph.D., Dept. of Linguistics)--Harvard University, 2004. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [145]-152).
A Contrastive Study of Aspects of the Syntactic and Lexical Rule of English and Yoruba
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A Contrastive Analysis of Some Syntactic Rules in English and Nigerian Pidgin
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English and Nigerian Pidgin. Ph.D Thesi s npublished. Ibadan:
University ofibadan, 2004.
Introducing Transformational Grammar. London : Arnold
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Ouhalla, Jamal. Introducing Transformational Grammar. London : Arnold.
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