COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ENGLISH AND HAUSA NOMINAL PHRASES

ABSTRACT

This research studies the occurrence of the constructions and functions of NPs in English and Hausa languages, and finds out the similarities and differences that exist between them. Data are collected from primary and secondary sources, i.e. published Grammar, Linguistics and Comparative Analysis, unpublished lecture note; internet based material as well as personal observation. The data are analyzed through presenting well-formed and ill-formed expressions, which were compared, to find areas of differences and similarities. An analysis also made, using linguistic tree diagram, tables, and asterisk symbol (*) to mark ungrammatical expressions. This work is placed within the context of existing literature on “Hausa and English Grammar and Linguistics” and the teaching and learning of both languages. This will help the researchers in grammar with a concise knowledge of Hausa and English NPs construction, functions and enable them know the similarities and differences that exist.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1          BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The study of grammar has become very important as far as speaking and writing are concerned. This is because in our daily use of language, we try to put every part of speech (noun, verb etc.) in its appropriate position to avoid misinformation in the course of writing and communication.

English language is a widely spoken language almost everywhere in the world, and Hausa is a language spoken in some parts of Northern Nigeria and even outside Nigeria. Both are taught as subjects in public and private schools. These two languages interrelate and contrast with each other morphologically, syntactically and even semantically. This work is based on syntactic level, i.e. (comparative study of English and Hausa Nominal phrase). Typologically; Hausa and English share the same order of arranging words to form phrases and sentences (SVO). Example:

S                  V                                 O

Audu              kashe                     Kare

Audu              kill              a          Dog

This work will be based on Hausa and English nominal phrases. These languages have greatly spread around the world and well accepted, accommodated and acquired organically by other native speakers, So the research dissimilar will be done on them (Hausa and English) on how their NPs are similar and dissimilar. The study will also throw light on their morphological process in forming NPs, prevailing overt nature of Hausa NPs and hiding nature of English NPs morphologically.