ABSTRACT
This study is specifically concerned with the syntactic analysis of
the use of auxiliary verbs in office documents by writers of office
documentsusing Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) University,Lapai Niger
State and the interpersonal meanings, and the various interpretations
deduced from the use of the English auxiliary verbs in the office
documents using as a case study from selected departments in Ibrahim
Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai,Niger State.The study aimed at
identifying which auxiliary verbs are more wrongly used by writers of
office documents in IBB University, Lapai and also highlighting the
context to which writers of office documents misuse auxiliary verbs. The
extent to which some office documents in IBB University, Lapai convey
wrong information due to wrong use of auxiliary verbs were analysed in
the office documents at IBB University, Lapai. The data used for this
study were collected;thirty samples of office documents were obtained
from the university Library, office of the Registrar, Student Affairs
department as well as the following departments: Chemistry, Biology,
Political Science, Public Administration, and Counselling Psychology
provide the data for the study. The analytical procedure adopted for
this study was based on the adoption of the systemic functional grammar
and traditional grammar as the theoretical framework, those expressions
that contain the use of auxiliary verbs from the office documents were
analysed, and interpretations of the auxiliary verbs used to give
insights into the difficulties faced by the writers in their use of
auxiliary verbs in writing office documents. Their level of
understanding of the interpersonal meaning of auxiliary verbs, most
especially the non-modal and modal auxiliary verbs was also focused on
for analysis. Eight and seven columns were provided to show non-modal
and modal auxiliary verbs in the analysis table contained the serial
numbers, the text for the analysis, the modality, the verb used, the
verb intended, the interpersonal meaning, the writer‟s intention and
reference in relation to the data for analysis. The data were analysed
using the relevant aspects of eclectic theoretical framework of
analysis, specifically, Halliday (1985) and Quirk et al (1972, 1982,
1985) interpersonal meaning of auxiliary verbs. In the course of the
analysis of data, the study arrived at the following findings: The
writers of office documents used for analysis seem to be selective in
the application of English auxiliary verbs (modal verbs) such that they
limit their choices to only those they are familiar with. There are
exhibitions of indiscriminate use of some English auxiliary verbs like
„has‟ and „have‟, will‟ and „would‟ and „can‟ and „could‟. The writers
of the office documents use them as if they all have one meaning.The
English auxiliary verbs „may‟, „might‟, ‟shall‟ and „should‟ have been
scantily used by the writers of office documents in their writing. The
writers of office documents experience difficulty in the application of
English auxiliary verbs in their documents.The results of the analysis
presented leads to the conclusion that all types of auxiliary verbs in
English are problematic to some writers of office documents, but the
modal auxiliary verbs that pose more problems to the writers of office
documents than the primary auxiliary verbs. That is, they have limited
knowledge on the uses and proper application of the rules guiding the
auxiliary verbs usage. This study recommends that seminars, conferences
and workshops should always be organized by the University for writers
of office documents. Through attendance of such programmes writers of
office documents could also gain more knowledge and even be exposed to
those things which they do not know. In addition, writers of office
documents should be encouraged to read widely so as to increase their
knowledge in English language. That is, they should engage themselves
with other educative materials outside their place of work, as
these will improve their spoken and written English.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Language is very important to human beings. If life is to be lived
to the fullest, language must be acquired, taught, learnt and studied
well because life without language in modern civilization will be
disastrous since each community is formed by the activity of a language
(Bloomfield, 1945:13). Therefore, this research considers writing skills
in the learning of language to be very essential. The ability to read
and write is regarded as very important compared to the ability to speak
(Stevense, 1974: 65) and writing is regarded as the most difficult of
the language skills. Without writing, the human mind or thought could
hardly be read or represented (Ong, 1993: 78)
The use of auxiliary verbs by the writers of office documents is
what this study is concerned with. Auxiliary verbs are of two kinds:
non-modal and modal auxiliary verbs. Nesbitt, (2001) Non-modal verbs are
different frommodal auxiliary verbs in the sense that the former can be
used as lexical verbs. This means that they sometimes exist on their
own, apart from functioning as helping verbs, while the latter cannot;
they only perform the function of helping verbs in a sentence where they
occur, which shows that they are as important as the lexical verbs.
Therefore, any misuse or misinterpretation of the auxiliary verbs can
bring about distortion of the meaning meant to be conveyedin office
documents. It is interesting to note that proper use of these auxiliary
verbs helps to make our writing faultless and to convey meaningful
information.