1

EBUNOBI, FIDELIA UZOAMAKA PG/MA/07/42697

CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH AND IGBO TENSE

FORMATION

LINGUISTICS, IGBO AND OTHER NIGERIAN LANGUAGES

FACULTY OF ARTS

Ebere Omeje Digitally Signed by: Content manager’s Name DN : CN = Webmaster’s name O= University of Nigeria, Nsukka OU = Innovation Centre

i

TITLE PAGE

CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH AND IGBO TENSE FORMATION

EBUNOBI, FIDELIA UZOAMAKA PG/MA/07/42697

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS, IGBO AND OTHER NIGERIAN LANGUAGES, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA, FOR THE AWARD OF DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE IN LINGUISTICS

SEPTEMBER, 2014

i

ii

APPROVAL PAGE

This thesis has been read and approved for meeting the requirements for the

award of the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Linguistics, Igbo and other

Nigerian Languages, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

_________________________ _____________________ Mr. Anasiudu, B. N. Internal Examiner Supervisor ________________________ ______________________ External Examiner Prof. (Mrs.) R. I. Okorji Head of Department

____________________ Prof. P. U. Okpoko

Dean of Faculty

ii

iii

CERTIFICATION PAGE

This is to certify that Ebunobi, Fidelia Uzoamaka, Reg. No.: PG/MA/07/4297, a

postgraduate student of the Department Linguistics, Igbo and other Nigerian Languages,

University of Nigeria, Nsukka has satisfactorily completed the requirements for the

courses and project work for the award of the Degree of Master of Arts (M.A.) in

Linguistics. The work embodied in this dissertation is original and has not been

submitted in part or in full for any diploma or degree of this or any other University.

________________________ ________________________ Ebunobi, Fidelia Uzoamaka Mr. Anasikudu, B. N. Candidate Supervisor

iii

iv

DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to:

Trinity (three in one God)

and to

Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

iv

v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I return all glory to God Almighty for His infinite goodness and mercy throughout

this work. I call you “The God of Impossibility”.

I also owe limitless thanks to my supervisor, Mr. B.N. Anasiudu for his tolerance,

patience and encouragement not to relent until success is achieved.

What do I say to my course mates: Mrs. Ifeanyi Ofor, Mrs. Chinwe Uzochukwu

Okafor and my sister Mrs. Lizzy Ugochukwu? I owe you a million thanks. In fact, it is

only God Almighty that will reward you for your spiritual, physical and financial support

in this academic work.

v

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page i Approval Page ii Certification Page iii Dedication iv Acknowledgements v Table of Contents vi Abstract viii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study 1 1.2 Statement of the Problem 2 1.3 Research Questions 3 1.4 Purpose of the Study 3 1.5 Significance of the Study 3 1.6 Scope of the Study 4 1.7 Limitations of the Study 4

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Theoretical Studies 5 2.2 Empirical Studies 14 2.3 Summary 19

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Area of Study 21 3.2 Research Population 21 3.3 Method of Data Analysis 22

CHAPTER IV: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

4.1 Introduction 24

4.2 Presentation of Tense 27

4.3 The Present Tense 27

4.3.1 The Simple Present Tense 28 4.3.1.1 The Simple Present Tense in English 28 4.3.1.2 The Simple Present Tense in Igbo 30 4.3.1.3 Comparison 35

4.3.2 The Present Continuous Tense 37 4.3.2.1 The Present Continuous Tense in English 37 4.3.2.2 The Present Continuous Tense in Igbo 39 4.3.2.3 Comparison 43

4.3.3 The Present Perfect Tense 45 4.3.3.1 The Present Perfect Tense in English 45 4.3.3.2 The Present Perfect Tense in Igbo 47 4.3.3.3 Comparison 48

vi

vii

4.3.4 The Present Perfect Continuous Tense 49 4.3.4.1 The Present Perfect Continuous Tense in English 49 4.3.4.2 The Present Perfect Continuous Tense in Igbo 51 4.3.4.3 Comparison 52

4.4 The Past Tense 52

4.4.1 The Simple Past Tense 53 4.4.1.1 The Simple Past Tense in English 53 4.4.1.2 The Simple Past Tense in Igbo 57 4.4.1.3 Comparison 60

4.4.2 The Past Continuous Tense 63 4.4.2.1 The Past Continuous in English 63 4.4.2.2 The Past Continuous Tense in Igbo 67 4.4.2.3 Comparison 68

4.4.3 The Past Perfect Tense 70 4.4.3.1 The Past Perfect Tense in English 70 4.4.3.2 The Past Perfect Tense in Igbo 72 4.4.3.3 Comparison 73

4.4.4 The Past Perfect Continuous Tense 74 4.4.4.1 The Past Perfect Continuous Tense in English 74 4.4.4.2 The Past Perfect Continuous Tense in Igbo 76 4.4.4.3 Comparison 76

4.5 The Future Tense 77

4.5.1 The Simple Future Tense 77 4.5.1.1 The Simple Future Tense in English 77 4.5.1.2 The Simple Future Tense in Igbo 80 4.5.1.3 Comparison 81

4.5.2 The Future Continuous Tense 82 4.5.2.1 The Future Continuous in English 83 4.5.2.2 The Future Continuous Tense in Igbo 84 4.5.2.3 Comparison 85

4.5.3 The Future Perfect Tense 86 4.5.3.1 The Future Perfect Tense in English 86 4.5.3.2 The Future Perfect Tense in Igbo 87 4.5.3.3 Comparison 87

4.5.4 The Future Perfect Continuous Tense 89 4.5.4.1 The Future Perfect Continuous Tense in English 89 4.5.4.2 The Future Perfect Continuous Tense in Igbo 90 4.5.4.3 Comparison 90

CHAPTER V: SUMMARY, FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary 91 5.2 Findings 91 5.3 Conclusion 97 5.4 Recommendations 97

References 99

vii

viii

ABSTRACT

This study examines the tense formation of the English and Igbo languages with a view to predicting the interference problems a learner of either language as a second language will encounter while forming tenses in the target language. The English and the Igbo languages differ in structure in many respects. As a result of these differences, the native speakers of both languages, transfer the features of the native language to the target language while forming tenses in the target language. Hence, it is quite obvious that interference from a learner’s native language is a source of error in the new language.

viii

ix

Contrastive Analysis of English and Igbo Tense Formation

By

Ebunobi, Fidelia Uzoamaka PG/MA/07/42697

Department of Linguistics, Igbo And Other Nigerian Languages

University of Nigeria, Nsukka

September, 2014

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Contrastive analysis is concerned with the way in which the first language (L1)

affects the target language (TL) learning in the individual. Contrastive analysis is

founded on the assumption that TL learners will tend to transfer to the TL the formal

features of their L1 (James, 1980:9). In agreement with this, Lado (1957:2) puts it thus:

Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture.

Williamson & Blench (2000:103-104) note that Nigeria is a country with over 450

languages. Among these languages are Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba. These three major

languages were elevated to the official language status (NPE, 1998:18).

Igbo is spoken natively in an area that covers the present Anambra, Imo, Abia,

Enugu, Ebonyi as well as parts of Delta and Rivers states of Nigeria (Ofomata,

2002:252). It is also spoken or understood by a good number of the neighbouring ethnic

populations. On the other hand, the teaching and learning of English in Nigeria,

according to Otagburuagu (2002, 83), dates back to the early days of European trading

expeditions as well as British colonization efforts: the introduction of Christian religion

and western education by the early Christian missionaries. Early European political and

commercial quests in Nigeria thus became a period of linguistic experimentation and

language transfer for the nation. The term transfer is used to describe the process

whereby a feature or rule from a learner’s first language is carried over to the second

language grammar (O’Graddy, Dobrovolsky & Katamba, 1996:504).

2

The learner of a second language experiences errors and difficulties that occur as

a result of mother tongue interference. Wherever the structures of the foreign language

differ from those of the mother tongue, we can expect both difficulties in learning and

error in performance. Learning a foreign language is essentially learning to over-come

these difficulties. Ibe (2007:261) notes that a major area of defect in the performance of

second-language learners is in the command of grammatical structure and as such, the

learners transfer literally and without meaning the structures of the first language into the

second language. For instance, grammatically, the usage of tense as posits Ibe

(2007:206) is one area where the performance of second language learners is rather

woeful and continues to get worse.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The learning of a second language is no doubt with its own problems. O Grady

(1996:504) notes that one of the most easily recognizable traits of a second-language

learner’s speech is that it bears a certain resemblance to the first language. Thus,

someone whose first language is English is likely to sound different from someone whose

first language is Igbo when they both speak either of the languages.

In the grammatical structure, it has been observed that the usage of tenses is one

major area where the performance of second-language learners is woeful (Ibe, 2007:26).

This is as a result of the differences in the structures of the native language and the target

language. For example:

Si ya bia ______________ *Tell him/her come.

Jee zaa ulo ____________ *Go sweep house.

Nwoke ojii ___________ *Man black.

The structures of the above sentences show that the learner is carrying over patterns of

the mother tongue into his target-language performance. Moreover, such a carryover

3

seems to result in the large number of deviant sentences in areas where the structures of

the native language and the target language differ the most (Fisiak, 1981:210).

1.3 Research Questions

This study seeks to find solutions to these questions:

1. What is tense?

2. What role does tense play in the syntax of the Igbo and the English languages?

3. What similarities and differences are there between the Igbo and English tense

formation?

4. What problem does a native speaker of the Igbo language encounter while

forming tenses in the English language?

1.4 Purpose of the Study

In Nigeria, Igbo is spoken as a first language by the Igbo ethnic group while

English is spoken as the second language of the nation. The English and Igbo languages

differ in structure in many respects. On the basis of the above, Wilkins (1982:190) states

that people who are learning a foreign language often make mistakes in pronunciation,

spelling, grammar and vocabulary. Equally, Oller (1971:79) posits that contrastive

analysis is seen as a device for predicting points of difficulty and some of the errors that

the learners will make.

Therefore, this study aims at describing tense formation in the Igbo and English

languages, using contrastive analysis to predict possible errors and exposing the Igbo

native speakers to the problems they will encounter in learning tense formation in the

target language.

1.5 Significance of the Study

The aim of contrastive analysis is to identify differences between the learner’s

source of language and the target language in order to predict where errors would likely

4

occur (Fisiak, 1981:197). It is also concerned with the effects exerted by the native

language on the language being learnt. The conclusion is that the strength of interference

is greatest in the direction of the native language or mother tongue to the foreign

language (James, 1980:9).

To avoid interference and minimize difficulty in learning, the study seeks to

expose the different ways the formation of Igbo tenses differ from English tenses and

vice versa. The study of the second-language grammatical tense formation will make

productive contributions available to the teaching and learning of the target language.

This will be of immense use to the learners, teachers, curriculum planners and text book

writers. The work will also be of use to the researchers who will be conducting research

in any related field.

1.6 Scope of the Study

This work is expected to investigate particularly tense formation in the English

and Igbo languages, its role in target-language learning, the similarities and differences

and make predictions of the difficulties the Igbo learners of the English language will

encounter. This work is limited only to the tense formation of the Igbo and the English

languages, the role of tense in the syntax of both languages. It covers all the pedagogical

tenses of both languages.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, the researcher faced challenges which included

financial constraint, lack of materials and time as well as distance. These predicaments

no doubt delayed this work.

5

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 Theoretical Studies

“Contrastive” implies showing the differences between languages, for instance, a

contrastive analysis of the English and Igbo languages. “Contrastive”, according to

James (1980:2) leans more interest in differences between languages than in their

likeness. The notion of contrast, as Lambrecht (1994:290) explains, is a linguistically

relevant phenomenon and does not only arise from particular interferences which we

draw on the basis of a given conversational context. Analysis on the other hand is the

detailed study or explanation of something in order to understand more about it.

Contrastive analysis is, therefore, a linguistic exercise which involves determining

the formal similarities and differences between languages. The primary objective is the

establishment of the historical and genetic connections between languages on the basis of

their manifest similarities, particularly between the forms having similar meanings or

cognate word forms (Olaoye, 2008:40). Summarizing, Fisiak (1981:1) explains that

contrastive analysis is concerned with the comparison of two or more languages or

subsystems of languages in order to determine both differences and similarities between

them. As a linguistic enterprise, contrastive analysis is neither generalistic nor

particularistic but somewhere intermediate on a scale between the two extremes.

Supporting this view, James (1980:3) postulates that contrastive analysis is a linguistic

enterprise aimed at producing inverted (i.e. contrastive, not comparative) two valued

typologies, and founded on the assumption that languages can be compared. It is a tool

used in determining the similarities and differences between two languages and

predicting the problems a speaker of one of the two languages will experience in learning

the other language as a foreign or second language. It is in the light of this that James

6

(1980:2) posits that contrastive analysis is interested in the inherent genius of the

language under its purview as it is in the comparability of languages.

Contrastive analysis is a form of interlingual study or of what Wandruszka

(1971:68) has called ‘interlinguistic’ study. As such, and in certain other respects, it has

much in common with the study of bilingualism. Contrastive analysis’ concern is not

with societal bilingualism but deals with individual bilingualism. Of the two languages

to be studied, one is always the mother tongue (MT) or first language (L1) while the

other is the target language (TL) of the learner. As early as the schools of the ancient

world, teachers were writing down contrastive observations about the languages students

know and the languages they wish to learn (Kelly, 1969:13). The contrastive analysis of

both languages aims at exposing the features of the two languages, L1 and TL to a

thorough linguistic analysis. Wallwork (1969:155) is of the view that the two languages

must be studied in details and those areas where differences are apparent are selected for

contrast.

Fries (1945:9) notes that it is the existing habits formed as a result of the first

language acquisition that result in the difficulty experienced in the learning of the target

language and not the features of the target language per se. Smith (1969:53) shares

similar views with Fries and sees the situation thus:

Languages differ in the contrasts they make and the ways in which they differ constitute the learning problems for a non-native, who will tend to transfer to the new language the habits he has acquired in speaking his mother tongue.

Contrastive analysis hypothesis is based on the assumptions that the first language

interferes with the second language. Olaoye (2008:41) is of the view that contrastive

analysis involves the contrasting of the grammatical systems of two languages, L1 (first

7

language) and the target language. By this process, the linguist is able to determine the

area where there is divergence between them.

Oller (1971:79) again speaks of contrastive analysis as “a device for predicting

points of difficulty and some of the errors that learners will make”. James (1980:9), in

his explanation of contrastive analysis, adds that contrastive analysis is concerned with

the way in which L1 affects the target-language learning in the individual though Haugen

(1956:36) had the view that it is the language of the learner that is influenced, not the

language he learns.

Contrastive analysis represented by the audio-lingual theorist derives from the

view that language learning involves acquiring a new set of habits. Any previous learned

habits, i.e. the native language, are said to interfere with acquisition of the new ones

(Ubahakwe, 1979:28). Odlin (1989:2) perceives contrastive analysis as a technical term

for studying the differences in grammatical systems of two languages. He maintains that

there were widespread acceptances of the idea that native language influences could

greatly affect target language acquisition. Accordingly, Lado (1957:2) notes:

The fundamental assumption of contrastive analysis is that individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and act in the culture, and receptively when attempting to grasp and understand the language and the culture as practised by natives.

Ubahakwe (1979:29) explains transfer as the effects of a preceding activity upon the

learning of a given task. In a similar view, Fisiak (1981:211) refers to ‘transfer’ as the

hypothesis that the learning of a task is either facilitated (positive transfer) or impeded

(negative transfer) by the previous learning of another task, depending on, among other

things, the degree of similarity or difference obtaining between them.

8

In relation to second-language learning, transfer has to do with the influence of

the learners’ previous language on his present learning. If the languages have similar

rules or concepts, there will be a positive transfer of learning; if there are differences in

some respects, this will cause negative transfer of learning. Where the nature of the two

tasks happens to be the same, this tendency to transfer is an advantage. For example,

He drank water - Ọ nụrụ mmiri.

Give me money - Nye m ego.

The structure of the two languages above is the same. Hence, there will be positive

transfer. In support of this, Wilkins (1982:132) states that the learner’s attempt to speak

the target languages will show that many of the forms he uses do bear a resemblance of

one sort or another to that of the mother tongue. Inversely, where the systems of the two

languages are different, there will be negative transfer. For example:

Ada nwere ụkwụ ogologo - *Ada has legs tall.

O nwere ewu ojii - *He has goat black.

The above sentences show negative transfer and this will cause interference from the

native language word order.

In accordance with the above examples, “transfer” is simply the influence

resulting from similarities and differences between the target language and any other

language that has been previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired (Odlin, 1989:26).

It is the transfer of these habits that results in interferences and this problem is predicted

by a contrastive analysis. Wilkins (1982:197) maintains that the importance of

contrastive analysis includes that the errors and difficulties that occur in our learning and

use of a foreign language are caused by the interference of our mother tongue. Wherever

the structure of the foreign language differs from that of the mother tongue, we can

expect both difficulty in learning and error in performance. Weinreich (1953:1) writes of

9

the interference “as those instances of deviation from the norms of either language which

occur in the speech as a result of transfer”. Weinreich (1953:88) identifies three types of

interference: phonic, grammatical and lexical. He states that the individual is the locus of

the interference phenomenon. Weinreich and Haugen, authoritative in learning, note that

the features of the first language influence target language acquisition. They are

concerned with the relationship between the languages and dialects of speech

communities in contact with each other and not with individual’s language development.

In addition to the above, Politzer (1970:10), being more specific on the issue, states, “In

no area of language is interference coming from the native language more obvious than in

the second language systems”.

George (1972:63) estimates that approximately one third of all errors made by

target language learners can be traced to native language interference. The phenomenon

of interference, Lado (1964:217) also affirms, is the difficulty in learning sound, word or

instruction in a second language as a result of the differences between the habits of the

native language and the L2. In line with the above, Bamgbose, (1976:47) is convinced

that the interference of the first language poses the greatest difficulty for learners of the

second language. Williams (1990:78) points out that learning problems arise out of

interference of one sort or another, that each language has a different set of phonemes and

the learner transfers his own sounds of their nearest equivalents to the language he is

learning.

Gumperz et al (1971:233) recognizes the existence of interference when he

affirms that much of the linguistic research on bilingualism to date relies on a measure of

interference, the use of elements from one language while speaking or writing another.

MacCarthy (1975:1) amply puts it thus:

10

Learning another language later on is a different matter… the first language is already there and nothing can alter the fact that it will always form part of one’s linguistic background. One’s habit of speech soon becomes fixed in the mould appropriate for which first language, more firmly fixed with every year that passes. So there is bound to be interference with acquiring the new sets of habits that a second or foreign language will demand.

Beardsmore (1982:62) points out that the most insidious forms of interference is

that at the supra-segmental level where even the highly accomplished bilingual with few

traces of interference in other aspects of speech may well betray the influence of the

dominant or primary language on the target one. He also notes that contrastive analysis is

more of predictive technique which does not necessarily explain interference of contact

between two languages.

What in effect contrastive analysis is concerned with is the effect it exerts as a

conclusion of a common experience, and that the first language is in a privileged position

to resist interference. Oluikpe (1978:vi) treats two basic issues of interference: the first

issue states that positive interference occurs when the first language closely approximates

the structure in the target language; the second issue states that negative interference

occurs when a structure in the target language is lacking in the first language. From the

issues, the method of contrast is to pair the structures of the two languages to discover the

degree of interference.

This supports the claim of Lado (1957:2) about transfer that the difficulties of

target language learning could be determined through contrastive analysis. This is based

on the assumption that the student who comes in contact with a foreign language will find

some of the features of it quite easy and others extremely difficult. The teacher who has

made a comparison of the foreign language with the native language of the students will

know better what the real learning problems are and can better provide for teaching them.

11

On the other hand, Onyemelukwe (1999:9) identifies three planes on which native

language interference can be described. These are positive, neutral and negative

interference. The positive level is where the stimuli of languages A and B in contact are

similar as well as their responses. For example, a prior knowledge of Igbo vowels that

are present in English (example: a, e, i, o, u) will facilitate an Igbo speaker’s learning of

English vowels. It is possible to use some Igbo vowels as a basis for teaching similar

English vowel sounds, or even as substitutes for such vowels. However, the scope of

such facilitation is limited as far as English and Igbo are concerned. The neutral level

occurs where prior linguistic performance has no effect of any sort on subsequent

language acquisition. For example, a prior knowledge of the tense of the Igbo verb ‘bia’

will not affect the learning of the tense of the English verb ‘come’. The negative aspects

are:

(i) where the stimuli of languages A and B in contact are similar, but their responses

are different. For example, the range of meanings covered by the English word

‘bank” does not coincide with that of the Igbo “Ụlọọbaego” (Beardsmore,

1982:96),

(ii) where the stimuli of language A and B are totally different but their responses are

somewhat similar.

Beardsmore (1982:97) points out that the relative prestige of any two languages

involved will determine their permeability to transfer and also the nature of transfer. He

states that positive transfer enriches the recipient language, while negative transfer affects

the recipient language. Klein (1986:25) is of the view that: “Those structures of the

second language that coincide with corresponding structures of the first language are

assimilated with great ease as a result of positive transfer.”

12

On the other hand, structures which present considerable difficulties give rise to errors as

a result of negative transfer or interference between the two languages. In transferring a

native language structure, the learner transfers its distribution as well as its form and

meaning.

Commenting on this, Lado (1957:59) points out that since the learner tends to

transfer the habit of his native language structure to the foreign language, those structures

that are similar will be easy to learn because they will be transferred and may function

satisfactorily in the target language. Those structures that are different will be difficult

because, when transferred, they will not function satisfactorily in the target language and

will therefore have to be learned.

In summary, the function of contrastive analysis is to predict the likely errors of a

given group of learners and thereby to provide the linguistic input to language teaching

materials (Wilkins, 1982:198). Contrastive Analysis also facilitates target-language

learning by providing insight into the nature of the learner’s performance.

Besides, the aim of contrastive analysis as stated by Lado (1957:59) is that it can

predict and describe the patterns of L2 that will cause difficulty in learning and those that

will not cause difficulty. Oller (1971:79) again speaks of contrastive analysis as a device

for predicting points of difficulty and some of the errors that learners will make. He also

identifies three things that contrastive analysis can predict. It can predict (in the sense of

pre-identity) what aspect can cause problems; it can predict difficulty and it can predict

errors. James (1980:145) suggests a fourth possibility of contrastive analysis predicting

the tenacity of certain errors, that is their strong resistance to extinction, through time and

teaching.

Moreover, one of the fundamental goals of contrastive analysis is the

improvement of language pedagogy. Wilkins (1974:197) posits that contrastive analysis

13

is one investigation into language structure that has improved pedagogy and is, therefore,

truly a field of Applied Linguistics. Contrastive analysis is concerned with the

performance of an individual in language learning, i.e. how an individual constructs

sentences in conversation.

In as much as there are voices for contrastive analysis, the voices of critics seem

to be louder. One of the criticisms is based on the application of contrastive studies as

regards its validity and usefulness (Fisiak, 1981:6). This is as a result of

misinterpretations and misunderstandings created by such factors as the peculiar

methodological status of contrastive studies and from the lack of a clear-cut distinction in

the past between the theoretical and applied branches and of a precise formulation of their

different aims. Contrastive analysis was criticized for its inability to have 100%

predictive reliability. Lado (1968:27) calls attention to the way in which contrastive

analysis cannot predict which of several items will be chosen by certain foreigners

learning another language. In accordance with this, James replies that no one now claims

100% reliability for contrastive analysis (Fisiak, 1981:22). Contrastive analysis is also

criticized for being of no use because the hierarchy of difficulty established is

inappropriate for the sequencing of teaching materials. It is only partly valid likewise in

the area of predictability where it may be one of the factors helping to establish such a

hierarchy.

Another major criticism leveled against contrastive analysis is that their results

have no immediate use to the classroom. As Fisiak (1981:8) has aptly put it: “To use the

results of C.A. (contrastive analysis) raw in the classroom is rather like presenting a

customer in a restaurant with the ingredients and a recipe.”

Despite the criticisms against contrastive analysis, it is undoubtedly essential for

designing syllabuses and preparing teaching materials and very useful for textbooks.

14

Contrastive analysis is a very useful tool which has the ability to predict potential errors

and helps to explain and remedy those which are actually present. Contrastive analysis is

claimed to be central to all linguistic research in developing a general theory of language

based on the discovery of the universals of language, in the study of diachronic change

and of dialectal variation, in longitudinal studies of language acquisition, as well as in

interlingual translation (Fisiak, 1981:208).

In conclusion, the majority of errors from a learner’s speech were due to native

language interference. From the empirical evidence review, it is obvious that interference

from a learner’s native language is a source of error in the new language. It is the

concern of contrastive analysis to predict the likely errors of a given group of learners

and thereby to provide the linguistic input to language teaching materials.

2.2 Empirical Studies

The essence of contrastive analysis of the target language and the first language is

to identify the differences between the languages so as to predict the difficulties that

learners will have in the process of learning the target language. Contrastive analysis is

a systematic comparison of selected linguistic features of two languages, the intent of

which is to provide teachers and textbook writers with a body of information which can

be of help in the preparation of instructional materials, the planning of courses, and the

development of classroom techniques.

Adam (1982) carried out a contrastive analysis of Igbo and English past tense. In

his findings, he discovers that past tense in Igbo frequently refers to “present time” and if

the sentence is to have a past time meaning that an “adverb” of past time must be present

but such is not in English. He also concluded that Igbo past tense was an unsatisfactory

label for the construction unlike in the English language.

15

Green and Igwe (1963) researched on progressive tense in Igbo and English. In

their findings, they discovered that the auxiliary verb form has either a progressive or a

habitual meaning according to context and has no fixed time significance, being past or

present in accordance with the context.

O’Connor (1973) carried out a contrastive analysis of sounds of L1 and L2. He

compared the similar sounds and pointed out that the world’s languages do tend to

employ sounds produced by a limited number of combinations of articulatory features.

O’Connor (1973) again, conducted another research on contrastive analysis of French and

English language. The basic issue was L1 and L2 in terms of physical approach rather

than physiological, and is associated with the acoustic properties of speech sounds. The

researcher compared the initial consonants (P) in the French word [pâle] and English

vowel [pæI]. In his findings, he concluded that the English plosive in this initial position

is accompanied by a puff of breath or “aspiration” which is not true for the French

plosive. The difference can be traced to an articulatory source that is more easily

demonstrated and described in physical acoustic terms.

A similar study was carried out by Stockwell and Bowen (1965:3) on the sounds

of English and Spanish sounds with a shared articulatory basis. The researcher made

detailed descriptions of the sounds of the pair of languages and somehow equating certain

of these sounds interlingually for the purposes of comparison. The feasibility of this

approach is the fact that the English language tends to employ sounds produced by a

limited number of combinations of articulatory features. This is the fact that man’s vocal

apparatus is physiologically uniform throughout the world: “Perhaps, the most interesting

fact about the pronunciation of language in general is that there are enormous

possibilities in sounds that the human vocal apparatus can produce, and yet only a small

fraction of this potential variety is actually put to use in natural language”.

16

Jackson (1979) carried out a contrastive analysis of the grammars of Punjabi and

English. In his findings, he pointed out that English and Punjabi are the same in that they

both have progressive and non-progressive tenses (I am walking – I walk). They differ,

however, in that the form of the present progressive tense in English is the same as that of

the simple present tense in Punjabi, except for the order (English present progressive:

Aux + present participle; Punjabi simple present: present participle + Aux).

The present progressive in Punjabi is formed with: verbroot + progressive

participle (rya) + aux, thus having some similarities with the English present progressive

form, e.g. presence of “auxiliary”. These contrasts are predictably a source of

interference error.

Corder (1973) conducted a research on English and German past participle. In his

findings, he discovered and points out that he should not equate two grammatical

categories interlingually merely because they go by the same name and also the

segmental phonemes of the two categories may have different values.

Matemilola (2000) carried out a contrastive analysis of the vowel harmony

systems in Igbo and Yoruba. It is much more of a phonological process in Igbo than it is

in Yoruba. He observed that vowel harmony is much more prominently productive in

Igbo than Yoruba. Whereas there are prefixes and suffixes that are conditioned by vowel

harmony in Igbo, there are only prefixes in Yoruba.

Ikebude (1988) carried out a contrastive analysis of Igbo and Yoruba

phonological systems. In her findings she discovers that the phonological systems of the

two languages look alike but that the Igbo consonants are more complex than those of

Yoruba, making it possible for an Igbo person to learn Yoruba consonants faster than

Yoruba person learning Igbo consonants. However, the Igbo learner of Yoruba will find

the vocalic phonemes difficult because of nasalized vowels.

17

Enem (1999) researched on the phonological problem of an Igbo native speaker

learning Hausa as an alternate language. He is of the view that because Igbo and Hausa

belong to different genetic language groups, differences are sure. He predicted that an

Igbo learner of Hausa will find it difficult learning the language. His findings and

predictions are not only important to the language teacher but also to the textbook writers

of the language. The teachers take into consideration the differences between the first

language and the target language with the view of emphasizing the problem areas.

Madobo (1996) carried out a contrastive study of Igbo and Hausa vowels. He

identifies an eight (8) vowel system in the Igbo language, and it consists of 4 vowels

produced with an expanded pharynx, and another 4 vowels produced with unexpanded

pharynx. On the other hand, he identified 5 short vowels in Hausa. He pointed out that

while vowels do occur freely at every phonetic environment in the Igbo language they do

not in the Hausa language. He also pointed out that both in Igbo and Hausa languages,

/i,e/ and /u,o/ are front and back vowels respectively.

Anasiudu (2005) notes that the English and Igbo languages differ in syllable

structure. He points out that English has cccvcccc while Igbo has cvcv structure. He

maintains that the English syllable structure admits of consonant clusters which are

strange to the Igbo language. He, therefore, concludes that an Igbo learner of English

encounters problems in forming words using the English syllable structure and in trying

to break such consonant clusters commits such errors as:

“diginity” for “dignity”

“adivert” for “advert”

“penality” for “penalty.

18

Tinuoye (1991) after an exhaustive contrastive analysis of the English and Yoruba

morphological processes, concludes that many of the nouns in the Yoruba language are

formed through the reduplication process.

Bidwell (1979) conducted a research work on contrastive analysis of English and

Russian (lateral sounds). In his findings, he discovered that each language has two lateral

sounds: the clear [I] and the dark [+]. English has both alveolar laterals but [I] is

produced with simultaneous higher raising of the front of the tongue than of the back

while [+] has the opposite configuration. Russian has two laterals also: [+] and [I], the

former velarized, and the later palatalized. [+] is lateral, usually voiced, with mid-tongue

depressed resulting in a dull hollow sound. There is ample justification, in Bidwell’s

account for equating the Russian and English lateral sounds on both articulatory and

acoustic ground.

Ofor (2012) carried out a contrastive study of English and Igbo morphological

process. She observes that inflection in English is primarily expressed by the affixation

of inflectional suffixes e.g. [-s] which indicates the plural and possessive forms, and the

third person singular, plus the past tense marker [-ed] which also indicates the past. The

Igbo language, on the other hand, has no inflectional suffixes to indicate the plural, the

possessive or the present tense singular. Its plural is indicated by number (e.g. abụọ, iri,

narị, nde). She, therefore, points out that the Igbo learner of English who has no

inflectional affix to express plural is likely to transfer the L1 plural formation to English

thus:

* They have forty seat.

* Thirty three book are available.

19

She also notes that the irregular plural form is non-existent in the Igbo language word

formation, but is a viable means of indicating quality or plural in the English language

like:

man - men

child - children

She, therefore, concludes that an Igbo learner of English who is confused by the absence

of these forms in Igbo is compelled to produce such structures as:

* Many man played the football match.

* Those child are funny.

Anidobe (2007) carried out a contrastive study of Igbo and Hausa phonemes. In

her findings, she identifies 36 phonemes in the Igbo language and 44 phonemes in the

Hausa language. These consist of 28 consonantal phonemes in Igbo and a total of 32

consonatal phonemes in Hausa. Each has consonantal phonemes which are lacking in the

other languages. She predicted that an Igbo learner of Hausa will find implosives (б,d)

ejectives (s,k,kw, and kj), flap (y), and palatalized phonemes (kj, gj and ?j), difficult to

pronounce. So words containing these phonemes will pose problem for an Igbo learner

of Hausa.

On the other hand, the Hausa learner of Igbo cannot effectively pronounce the

underlisted phonemes because they are lacking in Hausa phonemic inventory. They are

p, f, v, r, kp and gb respectively.

2.3 Summary:

The importance of contrastive analysis in language teaching and learning cannot

be overemphasized despite the fact that some scholars believe that contrastive analysis

does not adequately predict difficulties of the language learner.

20

Be that as it may, research works reviewed in the literature show that researchers

have recognised the importance of contrastive analysis in second, foreign or alternate

language learning. From the literature review also we identify that researches have been

conducted on the grammar of the two languages. In this study, in addition to carrying out

the study on a higher level, the role of grammar (tenses) in the two languages will be

considered.

21

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Area of Study

Contrastive analysis is based on the premise that languages are different and that

because of these differences the second-language learner will encounter difficulties

(Ubahakwe, 1979:27). Contrastive analysis is concerned with the effect exerted by the

first language (L1) on the language being learnt, called the target language (TL) (Olaoye,

2008:42). It is an interlanguage study concerned with an individual rather than societal

bilingualism. James (1980:9) notes that in the process of a monolingual becoming a

bilingual, there are interferences which are deviations from the norms of the target

language and the strength of interference is greatest in the direction of NL-FL and in the

words of Weinreich (1953:38):

It is the conclusion of common experience if not yet a finding of psycholinguistic research that the language which has been learned first, or the mother tongue, is in a privileged position to resist interference.

Wilkins (1982:197) maintains that errors and difficulties that occur in our learning and

use of a foreign language are caused by the interference of our mother tongue. The value

and importance of contrastive analysis lies in its ability to indicate potential areas of

interference and errors.

3.2 Research Population

The population for the study are the Igbo native speakers studying the English

language as a second language in the secondary schools, colleges of education and

polytechnics in the south-eastern part of Nigeria. These students are having grammatical

problems in the formation of tenses in the English language. This is as a result of first

22

language interference and differences in the structure of the two languages. The study of

tenses of the target language will no doubt help to improve their grammar.

3.3 Method of Data Analysis

The execution of contrastive analysis involves 3 (three) steps: description,

comparison and prediction and the steps are taken in that order. Indeed, Corder

(1973:144) sees the whole of contrastive analysis as involving a first, a second and a third

‘order of application’, and talks of description and comparison being the first and second

of these. The same view is implicit in the following much-quoted statement of Fries

(1945:259) claiming that “the most effective materials (for teaching an L2) are those

based upon a scientific description of the languages to be learned carefully compared

within the parallel description of L1. Furthermore, the two descriptions need to be

“parallel”. This implies that the two languages must be described through the same

model of description. The two descriptions must be framed in the same model because

different models can describe certain features of language more successfully than other

models. Again, if the same data from L1 and L2 are described by two different models,

the descriptions are likely to highlight different facets of the data. When this happens,

the subsequent comparison will be unnecessarily different and as James (1980:63) puts it:

What is more serious still, the analyst will be uncertain of the status of the contrasts he identifies: are they linguistic contrasts, in representing differences between the L1 and L2 data? Or are they reflections of the use of two different models i.e. description-induced rather than data-induced contrasts?

To avoid these ugly consequences, Harris (1963:3) insists that comparable

descriptions of identical methods of description are used for description of the two

languages. This is because any difference between these descriptions will not be due to

the differences in method used by the linguist but due to differences in how the language

23

data responded to identical methods of arrangement. The next step after the description

is the comparison.

Comparison of the grammatical systems in languages is necessary since languages

have different structural differences or patterns. It is through comparison that the linguist

will be able to identify some unconscious interferences which are caused by the learner’s

knowledge of forms in their native language. With this background, the linguist judges

how sentences are structured in the target language (Odlin, 1989:113). Learners’

identification of interlingual grammatical similarities are the equivalence relations that

learners establish between the native language and the target language. The sentence

structure or the grammatical system of a language influences interlingual identifications.

It is important to note that the result of the comparison guides us into making result-

oriented predictions.

The literature on contrastive analysis frequently refers to predictions that are

determined by cross linguistic comparisons. The predictions of learners’ behaviour are

often derived after the fact that what counts as a prediction is frequently based on data

about learners performances already known to a linguist who has interpreted the data

record with the help of cross linguistic comparison (Wardhaugh, 1970:19). Such a record

does have the predictive value that other kinds of knowledge of past events have. The

ultimate test of a contrastive analysis is one in which the predictions are based only on

comparisons of the linguistic systems (Odlin, 1989:35).

Successful contrastive analysis developed in a way that could make it easier to

discover general principles for making sound prediction about transfer in any language

contact situation that might arise in future.

24

CHAPTER FOUR

PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

In this chapter, results of the data analyzed are presented. The data obtained are

presented to clarify the results of the study. The data also supplied answers to the

research questions. The researcher starts with a brief introduction explaining what the

chapter is about and explaining the mode of presentation.

4.1 Introduction

Tense is the grammatical category which correlates most directly with distinctions

of time. Tense is used to express the idea of time in the English and the Igbo languages.

Tense in both languages indicates whether an action took place in the past or takes place

in the present.

Historically, tense comes from the Latin word “tens” which in turn is derived

from the Latin word “time”. Traditionally, tense was viewed in terms of “a verb that

shows time”. According to Lyons (1969:304), the category of tense has to do with time

relations in so far as these are expressed by systematic grammatical contrasts. It is in this

traditional grammarians’ analysis that “tense” was categorized as the “present”, “past”

and “future tense”. Tomori (2004:12), Ibe (2007:263) and Comrie (1985:12) define tense

originally in relation to time.

Asher (1994:458) maintains that there are two facets to the notion of “tense”:

First, from a formal point of view which sees tense as a grammatical category usually

expressed overtly on the verb; secondly, from a semantic view point in which tense

serves to create situations (events, states, processes, actions) in time, for instance, as

overlapping some other point or period or as being before or after some other time point

or period.

25

Analytically, the first classification belongs to grammatical category whose

meaning comes close to, but nonetheless is distinguished from that of tense. It is in this

referral category that tense is viewed in relation to time, hence the present, past and

future.

Contemporary characterisation and definition of the category of tense insists that

it relates the time of the action, event or state of affairs referred to in the sentence to the

time of the utterance. In this instance, it is known as the “deictic category”. This is

because all the syntactic features partly or wholly are dependent upon “deixis” which

simultaneously is a property of the sentence and utterance. Saeed (2007:125) refers to it

as the “deictic system since the reference point is usually the ways in which a speaker

relates references in space and time to the “here and now” of the utterance. Tense is thus

categorised as only the past and non-past.

Comrie (1985:12) succinctly put it as a grammatical category that relates the time

of situation referred to, to some other time usually to the moment of speaking. Tense

from the above definition, therefore, points not only to the time of the action (past,

present and future) but also to the manner of speaking. Asher (1994:458) adds that tense

is the basic grammatical category which together with lexical and other indications of

temporal ordering enables the hearer to reconstruct the chronological relations among the

situations described in a text and between them and the speech situation. In this sense,

therefore, tense is viewed as only one of the several ways in which language can convey

information concerning location of time.

Tense and verb are interwoven in the construction and formation of the tense and

time in most languages. Thus, in grammar, tense is usually expressed with the “verb

form”. Changes in the use of verbs indicate changes in the formation of tenses as in time

and situation of speaking. Verbs often change their forms to mark tense. Ndimele

26

(2008:99), therefore, posits that “tense” is a grammatical category which is concerned

with how a verb changes its form to respond to changes in time.

The controversies surrounding tense in the English and the Igbo language make the study

of tense a bit confusing. While some are of the view that tense is divided into three in

English i.e. past, present and future tense, others believe that tense in English is divided

into two i.e. past simple tense and present simple tense. Collins (2009:86) streamlined

the divisions of English tenses down to two simple tenses and six compound tenses. The

two simple tenses are present and past simple tenses while the six compound tenses are

present continuous, past continuous, present perfect, past perfect, present perfect

continuous and past perfect continuous.

Also, the study of Igbo verbal system reveals that “tense” as conceived in the

traditional terms of present, past and future as they exist in the inflectional languages like

Latin and Greek is an unsatisfactory and misleading category for what is happening in

Igbo. Emenanjo (1978:166-167) asserts that duration rather than absolute time reference

is what is emphasized in Igbo. He maintains that if duration rather than explicit time is

what is emphasized in Igbo then aspect rather than tense is the appropriate category for

referring to the Igbo verbal system.

Nwachukwu (1983:73) postulates that it is only the past tense that exists in the

Igbo language. This is because it is the only one that is formally marked in Igbo.

These different opinions by linguists made the study of tense problematic to the

teachers and the learners of the English and Igbo languages. Therefore, the divisions of

tense were classified into two broad categories, namely: the grammatical tenses and the

pedagogical tenses. This chapter will look into tenses as they are being taught in schools.

27

4.2 Presentation of Tense

Ghosh (1973:151) agrees with Murthy (2007:1151) that tense is divided into three

classes namely:

Present tense

Past tense

Future tense

Each of these has different forms through combination with the auxiliary forms of the

verbs [be, have, shall, will, etc]. The present tense has the following tense forms:

i. The simple present tense.

ii. The present continuous tense

iii. The present perfect tense

iv. The present perfect continuous tense.

Past tense has also four forms:

i. The simple past tense.

ii. The past continuous tense

iii. The past perfect tense

iv. The past perfect continuous tense.

The future tense has the following forms:

i. The simple future tense

ii. The future continuous tense

iii. The future perfect tense

iv. The future perfect continuous tense

4.3 The Present Tense

The present tense has the following forms:

Simple present indefinite tense.

28

Present continuous tense.

Present perfect tense.

Perfect continuous tense.

4.3.1 The Simple Present Tense

4.3.1.1 The Simple Present Indefinite Tense in English

The simple present tense in the English language according to Eyisi (2006:85) is

the unmarked tense, which is timeless in the sense that it can embrace anytime that does

not exclude the speaker’s time and anytime that the speaker does not want to distance

himself from. Murthy (2007:157) defines the simple present tense as the tense used to

show that an action takes place at present. Umera-Okeke (2010:61), in line with Murthy,

posits that simple present tense expresses an action that happens at the present time. It is

always the stem of a verb in its present form. Examples:

i. He speaks English well.

ii. They are afraid of snakes.

iii. I love music.

Formation of Simple Present Tense in English

The simple present tense is the same as the base form of the verb, except that an

“s” is added to the verb when it has a singular noun or a third-person singular pronoun

like “he”, “she”, “it” as subject. This is called the third person singular form. Examples:

i. Ada loves tea.

ii. He enjoys music.

iii. It moves to the background.

This “s” form of singular present tense according to Agbedo (2000:83-84) is

represented by the allomorphs /s,z,Iz/ of the present tense ‘s’ as in the following

examples:

29

i. “s” represented as /s/

rap /ræp/ raps /ræps/

pick /pik/ picks /piks/

pat /pæt/ pats /pæts/

ii. “s” represented as /z/

dub /d٨b/ dubs /d٨bz/

perm /p :m/ perms /p :mz/

iii. “s” represented as /IZ/

Judge /d ٨d / Judges /d ٨d iz/

fish /fi / fishes /fi iz/

Umera-Okeke (2010:6) posits that verbs ending in “s”, “x”, “z”, “sh”, “ch” or “o”

add “es” with the third-person singular pronoun or singular noun. For instance;

He teaches English.

She misses her lessons always.

The bell buzzes.

Uses of Simple Present Tense in English

i. The main use of this tense is to express habitual actions. Words such as

“everyday”, “often”, “never”, “rarely”, “seldom” and “frequently” are often used.

Examples:

My father usually gets up at six o’clock.

Bukola loves taking tea every morning.

ii. To express general truths. Examples:

The earth moves round the sun.

Honesty is the best policy.

30

iii. The present simple tense can be used to express scheduled future action. For

instance:

Your plane leaves here tomorrow and reaches London on Monday.

The president visits America next Sunday.

iv. The present simple tense is also used in these types of conditional expressions:

If he has too much to drink, he behaves badly (habit).

If anybody phones while you’re out, I will take a message.

v. This tense is used with “after”, “before”, “when”, and “until” when we refer to

future action in sentences like these:

You must be polite when Mr. Lee comes.

Wait until Mary comes. Then she’ll help us.

vi. The present simple tense is used in exclamatory sentence beginning with “here”

and there. For instance

Here comes Amaka!

There the bus stops.

4.3.1.2 The Simple Present Tense in Igbo

Okonkwo (1974:29) explains simple present tense in Igbo as the tense used to

show that an action takes place at present. Examples:

i. Erie m nri - I eat food.

ii. Anyi apuo - We go away.

iii. Ngozi ataa aki - Ngozi chews palm kernel.

Formation of Simple Present Tense in Igbo

The basic unit for building up tenses in Igbo is the verbroot (Okonkwo, 1974:29).

To this the pronominal prefix “a” or “e” is affixed when necessary and the

31

suffixes “a, o, o, e” are attached in accordance with the principle of Igbo vowel

harmony. In other words they must agree with the root vowels of the verbroot.

Prefix Verbroot Suffix Pronoun a Ta A m Ataa m - I chew.

a pị A m Apịa m - I carve.

a pụ A m Apџọ m - I go.

a chọ ọ m Achọọm m - I want.

e che E m Echee m - I think.

e Ri e m Erie m - I eat.

e Lo o m Eloo m - I swallow.

e Ru o(e) m Eruo m - I reach

It is important to note that the position of the tense in “ataa, apịa, apụa”, etc. is

before the first person pronoun “m”. When the tense of the verb comes after the pronoun

“m”, the pronominal prefix “a” or “e” is dropped and the tense of the verb becomes a

conditional verb or indicates future. For example:

M ruo ahia, azuru m ji.

M chee ya abali abuo, m laa.

When present tense is used to refer completely to the past, the content is required to

indicate clearly the exact time of an action. This is used in a time clause when “might”,

clause is not used as in the following examples:

i. Eruo m Aba unyaahu, hu enyi m.

(When) I reached Aba yesterday, I saw my friend.

ii. Echee m ihe a, egwu tuo m.

(When) I thought of this I became afraid.

32

Formation of Simple Present Tense with First Person Plural in Igbo

In this case, the first person plural always goes before the tense of the verb it

governs. For instance,

i. Anyi ataa aki - We chew palm kernel

ii. Anyi erie nri - We eat food.

iii. Anyi apuo - We go (away).

Formation of Simple Present Tense with Second Person Singular in Igbo

Here, there are no prefixes in the singular tenses. For example:

i. Ị taa akị - You chew palm kernel.

ii. I loo nri - You swallow food.

iii. Ị pịa osisi - You beat cane.

Forming Simple Present Tense With Second Person Plural Pronoun in Igbo

Here, the prefixes and suffixes are applied. The tense comes after the pronoun.

For instance:

i. Unu erie nri - You eat food.

ii. Unu eruo Enugu - You reach Enugu.

iii. Unu esie ofe - You cook soup.

Here, when the second person plural “unu” precedes a verb, such a verb

accommodates prefixes and suffices. In such cases, the simple present tense is formed.

The second person pronoun “singular and plural” can be used to indicate time or

condition. In this case, the verb does not accept prefix. Examples:

i. Ị rụọ ọrụ, i nweta ego. - If you work, you get money

ii. Unu ruo Aba, unu ahụ ya. - If you reach Aba, you see him.

iii. Unu sie, unu erie. - If you cook, you eat.

33

The Formation of present tense with third person plural requires the affixation of

prefix and suffix to the verbroot. Examples are:

i. Ha ataa ọjị/Ataa ha ọjị. - They chew kola.

ii. Ha ejee ọrụ/Ejee ha ọrụ. - They go to work.

iii. Ha arịa elu/Arịa ha elu. - They climb up.

In the above examples, the pronoun can come before or after the verb.

i. A group of Igbo verbs do not make use of suffixes or prefixes in the present tense.

These are Igbo verb – “to be” eg. “bụ, dị” and verbs whose roots are independent

verbs in themselves. For instance to say, “o ji” (He holds), The meaning is

complete but in “o ri”, the meaning is not complete until the suffix “e” is attached

to the verbroot e.g.

O rie - He eats

O sie nri - He cooks food.

O gbue agwo - He kills snake.

ii. These verbs “ji, nọ, dị”, however, require only the pronominal prefix to be used

with the first person singular, or third person plural in order to form the present

tense. Examples are below:

E ji m ego - I have money

Anọ ha n’џlọ - They are in the house.

Adị m ọcha - I am fair.

iii. With these independent verbs: “ji, bџ, nọ”, the first person pronoun can

conveniently go before the verb it governs. For instance:

M ji ego - I have money.

M bџ eze - I am king.

M nọ n’ime - I am inside.

34

More examples of independent verbs are

si - to be from.

ka - to be greater.

ma - to know

ha - to be equal

nye - to give

hụ - to see

kwọ - to carry on the back

kpụ - to drag

If a suffix is added to these verbs above, their original meaning is altered as can be seen

below:

Ha si ebe a - They are from here.

Ha sie nri. - If they cook food.

Ọ hụọ m. - It burns me.

In a conditional clause, the pronominal prefix in the present tense of the verb is

dropped no matter what the subject may be. Examples:

i. I taa ya, eze gi ekwoo.

If you chew it, your teeth will break off.

ii. Ha taa ya, eze ha ekwoo.

If they chew it, their teeth will fall off.

iii. M taa ya, eze m ekwoo.

If I eat it, my teeth will fall off.

In the above examples, the verb has no pronominal prefix.

35

4.3.1.3 Comparison of English and Igbo Simple Present Tense

The simple present tense exists in both the English and Igbo languages. The verb

is used to show that an action takes place at present. The present tense is the unmarked

tense in both languages and it is the stem of the verb in its present form. The examples of

the present simple tense in English are:

speak

love

go

enjoy

The following examples are the simple present tense in Igbo.

ataa

apịa

erie

eloo

Though the two languages have simple present tense, there exist some dissimilarities in

the area of formation with the third person pronoun or noun. The English verbs ending in

“s, x, z, sh, ch, o” add “es”, those ending in a consonant plus “y” change “y” to “i" and

add “es” with the third person singular pronoun and singular nouns. For instance:

i. He buys bread everyday.

ii. The baby cries too much today.

iii. She teaches French very well.

iv. It does not make noise.

v. The bell buzzes.

The Igbo language on the other hand has no such formation as above, rather, it

adds “a” or “e” as prefix and the suffix “o”, “ọ”, “e” are attached in accordance with the

principle of vowel harmony to form the present simple tense. Examples:

36

i. Obi erie nri.

ii. Ha apџọ akwụkwọ.

iii. Ataa m akị.

The English language present tense “s” morpheme is also represented by the

allomorphs /s, z, iz/ as in the following examples:

“s” represented as /s/

raps /ræps/

picks /pIks/

“s” represented as /iz/

Judges /d ٨d iz/

Kisses /kisiz/

“s” represented as /z/

dubs /d٨bz/

perms /p :mz/

The “s” present tense morpheme and the allomorphs /s,z,Iz/ do not exist in the Igbo

language; rather, the Igbo language forms present with the third person singular by

adding suffix to the verbroot. Examples are thus:

i. Ọ taa aki - He chews palm kernel.

ii. Ọ chọọ ego - She wants money

iii. O rie nri - It eats food.

In the Igbo present simple tense, the first-person singular pronoun “m” is placed

after the verb. When it comes before the verb, the pronominal prefix is dropped and the

verb becomes a conditional verb or indicates future eg:

M ruo ahịa, azụrụ m ji.

(If I reach the market, I buy yam).

37

4.3.2 The Present Continuous Tense

The present continuous tense shows an action happening at the moment of

speaking. Alan (2001:295) posits that present continuous tense is used to express

temporary action, i.e. something which is happening at the moment of speaking but

which will stop later on.

4.3.2.1 The English Present Continuous Tense

The present continuous tense is used to show what is really happening now.

Opega (2005:107) views it as what is used to express something that is happening now or

at the moment of speaking or writing. Umera-Okeke (2010:64) posits that present

continuous tense shows that an action is still in progress. Eyisi (2004:86), sharing the

same view as above, noted that present continuous tense stresses actions in progress or

incomplete actions.

Uses of Present Continuous Tense in English

The present continuous tense is formed by using the present “be”+ “ing”

participle. The pronoun “I" takes “am”, “he”, “she”, “it” take the verb “is” while

“we”, “you” and “they” take “are”. Examples:

i. I am winning.

ii. It is raining heavily.

iii. The children aren’t asleep, they are messing about.

iv. Come on, you’re not trying.

The sentences suggest that the actions are taking place at the time of speech i.e.

the immediate present. Therefore, the present continuous tense is used to talk

about things that are happening now at the time when we are talking.

The present continuous tense can be used for a temporary activity, even if it is not

happening at the moment of speaking for example:

38

i. I’m studying German at College.

ii. I am thinking of getting a new television.

iii. Obi is planning for marriage.

Using a temporary situation in contrast to a permanent situation, we may have:

i. I’m living in Scotland at the moment.

ii. Joan is working in the stables over the holidays

iii. He is living with his sister as of now.

The present continuous tense is used for changing state or situation. Examples:

i. My headache is getting better.

ii. He is improving in his studies.

iii. The daylight is slowly fading.

It can also be used for circumstances under which something is generally done.

Examples include:

i. I have to wear glasses when I’m reading.

ii. She has to tie a scarf around her head when going to church.

This tense is used to express planned future action especially when it concerns

movement. Thus:

i. Uncle is leaving for London tomorrow evening.

ii. We are meeting Mary at the City Hall next Friday morning.

iii. Those goods are being flown to California tomorrow morning.

The present continuous tense is used for a repeated action. In this case one of the

following adverbs is used with the verb: “always, forever, constantly,

continually”. For instance:

i. She’s always crying at night.

ii. He’s forever laughing and making silly comments.

39

iii. He is continually forgetting to lock the back door.

To talk about things happening in a period around now (today, this week, this

morning, etc). Examples:

i. You’re studying today. Yes I have exams.

ii. Are you going this morning?

We sometimes use the present continuous tense to talk about something that may

be going on at anytime. Examples:

i. I don’t like music if I’m reading.

ii. You look charming when you’re laughing.

4.3.2.2 The Present Continuous Tense in Igbo

The Igbo present continuous tense is used to show what is happening now. For

example:

O na-eri nri.

Ha na-abia.

Emenanjo (1978:173) states that present continuous tense is used to refer to the set of

verbal constructions which has been variously called:

i. the “progressive” or Na-form of the verb by many people including Ward,

ii. The present “habitual” by Abraham,

iii. One of the “auxiliary verb forms” by Green and Igwe,

iv. The “incompletive” by Welmers and Welmers and

v. the “imperfective” by Emenajo (1971 & 1974) or

vi. “Durative” (Emenanjo, 1975).

Formation of Igbo Present Continuous Tense

The present continuous tense in Igbo requires the help of the auxiliary “na” for its

formation. Thus to form the present continuous of the verb “ri” (to eat), “na” is prefixed

40

to it with the vowel prefix “e” coming immediately before the verb-root “ri” – “na – eri”

(is eating). Similarly:

“ta” na – ata - is biting.

“to” na – eto - is praising.

Here “na” is the auxiliary verb while “a” and “e” are verb prefixes.

It is conventional to join the auxiliary to the verbroot with a hyphen instead of

joining them thus: “naata”, “naeto”.

The present continuous tense can be habitual and when used as habitual, it has in

addition a connotation of an action in which one is habitually engaged e.g.

Egbe na-ebu ọkụkọ.

Anwụ na-acha n’ọkọchi

Akpị na-agba agba.

This tense also shows that the action is still going on for sometime and without reference

to whether it has ended. For instance:

Nwa m na-amị aka n’ọnụ.

Anyị na-aga akwụkwọ.

Arinze na-agba bọọlụ.

When the first person singular (and sometimes third person plural) is the subject,

“na” is prefixed with “a” and the pronoun is written immediately after it. The verbroot

with the prefix is written separately after the pronoun. For example:

Ana m eje akwụkwọ.

Ana ha agba egwu

Nne m na-asụ akwa.

When present continuous tense is formed with first person plural, the first person plural

pronoun comes before the auxiliary verb such as in the following.

41

Anyị na-apị osisi.

Anyị na-eche nche.

Anyị na-apụ apụ.

Forming present continuous tense with second person singular pronoun, we have the

following examples:

Ị na-eri nri - You are eating food.

Ị na-elo nri ji - You are swallowing pounded yam

When present continuous tense is formed with second-person plural pronoun, we have

Unu na-ata ụkwa.

Unu na-agba ilo

Unu na-akpa nkụ.

With third-person singular and plural pronoun, present continuous tense could be formed

as in the following examples:

Ọ na-azụ okwe.

Ha na-agụ akwụkwọ.

Types of Present Continuous Tense in Igbo.

Emenanjo (1978:174) specifies three types of present continuous tense:

i. The present continuous normal.

ii. The present continuous unexpected

iii. The present continuous indicative.

i. The Present Continuous Tense Normal

The following characterize this verb form:

NPS retains its inherent tones.

An auxiliary verb “na” on a low tone is present in the verbal slot followed

by a participle.

42

The compliment (cp) retains its inherent tones for tone Group B (T.G. B)

nouns but changes these for tone Group A (T.G. A nouns). Examples:

Ngọzi na-eri ji

(Ngọzi is (was) eating yam.

Anyị na-arụ ulọ.

(We are (were) building a house

ii. The Present Continuous Tense Unexpected:

Emenanjo (1978:174) stresses that the difference between the present continuous

unexpected and the present continuous normal is that while the Normal is marked by

“na”, the unexpected is marked by “ana”, i.e. a low tone prefix and a high tone root.

The NPS and the cp behave as in the Normal. Examples:

Ngọzi “ana-eri ji”

(So Ngozi eats/is (was) eating yams.

Anyị ana-arụ ụlọ.

So we build/are (were) building a house.

Here the present continuous – Normal is used for making a more direct statement, while

the present continuous -unexpected is often used to express irony or sarcasm in relation to

the progressive action/state.

Uses of Present Continuous Tense in Igbo

With regard to the meaning, we see that the present continuous tense in Igbo can

be used to refer to an action going on now or at the moment of speaking like:

He is sweeping.

Ọ na-aza ụlọ.

It is used to express a “customary” or “habitual” action. Example:

He is trading.

43

Ọ na-azụ ahịa.

The present continuous refers to temporary situations or activities. Like the

simple present in English, the present continuous can be used for:

i. Expressing eternal truths. It is for this reason that the present continuous is

frequently seen in proverbs and in geographical, mathematical and scientific

statements which are for practical purposes without time limit. For examples:

Anụ bu ụzọ na-anụ mmiri ọma.

(Early bird catches worm)

Ahịa ọma na-ere onwe ya.

(Good wine needs no bush.)

ii. To express instantaneous present action:

I na-eme gịnị?

What are you doing?

4.3.2.3 Comparison of English and Igbo Present Continuous Tense

The English and Igbo languages have present continuous tense. This tense is used

in both languages to indicate what is really happening now, repeated action and planned

future action. The present continuous tense in the English and Igbo languages is formed

with the help of auxiliaries.

The English language has different auxiliaries for different subjects while the

Igbo present continuous tense is formed with only the auxiliary verb ‘na’ which is

hyphenated to the verb. For example, in English, ‘am’ and ‘is’ are used for first-person

singular pronoun while “are” is used for plural nouns and pronouns.

He is playing.

44

I am writing.

They are singing.

In Igbo, “na” is used for all subjects. Examples:

Ha na-egwu egwu.

O na-agba bọọlụ.

Ana m eje ọrụ.

The Igbo language auxiliary verb “na” makes use of hyphen in between the auxiliary and

the participle to form a complete verb, such is not obtainable in the English language.

Auxiliaries in English stand alone without support.

In the Igbo language, present continuous tense has three types for examples:

i. the Present Continuous Normal.

ii. the Present Continuous Unexpected.

iii. the Present Continuous Indicative.

They use “na” forms differently such as:

Anyị na-arụ ụlọ - We are building a house.

Ulumma ana-eri ji - Ulumma is eating yams.

The Igbo present continuous tense has features or characteristics which the English

present continuous tense does not have. Such features are:

i. The noun phrase retains its inherent tones.

ii. An auxiliary verb “na” on a low tone is present in the verbal slot followed by a

participle.

iii. The compliment retains its inherent tones for tone group B nouns but changes

those for tone group A nouns. These changes and features are not seen in English

present continuous tense.

45

The Igbo present continuous tense can express eternal truth and is frequently seen in Igbo

proverbs and in geographical, mathematical and scientific statements which are for

practical purposes without limit.

4.3.3 The Present Perfect Tense

The present perfect tense is used to denote an action completed at the moment of

speaking. Okonkwo (1974:44) views the present perfect in Igbo as the tense that

expresses an action which has just been completed in the immediate past such as:

Egbuela m ehi. - I have killed a cow.

Ha eriela nri. - They have eaten food.

Ada echuola mmiri. - Ada has fetched water.

Collins (2009:102) explains that the present perfect tense is used to talk about events that

are relevant to the present but that happened in the past. Examples:

She has written her home work.

They have bought a new radio.

Ada has taken coffee.

4.3.3.1 The Present Perfect Tense in English

The present perfect tense shows an action that has just been completed or an

action that has ended at the moment of speaking. Opega (2005:106) posits that present

perfect tense is used to express action that has just been completed (perfected) and which

has direct relevance to the present “now”. Umera-Okeke (2010:68) views the present

perfect tense as the tense that shows a period of time that stretches backwards.

Turville (1965:13), sharing the same view, posits that the present perfect tense is

used for an action which began in the past and has continued up to the time of speaking

or for an action which took place in the past, the results of which we can feel or observe

in the present. The present perfect tense shows the link the past action has with the

46

present. It establishes a link between the past and the present and it sometimes makes use

of adverbs such as “just” and “already” as indicators of time. Examples:

i. He has just put his coat on.

(He is wearing it now).

ii. They have already passed the examination.

(They are ready now to do the second).

Formation of Present Perfect Tense in English

The present perfect tense is formed by the present tense of the “to have” + the past

participle. The choice of either “have” or “has” depends on the noun or pronoun used as

the subject of the sentence. The pronouns “I, we, you, they” take “have” but the subjects

“he, she, it” take the verb “has”. For instance:

SUBJECT HAVE/HAS PAST PARTICIPLE

I have read (a novel).

You have finished (your work).

He has stopped (his work).

Uses of Present Perfect Tense in English

The present perfect tense is used in the following ways: It is used to discuss

events that are relevant to the present but which happened in the past. It is used to

express an action that started in the past without mentioning a specific time. Examples:

i. Her daughter has had an accident.

ii. She has finished her work.

Sometimes, “just” can be used to show that an action has been completed very recently.

Examples:

i. They have just bought their tickets.

ii. He has just finished his cooking.

47

Present perfect tense can be used to indicate a moment in time or a period of time. We

can use expressions such as “recently”, “lately”, “this morning”, “today” or “this week”

with the present perfect tense. For example:

i. I have finished two novels since yesterday.

ii. I have been to the cinema recently

iii. He has waited a week for your answer.

The present perfect tense is often used to answer the question “How long?” together with

“for” to talk about a period of time or “since” to talk about duration from a point in time.

For instance:

i. I have lived in Enugu for fifteen years.

ii. How long have you lived in Enugu?

iii. We’ve had this television since 2006.

4.3.3.2 The Present Perfect Tense in Igbo

Okonkwo (1974:44) explains that the present perfect tense in Igbo expresses an

action which has just been completed in the immediate past such as:

Eriela m nri - I have eaten food.

Agaala m ahịa - I have gone to market.

Amaka asụọla akwa - Amaka has washed clothes.

Formation of Present Tense in Igbo

This tense is formed by attaching the suffix “la” to the present tense. Examples:

Present tense Suffix Perfect tense

Akaa la akaala

Epuo la epuola

Ejee la ejeela

48

i. Mgbeke akaala nka.

ii. Nweke epuola isi awo.

When the noun phrase is a noun or a plural pronoun, the verb has a low tone

harmonizing verbal prefix, otherwise if the Np is a singular pronoun there is no prefix.

The tonal behaviour of the vowel prefix is conditioned by the final tones of the preceding

NPS as well as the tone class of the verb. The compliment changes its inherent tone for

T.G.A nouns but retains them for tone Group B (T.G.B.) Examples:

i. M riele ji.

(I have eaten yam)

ii. I riela ji

(You have eaten yam).

iii. Uzo azaala ebe ahu.

(Uzo has swept that place).

4.3.3.3 Comparison of English and Igbo Present Perfect Tense

The English and Igbo languages have present perfect tense. In both languages,

present perfect tense is used to indicate an action that has just been completed.

In the English language, the present perfect tense is formed by the present tense of

the verb “to have” + the past participle. The choice of either “have” or “has” depends on

the noun or pronoun used as the subject of the sentence. The pronouns: “I, we, you,

they” as subjects take “have” while “he, she, and it” take the verb “has”.

The Igbo language forms present perfect tense by attaching the suffix “la” to the

present tense. The verb is used with all subjects i.e. whether the subject is singular or

plural. This is unlike the English language where the choice of either “have” or “has”

depends on the noun or pronoun used as the subject of the sentence. For instance:

Ha eriela nri - The have eaten.

49

O riela nri - He/she has eaten.

In the Igbo present perfect tense, the noun phrase retains its inherent tones. The

verb always has the perfective marker –(v) “le” =(v) “la” in the underlying structure.

This suffix is always high tone irrespective of tone class of the verb. When the NP is a

noun or a plural pronoun, the verb has a low tone harmonizing verbal prefix. This is not

true in English present perfect tense. Examples:

i. Anyị eriela ya - We have eaten it.

ii. Chike azụọla ulo ahu - Chike has bought that house.

Where the Np is a singular pronoun, there is no prefix. Examples:

i. I riele ji - You have eaten yam.

ii. O riela ji - He/she/it has eaten yams.

The tonal behaviour of the vowel prefix is conditioned by the final tones of the

preceding noun phrase as well as the tone class of the verb.

In the Igbo present perfect tense, when the first element of the verb is high tone

and the Np ends with a low tone, the prefix is low tone. Example:

Unu eriela ya. - You have eaten it.

When the Np ends with a step tone, the prefix is high tone. If the Np(s) ends with a high

tone, the prefix has a step tone.

The English language is not a tone language; rather, it is an intonation language

so the English present perfect tense does not possess tone mark features of the Igbo

present.

4.3.4 The Present Perfect Continuous Tense

4.3.4.1 The Present Perfect Continuous Tense in English

The present perfect continuous tense is used to show that an action has been

taking place since a point of time in the past and in progress up till the time of discussion.

50

Udensi (2005:98) defines present perfect continuous tense as tense that is used to state an

activity that started in the past but continued upto the present. For instance:

He has been sleeping since noon.

Jane has been reading for three hours.

In the English language, the present perfect continuous tense is formed by using

“have/has been” + a present participle. Example: He has been working.

Uses of Present Perfect Continuous Tense in English

The present perfect continuous tense is used instead of the present perfect when

the action is continuous and not interrupted at all. That is, it is used to show the

continuity of an action. It also shows that an action which started in the past is still

happening and may extend to the future. For example:

i. Present perfect - I have done my home work.

Present perfect continuous - I have been doing my home work since this

afternoon.

ii. They have discussed the matter (present perfect).

They have been discussing the matter for two hours (present perfect

continuous)

The present perfect continuous is used to show that an action began in the past, went on,

and may extend to the future. For example:

i. I’m sorry I couldn’t come earlier; I have been doing the washing.

In this example, the washing has been continuous from some time in the past until now,

and it may continue.

ii. I must go and have a bath.

I’ve been helping my father on his farm all the morning.

In this, the helping has been continuous from the beginning of the morning until now.

51

4.3.4.2 The Present Perfect Continuous Tense in Igbo

Emenanjo (1978:178) views this tense as a complex verb form which has features

of the progressive and perfective. Emenanjo goes further to explain that this verb form

does not seem to have a negative. It has the step tone pattern on the auxiliary which

suggests that if this progressive perfective is not an underlying negative form, then this

form is neutral as to affirmation or negation.

The features of this verb form are as follows:

i. The Np(s) retains its inherent tones.

ii. The progressive marker “na” is followed by a participle to which is affixed the

perfective marker “le/la”.

iii. The progressive marker is step tone when the Np is a singular pronoun.

iv. When the Np(s) is a noun, or a plural pronoun, the auxiliary has a low tone vowel

prefix ‘a’.

v. The prefix of the participle is high tone.

vi. The compliment retains its tones for tone group B nouns but changes them for

T.G.A nouns. Examples:

a. Ulumma ana erila ji.

Ulumma has been eating the yams.

b. Anyị ana arụla ụlọ.

We have been building a house.

c. Obi ana-ekirila tiivii kemgbe awa ise.

Obi has been watching television for five hours.

52

4.3.4.3 Comparison of English and Igbo Present Perfect Continuous Tense

The English and Igbo languages have present perfect continuous tense markers.

The tense marker for English is “have/has been” + a present participle while in Igbo, the

progressive marker ‘na’ is followed by a participle to which is affixed the perfective

marker “le/la”. In the English language, the progressive marker is not used and the

progressive perfective marker “have/has been” is not affixed to the participle. Example

in Igbo:

i. Obi ana-erila ji - Obi has been eating yams.

ii. Unu ana-azaala ulo - You have been sweeping the house.

Examples in English:

i. I have been working.

ii. My brother has been working for three years.

Also, in the English present perfect continuous, the use of the tense marker

“have/has been” depends on the subject of the sentence. “Have” is used for plural nouns

or pronouns while “has” is used for singular nouns or pronouns. This is unlike Igbo

where the marker “le/la” is used for all subjects.

4.4 The Past Tense

The past tense is used to express something that happened or took place and was

definitely finished in the past. The event has no connection with the present whatsoever.

The past tense has also four different tense forms:

The simple past tense.

. The past continuous tense.

The past perfect tense.

The past perfect continuous tense.

53

4.4.1 The Simple Past Tense

4.4.1.1 The Simple Past Tense in English:

The simple past tense is used in English to show that an action was complete.

Comrie (1985:41) defines simple past tense as the location in the time prior to the present

moment. Umera-Okeke (2010:62) explains the simple past tense as the tense used to

express the past time. She explains further that it is the second principal part of a verb

which does not require a helping verb. Murthy (2007:165), in his own view, posits that

when a verb shows that an action was complete in the past, it is known as simple past

tense. The simple past tense has regular and irregular verb formation.

Formation of Simple Past Tense in English

Generally speaking, for the purpose of conjugation, verbs are divided into two

kinds:

i. The weak verbs.

ii. The strong verbs.

Some grammarians like to call them regular and irregular verbs.

For the purpose of conjugation, some verbs show that their past tense is formed

by adding the suffix:

i. “ed”

ii. “d”

iii. “t” to their present tense form.

They are called weak (regular) verbs because they cannot form their past tense without

the help of the suffixes “-ed, -d or –t”. So the verbs which form their past tense by

adding “-ed or –d or –t” to their present tense are called weak (regular) verbs. Examples:

54

Verbs Present tense Past tense work work Worked

Love love Loved

Bend bend Bent

A weak verb ending in “y” preceded by a consonant adds “-ed” in past tense after

“y” is changed to “i”. Examples:

i. bury - buried

ii. carry - carried

iii. hurry - hurried

A weak verb, ending in a single consonant with only one vowel before it, doubles

the final consonant when the suffix “-ed” is added in making it past tense. Examples:

i. beg - begged

ii. clap - clapped

If such a verb consists of more than one syllable with the accent on the last syllable, the

rule holds:

i. compel - compelled

ii. control - controlled

Some weak verbs form their past tense with “t” after shortening their long inside vowel.

Examples:

i. deal - dealt

ii. feel - felt

The past tense morpheme of English regular is formed from the base form “ed”

which can be phonologically conditioned with the allomorphs /t, d, id/ despite the number

of subjects referred to. These phonological features can be represented thus:

55

i. /t/ as in

rape /reIp/ raped /reIpt/

walk /w :k/ walked /w :kt/

puff /p̂ f/ puffed /p̂ ft/

ii. /d/ occurs after morphs ending in voiced phonemes including voiced nasals.

dab /dæb/ dabbed /dæbd/

doom /du:m/ doomed /du:md/

iii. / Id/ occurs after morph ending in alveolar stops /t, d/.

part /pa:t/ parted /pa:tId/

land /lænd/ landed /lændId/

The Past of Irregular Verbs:

When a verb in the present forms its past tense by changing or shortening its

inside vowel, it is called a strong (irregular) verb.

These irregular verbs have no constant way of forming the past tense. They vary

considerably in their tense formation. Some examples are thus:

drink /drI k/ drank /dræ k/

write /raIt/ wrote /ro t/

draw /dr :/ drew /dru:/

shake / eik/ shook / k/

lie /laI/ lay /leI/

teach /ti:t / taught /t :t/

eat /i:t/ ate /eIt/

Some verbs have the same form in the present and past. Examples include:

56

._______Present tense Past tense .

bet bet

let let

set set

put put

cut cut

shut shut

hit hit

burst burst

spread spread

thrust thrust

forecast forecast

broadcast broadcast

Forms of Simple Past Tense in English

i. Active - He stopped; he did stop.

ii. Passive - He was stopped; they were stopped.

iii. Positive - I ate it; she delivered it.

iv. Interrogative - Did I eat? Did she deliver it?

v. Negative - I did not eat it. It was not delivered by a blind man.

The active form with “did” is used:

(a) For emphasis and (b) to make negative statements and questions. Note that “ed” is

not added to a verb if “did” is used before it.

57

Uses of Simple Past Tense

The most common use of this tense is to express a completed (past) action when

the time of the action is known or stated. For example:

i. I visited her last week.

ii. She studied French when she was in school.

It expresses a past habit, with adverbs like “always”, “never”, “often”, etc.

i. When my mother was young, she often sang at concerts.

ii. She always did as she was told.

The (simple) past tense is used in generalized conditional statements:

i. If motorists drove more carefully, they could have fewer accidents.

ii. If the Government increased income tax, production might fall.

It also expresses a series of past actions:

i. She came home this afternoon, bathed, ate lunch and went out again.

ii. He liked that job and kept it for the rest of his life.

4.4.1.2 The Simple Past Tense in Igbo

The simple past tense in Igbo indicates past time. It shows that the action being

expressed took place at a time past. Past tense denotes a completed action whose effect

has ceased to be felt in the present. Okonkwo (1974:44) defines simple past tense as an

action which has just been completed in the immediate past; which is formed by attaching

the suffix “ra” to the present tense. Green & Igwe (1963:53) is of the opinion that the

“ra” suffix gives typically a past time meaning but its meaning varies to some extent

according to the construction in which it occurs.

58

Formation of Igbo Simple Past Tense:

The simple past tense of the Igbo verb has the structure [ru] which is an

inflectional suffix. The phoneme /r/ is constant while the vowel varies to harmonize with

the verbroot. Examples:

When forming the simple past tense, a suffix made up of ‘r’ and a vowel same as

the vowel of the verbroot is attached to the verb to form the simple past tense. For

instance:

Verbsroot Suffix Past simple tense formed

gbu ru gburu

ga ra gara

je re jere

si ri siri

tọ rọ tọro

When exemplified in a sentence, thus:

i. O gburu ewu - He/she killed a goat.

ii. Ha jere ahịa - They went to the market.

iii. Any ị siri nri - We cooked food.

iv. O dara n’ala - It fell on the ground

v. Obi churu mmiri - Obi fetched water.

Simple past tense in Igbo can be affirmative or negative.

Past tense: Affirmative

The distinctive internal features of this are:

i. Np(s) retains its inherent (or local) tones when it ends on a low tone. Otherwise, a

low tone vowel of the same quality as the preceding non-low tone is added to the

Np(s).

ii. The verb does not have a verbal prefix.

59

iii. The verb always takes the harmonizing indicative marker [rv] where [v] is the

vowel of the last syllable of the verb stem in the underlying structure.

iv. Both the verbroot and the suffix have low tones for simple verbs. For complex

verbs, even though the first syllable may not be low for some tone classes (of

complex verbs) all subsequent syllables are low tones.

v. The compliment retains its inherent tones except where it is a pronoun in which

case it may be low tone. Examples:

Chike sịrị asị - Chike told lies.

O zụrụ akwukwo - He bought a book.

Ha gbara ọsọ - They ran a race.

Uses of Igbo Simple Past Tense

When the past tense of the verb is used with first person singular or third person

plural pronoun, the pronominal prefix “a” or “e” is attached as in the present tense eg.

i. Atara m azụ - I ate fish.

ii. Ahụrụ m Amaka - I saw Amaka.

iii. Echere m ha - I waited for them.

Sometimes, the simple past tense places emphasis more on the completion of an

action than on time. In such cases, it is used to show the completeness of an action in the

present. For example:

i. Ahụrụ m ya ugbu a - I saw him now.

ii. Aghọtara m ya ugbu a - I understood it now.

The past simple tense can also be used as a question marker. When so used, the

time factor is completely overlooked and the question can refer to the present or the past.

For example:

60

i. Ị hụrụ m? - Did you see me?

ii. Ọ zara ụlọ? - Did he/she sweep the house?

iii. I gara ahịa? - Did you go to market?

The simple past tense is used to express condition or hypothesis as sometimes in

English. For instance:

i. Ị bụrụ m, ị ga-eme otu a?

If you were me, will you do it like that?

ii. I mara ya, ị gaghị eme ya otu a.

If you had known him, you would not have treated him thus.

iii. O mara ihe mere, ọ gaa rịọwa ha.

If he knew what happened, he would go and beg them.

If two actions occur in a sentence and the second is dependent on, or is a follow-up of the

first action, if the first action is expressed in the past tense, the second even though also

in the past is expressed in the present tense. For example:

i. O nyere anyị akwụkwọ anyị gụọ.

He gave us a book and we read.

ii. O tiri akụ m taa.

He cracked palm kernel and I chewed.

iii. Ha gara Aba zuo ohi.

They went to Aba and stole.

4.4.1.3 Comparison of English and Igbo Simple Past Tense

The English and Igbo languages have simple past tense which is used to denote an

action that is completed during some definite past time. Examples:

I killed a goat.

He went to market.

61

The Igbo examples are thus:

Ọ gara ahịa.

Ada churu mmiri.

English and Igbo verbs have past tense markers. The past tense marker for English

regular verbs is “ed” which can be phonologically conditioned with the allomorphs /t, d,

Id/. Examples:

/t/ raped /reIpt/

walked /w :kt/

/d/ dabbed /dæbd/

dragged /drægd/

/id/ parted /pa:tId/

landed /lændId/

The irregular verbs have no past tense marker. The past tense is realized in different

ways. Examples:

draw /dr :/ drew /dru:/

eat /i:t/ ate /eIt/

The formation of simple past tense is the same with all persons in the English language.

For example:

i. They went to school.

ii. I went to school.

iii. Obi went to school.

The formation of Igbo simple past tense is also the same with all persons. For

instance:

Anyị jere ahịa.

O jere ahịa.

62

Ha jere ahịa.

These two languages are dissimilar in certain ways:

While in English, there are regular and irregular past tense forms, such is not

applicable in the Igbo formation. The simple past tense regular verbs are formed by

adding “ed” to the infinitive. Examples:

work - worked

rape - raped

walk - walked

cook - cooked

The English irregular verbs form their simple past tense in various ways. Examples:

drink - drank

throw - threw

eat - ate

The ’ru’ past tense formation in the Igbo language follows the rule of vowel harmony to

form past tense. Here, the same vowel as the vowel of the verbroot is attached to the “rv”

to form the past tense. This vowel harmony principle is not applicable to the English

language. For instance:

verbroot suffix (rv)

gbu + ru = gburu

ri + ri = riri

sa + ra = sara

In English, some verbs have the same form for the present and past. Examples:

hit - hit

upset - upset

hurt - hurt

63

cut - cut

This is unlike Igbo where the present tense must be different from the past form.

In Igbo, the Np(s) retains its inherent (lexical) tones when it ends on a low tone,

again the verb always takes the harmonizing indicative maker ‘rv’ (where ‘v’ is the vowel

of the last syllable of the verb stem) in the underlying structure.

This is not applicable in English. The Igbo past tense has a negative form. In the

underlying structure, the verb takes the harmonizing suffix “ghi/ghi”. This suffix may be

optionally deleted at the surface structure level. In the English tense, there is a negative

form “not” which is not suffixed to the verb. For instance:

Ada agaghị akwụkwọ.

Ada did not go to school.

In Igbo past tense, if the Np(s) is a noun or a plural pronoun, the verb has a

harmonizing vowel prefix “e-la-” but English past tense has no harmonizing vowel prefix

“e-a”. Examles:

Unu eriele ya - You have eaten it.

Chike azụọla ụlọ ahụ - Chike has bought that house.

4.4.2 The Past Continuous Tense

The past continuous tense in the English and Igbo languages show an action in

progress sometime in the past. Udensi (2005:99) views the past continuous tense as the

tense that is used to express an activity going on at some past time. The action went on

for sometime but stopped before the time of reporting the action. For example:

We were talking when the teacher came in.

4.4.2.1 The Past Continuous Tense in English

The past continuous tense is used to express two or more actions that took place

in the past, one of which was interrupted and left unfinished or uncompleted. The

64

unfinished action is put in the past tense (Opega, 2005:110). Umera-Okeke (2010:67)

posits that past continuous tense shows an action in progress sometime in the past. She

explains that the past continuous shows that somebody was in the middle of doing

something at a certain time.

This tense is used mainly when something was going on all the time and another

thing happened. The thing that was going on all the time is put in the continuous past and

the thing that happened while it was going on is put in the simple past. Examples:

i. While she was knitting she suddenly heard a strange noise.

The knitting was going on all the time; we do not know when it started or when it

ended, but while the knitting was going on she heard (simple past tense) the

strange noise.

ii. We were listening to the radio when a snake came into the room.

The listening was going on all the time, and we do not know when it started or

when it ended, but during this the snake came (simple past) into the room.

iii. I was sitting at my desk and reading peacefully when John rushed in and

challenged me to a fight.

The sitting and reading were going on all the time but while they were going on,

John rushed in (simple past) and challenged (simple past) me to a fight. Here it is

again, the action that was going on all the time is put in the continuous past while

an action that happened during this is put in the simple past.

Formation of Past Continuous Tense in English

The past continuous tense is formed by the past tense of “be” + “-ing” participle.

The form of the verb “be” depends on the pronoun or noun that is subject of the sentence.

For instance:

65

Subject was/were Present participle verb –ing form

I was reading a novel

We were waiting for her

You were singing a song

He was learning English

She was writing a letter

They were building the house

It was raining heavily

Singular nouns/pronouns take “was” while plural nouns/pronouns take “were”.

The past continuous tense can be positive, negative, interrogative or passive. For

instance:

Positive: She was reading a book.

They were cleaning the shelves.

Negative: She was not reading a book.

Interrogative: Was she reading a book?

Passive: The book was being read.

Uses of Past Continuous Tense in English

i. The past continuous tense expresses a past habitual action. It is usually used with

adverbs like “always”, “often”.

She was always talking about herself.

Fatima was often sewing in her room.

ii. The past continuous and the simple past can be used in the same sentence to show

two actions. The past continuous shows that one action was still continuing,

while the simple past shows that another action had just been completed.

Examples:

66

They were talking about her when she came into the room.

The guests arrived while I was still cooking.

iii. This tense is also used to show two continuous actions happening at the same

time. For instance:

I was sweeping the floor while my sister was sewing.

They were watching while the players were practising.

iv. It replaces the present continuous tense when direct speech is changed into

indirect speech.

Direct speech: “I am going home”, he said.

Indirect speech: He said that he was going home.

v. There are some verbs with no continuous form. The simple past tense is used in

such cases:

He remembered all that he had done. (Not: He was remembering).

He seemed apprehensive as he approaches the angry man.

(Not: He was seeming).

vi. The passive form of the past continuous tense shows an action being done to the

subject.

The scripts were being typed by the new typist.

The prisoner was being watched day and night.

vii. It emphasizes an activity that was continuous over a certain period (using

expressions like “all day”, all morning). For example:

i. He was writing exams all last week.

ii. I was washing all day.

67

4.4.2.2. The Igbo Past Continuous Tense in Igbo

The Igbo past continuous tense is used to express an action which had been going

on in the past (Okonkwo, 1974:39).

Formation of Igbo Past Continuous Tense

This tense is very much like the present continuous tense except that in the

formation, “ri” is used. “Ri” is placed after the first person pronoun or the third person

pronoun when these pronouns do not precede the verb. For example:

Ana m rị ata anụ.

Ana m rị apị osisi.

When the subject (nominative) pronoun precedes the verb it governs, the participle “ri” is

suffixed to “na” or the present continuous forms of the verb (Okonkwo, 1974:39). This

formation is applied to the first person pronoun and the third person pronoun (plural)

when they occupy the same position. For instance:

Ọ narị eri nri.

M narị aga ahịa

Ha narị egwu egwu.

Ọ narị apụ apụ.

It is important to note that when “bu” is suffixed to the verb instead of “ri” the tense

indicates an action which was going on in the past, but which was completely stopped.

For instance:

Mmadụ na-ebibu n’ọhịa.

(Man used to live in the forest or man was living in the forest (but no longer

does).

68

In this tense, the vowel prefixes to the verbroots (ga-aga, si-esi), the light vowel in the

verbroot requires a light vowel prefix and the heavy vowel in the verbroot requires a

heavy vowel prefix. Examples:

i. Ị narị agụ… You were counting.

ii. Ana m ri eto…I was praising.

iii. M narị akọ… I was narrating.

4.4.2.3 Comparison of English and Igbo Past Continuous Tense

There is a past continuous tense marker in each language. The past continuous

tense marker for English is the past tense of “be” + “-ing” participle while that of Igbo is

“ri”. Examples:

I was reading a novel.

Ọ narị eri nri..

While in English, the form of the verb depends on the pronoun or noun that is

subject of the sentence, the verb form in Igbo is the same for all persons. For instance:

He was writing a letter.

We were waiting for her.

O narị egwu egwu.

Ha narị eri nri.

In Igbo, when the subject (nominative) pronoun precedes the verbs it governs, the

participle “ri” is suffixed to “na” or to the present continuous form of the verb.

This formation is applied to the first person pronoun and the third person pronoun (plural)

when they occupy the same position. For example:

M narị asụ akwa.

Ọ narị apụ apụ.

69

Also in Igbo, the “ri” is placed after the first person pronoun or the third person pronoun

when these pronouns do not precede the verb. For example:

Ana m rị ata anụ.

Ana ha ri agụ akwụkwọ.

In the English language, “the past continuous tense of “be” is not affixed to the

present continuous form of the verb; rather the past form of the verb “be” is used alone +

“ing” participle. Examples:

They were building the house.

She was singing a song.

There are some differences in ordering which cause interference errors. One of this kind

occurs in questions. In forming polar questions (those expecting the answer “yes” or

“no”) from statement in English the first verbal auxiliary and the subject invert eg.

I was reading a novel.

Was I reading a novel?

If there is no auxiliary present in the verb phrase in the statement form, then the “do”

auxiliary is inserted in the question.

In forming the question in the Igbo language, there should be no changes of word

order or inversion. The statement will be the same. The only difference is the tone

change and the addition of a question mark. Examples:

Ọ narị eri nri.

Ọ narị eri nri?

English and Igbo are the same in that they both have progressive and non-progressive

tenses. The difference is that English has present progressive = Auxiliary + present

participle while Igbo is simple present i.e. present participle + auxiliary.

70

4.4.3 The Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect tense is used to show that an action was completed earlier before

another action began. Udensi (2005:99) posits that the past perfect tense expresses an

action that happened sometime in the past before some other action had begun. In the

English and the Igbo language, the past perfect tense expresses a completed action in the

past before some other past event.

4.4.3.1 The Past Perfect Tense in English

Opega (2005:111) explains that the past perfect tense is used to express the two

actions that took place in the past and one action was finished first i.e. when we wish to

express two actions which took place in the past and one action was finished first, we put

the present action into the past perfect tense and any other action in the same sentence

into the simple past tense. For instance:

i. I had spoken my mind before Tom intruded.

ii. The train had left before we reached the station.

Formation of English Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect tense is formed from the past tense of the verb “have” and the

past participle. That is, it is made up of the helping verb (past tense of “have”) plus a

main verb (past participle). Examples:

i. I had paid the bill.

ii. You had seen the picture.

The past perfect tense is the same for all subjects despite the number of individuals

referred to.

Uses of English Past Perfect Tense

i. This tense is used to show which of two past actions happened first. For instance;

When I had finished my work, I went to bed.

71

A bus arrived after we had waited about ten minutes.

ii. The past perfect tense is used in direct speech. It replaces a verb which was in the

present perfect or simple past tense in the original speech. Examples:

My brother said that birds had picked the tops of the tomato plants.

I asked her where she had been.

iii. It is also used in conditional sentences which refer to the past.

If you had informed us, we would have known what to do.

The child would not have fallen if you hadn’t pushed in.

iv. The passive form of the past perfect tense shows what had been done to the

subject. For instance:

He had been warned not to steal again.

Had the letter been posted?

v. We use the past perfect tense to show what had been done by a certain point of

time in the past. Examples:

The girls had gone by the time that we arrived.

The work had been done by the time that you came.

vi. When it is used with such verbs as “wish”, “hope”, “expect”, “think”, “intend”,

“want”, etc, it shows an unfulfilled action. Examples:

I’m feeling lonely, I wish that I had gone out with my friends.

We had hoped that she would be able to come.

They had expected him to return by nine.

vii. The simple past and past perfect tenses are both used in hypothetical situation to

show imaginary or desirable situations in the present and past respectively when

the sentence begins with certain verbs or conjunctions. Examples:

I wish John were here now.

72

(he would know what to do)

We all wished John had been at the party.

(he would have known what to do).

These two tenses are really subjunctive in mood in this use; only the verb “were”

with the 3rd person shows the subjunctive form. The principal verbs and conjunctions

which introduce this use of the two tenses are:

i. I wish (ed)

ii. It’s high time

iii. I’d rather

iv. as if

v. supposing, etc.

4.4.3.2 The Past Perfect Tense in Igbo

This tense is used in Igbo to express an action that was completed in the distant

past (Okonkwo, 1974:45).

Formation of Igbo Past Perfect Tense

In the formation of this tense, the suffix ‘ri’ is attached to the simple past to form

the past perfect tense.

Present tense Present perfect suffix Past perfect suffix Past perfect tense Pụa la rị pụalarị

mee la rị meelarị

Pịa la rị pịalarị

Uses of Igbo Past Perfect Tense

As usual when used with the singular personal pronouns (except the first person-

‘M’) the pronominal prefixes are dropped. For example:

73

i. I jeelarị ahịa?

ii. O chuolarị mmiri.

When the past perfect tense is used with the plural personal pronouns and the first

person singular, it retains the pronominal prefixes. The position of the first person

pronoun singular is mostly after the entire verb. A rarer alternative, however, is to place

it as it is in the simple past, with the suffix “ri” standing separately after the pronoun. For

instance:

Anyị apụọlarị ọrụ.

Unu apụọlarị ọgbakọ.

The alternative applies to the third person plural as can be seen below:

Emeela ha rịị ihe ahụ.

Apụala ha rị ahịa.

In this alternative which places the suffix separate and last, the vowel of the suffix “ri” is

longer and more emphasized than when it is suffixed to the verb.

4.4.3.3 Comparison of English and Igbo Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect tense in both languages is formed from the past tense of the verb.

The English language forms its past perfect tense from the past participle. The Igbo

language forms its past perfect tense by attaching the suffix “ri” to the simple past tense.

In the two languages, the past perfect tense is the same for all subjects despite the

number of individuals referred to. For example:

I had paid the bill.

They had paid the bill.

Ọ gaalarị ahịa n’ụtụtụ.

Ha agaalarị ahịa n’ụtụtụ.

74

In the Igbo language, when the past perfect tense is used with the plural personal

pronouns and the first person singular, it retains the pronominal prefixes. The position of

the first person pronoun singular is mostly after the entire verb. For instance:

Emeela ha rịị ihe ahụ.

Asachaala m rị efere kemgbe ụtụtụ.

But in English, the past perfect tense is always the verb formed from the verb “have” and

the past participle.

Again, English past perfect tense is used in hypothetical situations to show

imaginary or desirable situation in the present and past respectively when the sentence

begins with certain verbs or conjunctions, but Igbo past perfect tense cannot.

4.4.4 The Past Perfect Continuous Tense

4.4.4.1 The Past Perfect Continuous Tense in English

The past perfect continuous tense is used to show that an action has been in

progress up to when another action began. Collins (2009:108) explains the past perfect

continuous tense as a tense that is used to express an action in the past and which

continued up to the time of the second action. Examples:

She had been wasting her love on Emma only to discover that he was merely

exploiting her.

He had been dreaming of becoming a millionaire but discovered suddenly that he

was getting old.

Formation of English Past Perfect Continuous Tense

Past of “have” + past participle of “be” + “-ing” participle.

I had been studying and decided to take a stroll to clear my mind.

75

We had been cleaning the car for hours, so we stopped and had a drink. They had been building the house before I came here. Uses of English Past Perfect Continuous Tense

i. Both the past perfect and the past perfect continuous are used to show an action in

the past. But the past perfect continuous emphasizes the continuity of the action

more than the perfect does. Here, it is usually used with a time expression like

“since”, “for”, etc. Examples:

He had been working in the office for eight years before he was promoted.

Had she been working hard on the project?

ii. Some verbs do not have a continuous form. The past perfect tense is used instead.

For instance:

He had remembered to bring his documents along (Not: He had been

remembering).

Etim and Omari had known each other for many years now. (Not: Etim

and Omari had been knowing…).

But when such verbs have special meaning, we can use past perfect continuous

tense.

She had been seeing a lot of John by then.

I had been hearing all the evil things that they said about her.

He had been hoping to hear them sing.

iii. The past perfect tense replaces the past continuous or the present perfect

continuous when changing direct speech into indirect speech.

Direct speech: She said, “I was reading in my room”.

Indirect speech: She said that she had been reading in her room.

76

Examples:

When I went to Abuja in 1990, Uju had been staying there for five years.

When our father came, we had been sleeping for a long time.

4.4.4.2 The Past Perfect Continuous Tense in Igbo

This tense is used in Igbo to express a situation where an action had been in

progress up to when another action began. It emphasizes the continuity of an action.

Formation of Igbo Past Perfect Continuous Tense

In the formation, the suffix “la” is attached to the simple past of the time

expression like “kemgbe” to form the past perfect continuous tense in Igbo. For instance:

i. Ha narala agụkọ akwụkwọ ọnụ kemgbe afọ itoolu (They had been studying

together for nine years).

ii. Anaarala m agụ akwụkwọ n’ime ụlọ m kemgbe ụtụtụ (I had been studying in my

room since morning).

4.4.4.3 Comparison of English and Igbo Past Perfect Continuous Tense

The English and Igbo languages have tense markers for past perfect continuous

tense. The tense marker for past perfect continuous tense in English is “had been” + the

present continuous tense. In Igbo, the suffix “la” is attached to the simple past tense +

the time expression “kemgbe”. The “had been” form in English and the “la” form in Igbo

are used irrespective of the subject of the sentence.

While the suffix “la” is attached to the simple past tense to form the past perfect

continuous tense in Igbo, the English past perfect continuous tense marker “had been” is

formed from the past tense of the verb “have” + past participle “be” and the “-ing”

participle.

77

4.5 The Future Tense

The future tense is the tense that is used to show that an action will be in progress

in future. Okafor (2001:36), in his own view, posits that in other tenses, the verb

normally undergoes a change to realize them. For instance, we have the past tense of

“come” as “came”. For the future tense, we use the modal auxiliaries “shall”, “will”, etc

to realize them.

The future tense is of four different types:

Simple future

Future continuous

Future perfect

Future perfect continuous

4.5.1 The Simple Future Tense

4.5.1.1 The Simple Future Tense in English

When a tense is used to show that some actions will take place in future, it is

known as simple future tense. Opega (2005:111) posits that the simple future tense is

used to express something that has not yet happened but will happen sometime in the

future. Umera-Okeke (2010:70) is of the view that simple future tense can only be used

when the lexical meaning of the verb alone is sufficient to convey the full message.

Collins (2009:110) postulates that simple future tense is used with a time adverb to talk

about future plans which are part of a time table or previous arrangement. Examples are

thus:

i. He will bring the radio next week.

ii. I shall travel tomorrow.

78

Formation of English Simple Future Tense

English has two principal ways of expressing and forming the future. The tense is

made with the auxiliaries “shall” and “will”. The auxiliaries “shall” and “will” are used

according to the noun or pronoun that is the subject of the sentence. The first person

singular “I” and the plural “we” are often preferred with “shall” e.g.

I shall read a novel.

We shall wait for her.

The second person “you” and the third person “he, she, it” singular and third

person plural “they” are used with “will”. The future tense is formed by the use of

“shall” or “will” + the infinitive form of which ever verb is used, without “to”. For

example:

i. I shall go to the supermarket by 8 o’clock.

ii. He will bring the radio next week.

iii. When will you bring my book?

Forms containing “will” or “shall” are modals and like all modals, it involve the

speaker’s judgement of the non-factual elements of a situation: when it relates to future

time, it involves the speaker judging the situation which prevails at the moment of

speaking and making a prediction on the basis of an immediate instantaneous perception

of the situation at the moment of speaking. For instance:

i. I’ll see you tomorrow.

ii. We’ll have to do something about it.

iii. It’ll soon be 8 o’clock.

The prediction can be used to give orders to somebody. Examples:

i. You’ll start work tomorrow.

ii. The teacher will start teaching on Wednesday.

79

Uses of English Simple Future Tense

Normally, “shall” has been used for the pronouns “I” and “we”, and “will” for all

other pronouns. But there is a tendency to use ‘will’ for all persons.

i. I shall do my work tomorrow.

ii. I will help you this afternoon.

iii. We shall not go there.

iv. We will stay here.

The simple future tense is always used for future events that are influenced by

external, not personal forces. For instance:

i. She will obey whatever orders she is given.

ii Tomorrow will be Monday.

This tense is used for a future action that is planned at the moment of speaking.

“Oh, there is no butter left! I will get some in the morning”.

The simple future tense is also for expressing commands and formal

announcements of future plans. For example:

I will give you your orders now. You will not interrupt me until I have

spoken. Then you will carry out your duties accordingly.

The simple future tense is used with verbs with continuous forms to show future

actions. For instance:

i. She will believe whatever you say.

(Not: will be believing).

ii. I will listen to your side of the story first.

(Not: will be listening to).

80

4.5.1.2: The Simple Future Tense in Igbo

Okonkwo (1974:37) explains simple future tense in Igbo as the tense that is used

to express something that has not yet happened but will happen sometime in the future.

Emenanjo (1978:182) calls this tense the ‘Ga-form of the verb’. Examples:

Ha ga-asụ akwa.

Eze ga-abịa ebe a n’abalị.

Formation of Igbo Simple Future Tense

Future tense in Igbo is not realized through inflection but through the use of an

auxiliary verb, “ga” followed by a bound verb which is derived from the main verb. In

addition to this verb structure, the future time adverbs such as “tomorrow”, “next year”,

“in the morning”, “at night” and “in the evening” are also added to the construction. To

form the future tense, “ga” is treated in exactly the same way as ‘na’ in the present

continuous tense.

The simple future tense is formed in the following ways:

i. When the future tense is formed with first person singular “m”, it is derived thus:

Aga m ata anu.

Aga m acho ego ahu.

In the above examples, “ga” is prefixed with “a” and the pronoun “m” is written

immediately after it. The prefixed verbroot is written separately after the

pronoun.

ii. When the future tense is formed with first person plural, we have:

Anyị ga-ata anụ.

Anyị ga-aza ụlọ.

iii. At times, future tense is formed with second person singular to derive:

Ị ga-ata atụ.

81

Ị ga-apụ n’ụlọ.

The simple future tense can be affirmative or negative. The simple future

affirmation has the following features:

i. The Np(s) retains its inherent tones.

ii. The (general) future marker, the auxiliary “ga” (on a low tone) is followed

by the participle.

iii. The complement retains its tones for T.G.B. nouns but changes them for

T.G.A. nouns.

Examples:

Ada ga-ego ji.

Mmiri ga-ezo echi.

Uses of Igbo Simple Future Tense

The simple future in Igbo is used to show that an action will take place in the

future. Examples:

Anyị ga-aga ọgbakọ.

Ọ ga-agụ egwu.

Amaka ga-aga Aba.

4.5.1.3 Comparison of English and Igbo Simple Future Tense

In both English and Igbo future tense, modals are used to express future since

there is no verb inflection that expresses future in either language. For example:

I will come tomorrow.

Aga m abịa echi.

We shall come on time

Anyị ga-abịa n’oge.

82

While the simple future tense in English uses “shall” and “will”, the Igbo simple future

tense uses only “ga” to express future event.

The auxiliaries “shall” and “will” are used according to the noun or pronoun that

is the subject of the sentence in the English language. The first person singular “I” and

the plural “we” are often preferred with “shall” e.g.

I shall read a novel.

We shall wait for her.

The second person “you” and the third person “he, she, it” singular and the third

person plural “they” are used with “will”.

This is unlike the Igbo language simple future tense where only ‘ga’ is used

irrespective of persons. Examples:

M ga-aga ahia.

Ha ga-aza ulo.

4.5.2 The Future Continuous Tense

4.5.2.1 The Future Continuous Tense in English

When a tense is used to show that some actions will be in progress in future, it is

known as future continuous tense. Opega (2005:12) notes that future continuous tense

expresses an activity or state which begins and continues after a point of future time.

Examples:

i. I shall be working.

The continuous future “I shall be working”, shows that at some time in the future

the action will be going on all the time. The continuous future says that the action

will not only take place in the future but also that it will be going on all the time.

ii. If you come at 3 o’clock I shall be having a rest.

83

The sentence means that at three o’clock the resting will be going on. He does

not say when the resting started, nor when it will end, but only that at that future

time it will be going on.

iii. At eight o’clock on Monday Peter will be ringing the school bell.

In this sentence, we know that when 8 o’clock comes on Monday the action of

ringing the bell will be going on. We do not know when Peter will start ringing

the bell and we do not know when he will stop. All we know is that on Monday

(which is future) at 8 o’clock the ringing will be going on and Peter will be doing

it.

Formation of Future Continuous Tense in English

The future continuous tense is formed with “will”/“shall” + be + the present

participle of a main verb. “Will/shall be” forms negative contractions, questions and

short answers in the usual way. Examples:

Subject Shall/will be Present Participle

I shall be reading a novel.

We shall be waiting for her.

You will be learning English

Question Form

Shall/will Subject be Present Participle

Shall I be reading a novel?

Shall we be waiting for her?

Will you be learning English?

84

Uses of Future Continuous Tense in English

The future continuous shows an action that will be going on up to or at a certain

time in the future. Time expressions are usually given:

i. I shall be doing my homework all evening.

ii. What will you be doing at five o’clock?

The future continuous is also used to show an unplanned future action that will

happen in the normal course of events. Time expression may or may not be given

here.

i. I shall probably be seeing her tomorrow.

ii. They will be passing this way again.

4.5.2.2 The Future Continuous Tense in Igbo

The future continuous tense is a complex form with the features of the future and

the continuous verb forms (Emenanjo, 1978:185). For instance:

O ga na-abia.

Ha ga na-eme.

Formation of Future Continuous Tense in Igbo

To form this tense, “ga” stands alone, followed by the present continuous form of

the verb. The subject (Nominative) of the verb precedes the entire formation. For

example:

Anyị ga na-azụ ahịa.

Obi ga na-arụ orụ.

When the subject of the verb in the present continuous tense is first person

singular or third person plural, “ga” affixed with the prefix “a” may be written

first, followed by the subject pronoun and then the present continuous form of the

verb. For example:

85

Aga m na-abịa.

Aga m na-eme.

Alternatively, this form can also be used thus:

M ga na-abịa.

Ha ga na-abịa.

With second person singular/plural:

Ị ga na-ata.

Ị ga na-apịa.

Unu ga na-apụ.

4.5.2.3 Comparison of Igbo and English Future Continuous Tense

Both languages have future continuous tense markers. The future continuous

tense marker for English is “shall/will” + be + the present participle of a main verb.

In Igbo, the tense marker is “ga” which is followed by the present continuous

form of the verb “na”.

The continuous future in English has positive, negative, contractions,

interrogative, and short answers in the usual way. Such is also obtainable in the Igbo

language. For instance:

Positive - I shall be going.

Aga m na-aga.

While in Igbo future continuous affirmative, the Np(s) retains its inherent tones and the

future marker “ga” (on a low tone) is followed by the progressive “na” on a high tone,

this is not applicable to the English future continuous affirmative.

86

4.5.3 The Future Perfect Tense

4.5.3.1 The Future Perfect Tense in English

Murthy (2007:163) explains that the tense which is used to show that some action

will be finished in future is known as future perfect tense.

For Opega (2005:112), the future perfect tense deals with time in the future and

conveys the fact that something will have been completed by a certain time in the future.

When there are two future actions that which will happen first is expressed in the future

perfect tense. Examples:

i. John will have eaten his meal before he will start.

ii. I shall have finished my work by this time tomorrow.

Formation of Future Perfect Tense in English

The tense is formed with “shall”/“will” + past participle. The future perfect (“will

have” + the past participle of a main verb). The tense is made with the auxiliaries “shall

and will” plus past participle. The auxiliaries “shall” and “will” are used according to the

noun or pronoun that is the subject of the sentence. The first person singular “I” and

“we” (plural) are often preferred with “shall”. Example:

i. I shall have read the novel.

ii. We shall have seen the film.

The second person “you” and the third person “he, she, it” singular and the third person

plural “they” are used with “will”. Examples:

i. You will have sung a song.

ii. He will have learnt English.

iii. They will have built the house.

87

Uses of Future Perfect Tense in English

The future perfect tense is used to show an action that will be completed at some

point in future time. Usually, it is used with a time expression.

i. They will have gone by the time that we arrive.

ii. I shall have finished by the time that he arrives.

4.5.3.2 The Future Perfect Tense in Igbo

This is a complex verb form which shares the features of the future and the

perfective. The features of this are the following:

i. The Np(s) retains its inherent tones.

ii. The future marker “ga” is optionally followed by “ra” and obligatorily followed

by the perfective marker “la”. All elements have low tones.

iii. Following the auxiliary is either the participle or the infinitive with occasional

dialectal semantic differences corresponding somewhat to the meaning difference

between the future simple and the future immediate.

iv. When the participle follows the auxiliary, tone group A and tone group B

complements can change or retain their tones according to the tone rules.

Examples:

i. Ada garala ego ji.

Ada will have bought yams.

ii. Mmiri garala ezo.

There would have been rain (future perfect).

4.5.3.3 Comparison of English and Future Perfect Tense

In both the English and Igbo future tenses, modals are used to express future since

there is no verb inflection that expresses the future in both languages.

88

In Igbo, the marker “ga” is optionally followed by “ra” and obligatorily followed

by the perfective marker “la”. All elements have low tone.

In English, the future perfect tense is formed with “will have” + past participles of

a main verb.

In Igbo perfect tense, when the infinitive follows the auxiliary, all the

complements retain their inherent tones but the future perfect tense in English is formed

with “shall/will” + perfect infinitive without “to”. They cannot retain the inherent tones

like Igbo future perfect tense.

In Igbo, when the participle follows the auxiliary, tone group A and tone group B

complements can change or retain their tones according to the tone rules but in English

there is nothing like tone group or complement.

The contrasts would predictably be a source of error and the actually occurring

error may be explained as interference from the L1 caused by a contrast between the L1

and L2 language systems.

Examples:

i. Ada ga-egola ji.

(Ada will (must) have bought yams).

ii. Unu ga-azala ulo.

(You (pl) will (must) have swept the house).

iii. Mmiri ga-ezola.

(There must/will have been rain).

But in English, tense is made with auxiliaries “shall/will” plus perfect infinitive or past

participle. Example:

(We shall have seen the film).

89

4.5.4 The Future Perfect Continuous Tense

4.5.4.1 The Future Perfect Continuous Tense in English

Murthy (2007:64) explains that when a tense is used to show that some action will

have been in progress in future, it is known as future perfect continuous tense. Example:

John shall have been going to school by this time tomorrow.

Formation of Future Perfect Continuous Tense in English

The English future perfect continuous tense is formed with:

Shall/will + have been + present participle of a main verb. The tense is also made

with the auxiliaries “shall” and “will” which are used according to the noun or pronoun

that is the subject of the sentence. The first person singular “I” and plural “we” are often

used with “shall”, while the second person “you” and the third person “he, she, it” and

third person plural “they” are used with “will”.

For example:

i. I shall have been reading the novel.

ii. We shall have been seeing the film.

iii. You will have been singing a song.

iv. He will have been learning English.

v. They have been building the house.

Uses of Future Perfect Continuous Tense in English

The future perfect continuous tense is used for an action going on in the future

and it will continue to a certain time in future. Examples:

i. When she completes her degree, she will have been doing her research in the

university for two years.

ii. By next July, she will have been working in the bank for five years.

90

4.5.4.2 The Future Perfect Continuous Tense in Igbo

The future perfect continuous tense combines the features of the future the

progressive and the perfective. On the whole, one can say that this verb form results

from including the progressive marker immediately before the participle which is

otherwise the future perfective. Examples:

Ada garala na-ego ji.

“Ada will have been buying yam”

Unu garala na-aza ụlọ.

“You will have been sweeping the house”.

4.5.4.3 Comparison of English and Igbo Future Perfect Continuous Tense

In both English and Igbo, future perfect continuous tense is formed by the use of

auxiliary forms. The tense in English is made with auxiliaries “shall/will” + “have been”

+ present participle of a main verb. The Igbo future perfect continuous tense combines

features of the future, the progressive and the perfective.

In English, the first person singular “I” and the plural “we” are often used with

“shall”, while the second person “you” and the third person singular “he, she, it” and

third person plural “they” are used with “will”. In Igbo, the same tense marker “garala”

is used for all persons.

91

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

5.1 Summary:

This work examined the tenses of the English and Igbo languages with a view to

showing clearly the differences and the similarities between them with the aim of

bringing out areas an Igbo learner of English may encounter some difficulties.

A native speaker of a language knows intuitively the linguistic structure of his

language probably better than any linguist who tries to describe it. The job of the

linguists is to make explicit what they know unconsciously about the grammatical

structure, sound pattern and word structure of a language among other things.

This study focused on the contrastive analysis of the English and the Igbo tense

formation. The theoretical and empirical studies were carried out in the related field of

study. The procedure of analysis involved description and comparison of tense in both

languages and prediction of learners’ errors in tense formation in the target language.

Tense in this study was discussed as it is being taught in schools.

The different tenses in both languages were described and compared. Predictions

were made based on the similarities and differences identified in the course of description

and comparison of the different tenses.

5.2 Findings and Predictions

The learner of a second language experiences errors and difficulties that occur as

a result of mother-tongue interference. Wherever the structures of the foreign language

differ from those of the mother tongue, we can expect both difficulties in learning and

error in performance. Learning a second language is essentially learning to overcome

these difficulties. Ibe (2007:261) noted that a major area of defect in the performance of

the second-language learner is the grammatical structure and as such, the learners transfer

92

literally and without meaning the structures of the first language into the second

language.

In this work, the pedagogical tenses in both languages were identified and each

has different tense forms which are lacking in the other language.

In English, the simple present tense is derived by adding ‘s’ to the verbs when it

has a third person singular noun or pronoun as “he”, “she” or “it”. For example:

He loves tea.

It jumps up.

Verbs ending in “s, x, z, sh, ch or o” add “es” with the third person:

She teaches English.

The bell buzzes.

Verbs ending in “y” after vowels add “s”, those ending in a consonant plus “y” change

“y” to “I” and add “es”. For instance:

She applies for the job.

He buys banana everyday.

The Igbo language on the other hand, has no such formation as above, rather, it

adds “a” or “e” as prefix and the suffix “o”, “ọ”, “e” are attached in accordance with the

principle of vowel harmony to form the present simple tense. Examples:

Obi erie nri.

Ha apuọ akwụkwọ.

Ataa m akị.

An Igbo learner of English has no such formation above and for this reason,

sentences are, therefore, wrongly constructed in English as in:

* “He teach Igbo” instead of “He teaches Igbo”.

* “She love tea” instead of “She loves tea”.

93

* “It enjoy hiding”, instead of “It enjoys hiding”.

* “The baby cry too much” instead of “The baby cries too much”.

The English present continuous tense is used to indicate what is really happening

now, repeated action or planned future action. It is constructed with the help of

auxiliaries which can be used for different subjects. The auxiliaries “am” and “is” are

used for first-person singular pronoun while the auxiliary “are” is used for plural nouns

and pronouns. For example:

He is playing.

They are clapping.

I am sleeping.

The Igbo language present continuous tense is formed with only the auxiliary verb

“na” which is hyphenated to the verb. The ‘na’ is used for all subjects. Examples:

Ha na-egwu egwu.

Ọ na-agba egwu.

Ana m eje ọrụ.

An Igbo learner of English who has no such “be + -ing” participle to form the

English auxiliary thus constructs the English sentence as:

* “I am play” instead of “I am playing”.

* “He is play” instead of “He is playing”.

* “They are clap” instead of “They are clapping”.

The English and Igbo languages have past tense whose verb is used to indicate

actions that have happened and are completed. The English regular past tense uses the

morpheme “ed” which is phonologically conditioned to produce the allomorphs {d, t, Id}.

The phonological features can be represented thus:

94

/t/ as in:

rape /reIp/ raped /reIpt/

/d/:

drag /dræg/ dragged drægd/

/Id/:

part /pa:t/ parted /pa:tId/

land /lænd/ landed /lændId/

He raped the girl.

I was dragged across the road.

The simple past tense of the Igbo verb has the structure [rv] which is an

inflectional suffix. The phoneme /r/ is constant while the vowel varies to harmonize with

the verbroot. Examples:

gbu + ru = gburu

ga + ra = gara

si + ri = siri

O gburu ewu.

Ha gara ahịa.

Anyị siri nri.

An Igbo learner of English who has no such English past-tense features in the

Igbo language, thus constructs sentences as follows:

* “She rape a girl yesterday” instead of “She raped a girl yesterday”.

* “I was drag across the road” instead of “I was dragged across the road”.

There also exists the irregular verbs which are used to depict the past tense form

in the English language. Examples:

95

drink - drank

write - wrote

teach - taught

shake - shook

We shook hands at yesterday’s event.

Mr. Ralph drank himself to stupor at his niece’s wedding.

Mrs. Daniel taught us English language at the juniorate.

The Igbo language has no irregular past tense formation. The “ru” past tense

formation in the Igbo language follows the rule of vowel harmony to form past tense.

Examples:

Verbroot Suffix (rv)

sa + ra sara

je + re jere

kwu + ru kwuru

O sara efere.

Ada jere akwụkwọ.

Ha Kwuru okwu.

The Igbo learner of English who has no such English irregular verbs to form past

tense constructions will wrongly form sentences thus:

* “We shake hands at yesterday’s events” instead of “We shook hands at

yesterday’s event”.

* “Mr. Ralph drink himself to stupor at his niece’s wedding” instead of “Mr.

Ralph drank himself to stupor at his niece’s wedding”.

* “Mrs. Daniel teach us English language at the Juniorate” instead of “Mrs.

Daniel taught us English language at the Juniorate”.

96

English has two principal ways of expressing and forming the future. The tense is

made with the auxiliaries “shall” and “will”. The auxiliaries “shall” and “will” are used

according to the noun or pronoun that is the subject of the sentence. The first person

singular “I” and the plural “we” are often preferred with “shall” e.g.

I shall read a novel.

We shall wait for her.

The second person “you” and the third person “he, she, it” singular and third

person plural “they” are used with “will”. For example:

He will bring the radio next week.

They will stay here.

The future tense in Igbo is also not realized through inflection but through the use

of an auxiliary verb “ga”, followed by a bound verb which is derived from the main verb.

In the Igbo language, only “ga” is used to express simple future tense irrespective of

persons.

Examples:

M ga-aga ahịa.

Ha ga-aza ụlọ.

An Igbo learner of English who has no such auxiliaries “will” and “shall” to form simple

future tense thus constructs the following English sentences without any intention of

additional meaning:

* “I will read a novel” instead of “I shall read a novel”.

* “They shall stay here” instead of “They will stay here”.

* “He shall bring the radio next week” instead of “He will bring the radio

next week”.

97

The present perfect continuous tense is used to show that an action has been

taking place since a point of time in the past and in progress up till the time of discussion.

In the English language, the present perfect continuous tense is formed by using

“have/has” + a present participle. For instance:

He has been working.

In the English present perfect continuous, the use of the tense marker “have/has

been” depends on the subject of the sentence “Have” is used for plural nouns or

pronouns. For example:

They have been discussing the matter for two hours.

He has been sleeping since noon.

The progressive marker in Igbo “na” is followed by a participle to which is

affixed the perfective marker “le/la” and which is used for all subjects. For example:

Ulumma ana-erila ji.

Anyi ana-arula ulo.

Since the Igbo language lacks the present perfect continuous tense marker

“have/has been” which is used according to the subject of the sentence, the Igbo learner

of English constructs sentences wrongly as follows:

* “He have been sleeping since noon” instead of “He has been sleeping

since noon”.

* “They has been discussing the matter for two hours” instead of “They

have been discussing the matter for two hours”.

* “I has been working” instead of “I have been working”.

5.3 Conclusion

The goal of this study is to carry out a contrastive study of the tenses of the two

languages. This will assist immensely in solving grammatical problems a second

98

language learner will encounter in learning the tenses of the language. The study reveals

problems in the category of tenses of both languages which constitute an impediment to

affect learning. Four research questions were stated to guide the researcher and the

findings provided answers to all the questions stated.

The Igbo learner of English will make use of the information provided by this

research in solving the problems arising from interference. The exposition of tenses of

both languages will make a valuable contribution to the learning of these languages by

aiding the teachers to emphasize the correct forms of the tenses lacking in the other.

Nevertheless, all the facts and findings in this research work are open to further

research for additions and modifications where necessary.

5.4 Recommendations

The predictions of this study should be adopted by curriculum planners, text book

writers and teachers for improving the learning of the English language. More time

should be devoted to the teaching of tenses especially in the areas where contrasts were

identified.

99

REFERENCES Adams, R.F.G. (1982). The principle of Ibo. Institute of African Studies, University of

Ibadan. Occasional Publication, No.4. Agbedo, C.U. (2000). General linguistics: An introductory reader. Nsukka:

Cheltenham: Nelson Thomes. Alan, E. (2001). General certificate English. Cheltenham: Nelson Thomes Ltd. Anasiudu, B.N. (2005), Problems of alternate language phonology: A bi-directional focus

on Igbo and Yoruba phonemes. Nsukka Journal of the Humanities, 14, 255-262. Anidobe, C.J. (2007). Contrastive analysis of Igbo and Hausa phonemes and

phonotactics. M.A. Thesis, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Asher, R.E. (1994). Tense. In The encyclopedia of languages and linguistics. (Volume

1, pp.4558-4562). New York: Pergamon Press. Bamgbose, A. (1971). English language in Nigeria. London: Longman. Bamgbose, A. (1976). Mother-tongue education: The West African experience. London:

Hodder and Stoughton. Bamisaye, T.O. (2000). Essentials of English syntax. Ado-Ekiti: University Publishing

Press. Beardsmore, H. (1982). Bilingualism: Basic principles. London: J.W. Arrowsmith. Bidwell, J. (1979). Readings in applied transformational grammar. New York: Holt,

Rhinehart and Winston. Collins, P. (2009). Easy learning grammar and punctuation. Bushopbrings: Harper

Collins Publishers. Comrie, B. (1985). Tense: Cambridge textbooks in linguistics. New York: Cambridge

University Press. Corder, S.P. (1963). An intermediate English practice book. Hong Kong: Hongkong

Printing Press. Corder, S.P. (1973). Introducing applied linguistics. London: Penguin Education. Corder, S.P. (1973). The language of second language learners: the broader issues. NLJ,

Vol.59, No.8, p..409-413. Emenanjo, N. (1978). Elements of modern Igbo grammar. Ibadan: Oxford University

Press.

100

Enem, I.C.O. (1999). Contrastive analysis of Igbo and Hausa phonology. B.Ed. Thesis, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Eyisi, J. (2006). A grammar of English: The students companion. Nimo: Rex Charles and

Patrick. Federal Republic of Nigeria. (1998). National policy on education. Lagos: Federal

Ministry of Education. Fisiak, J. (1981). Contrastive linguistics and the language teacher. Oxford: Pergamon

Press. Fries, C.C. (1945). Teaching and learning English as a foreign language. Ann Arbor:

University of Michigan Press. George, H.V. (1972). Common errors in language learning. Rowley Mass: Newbury

House. Ghosh, R.P. (1973). Good English spoken and written. Talcuita: Modern Book Agency

Private Ltd. Green, M. M. & Igwe, M.A. (1963). A descriptive grammar of Igbo. London: Oxford

University Press. Gumperz, J. & Robert, W. (1971). Convergence and creolization. In Dell Hymes (Ed.),

Pidgins and creoles (p.58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Harris, Z.S. (1963). Structural linguistics. Chicago: University of Chicago. Haugen, E. (1956). Bilingualism in the Americas: The American dialect society. New

York: Academic Press. Ibe, B. (2007). Teaching of tense: Current concepts and methods that impede the

learning of verb usage. In B.N. Anasiudu, G. I. Nwaozuzu & C.N. Okebalama (Eds.), Language and literature in a developing country: Essays in honour of Professor B.O. Oluikpe (pp.260-272). Onitsha: AFP.

Ikebude, T. (1988). Contrastive analysis of Igbo and Yoruba phonological System. M.A.

Dissertation, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Jackson, H. (1979). Errors of Punjabi learners of English, a comparison of the

gramarians of Punjabi and English (p. 313). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

James, C. (1980). Contrastive analysis. England: Longman. Kelly, L. (1969). 25 centuries of language teaching. Rawley, Mass: Newbury House

Publishers.

101

Klein, W. (1986). Second language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lado, R. (1957). Linguistics across cultures. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Lado, R. (1964). Language teaching: A scientific approach. New York: McGraw Hill. Lado, R. (1968). Contrastive linguistics in a mentalistic theory of language learning,

GURT, No.21. New York: Georgetown University Press. Lambrecht, K. (1994). Information structure and sentence form. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press. Lynn, M.B. (1999). English syntax from world discourse. New York: Oxford

University. Lyons, J. (1969). Introduction to theoretical linguistics. London: Cambridge University

Press. MacCarthy, M.S. (1975). Issues in applied linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press. MacCarthy, M.S. (1988). Vocabulary in language teaching. Harlow: Longman. Madobo, S.M. (1996). Contrastive analysis of Igbo and Hausa vowels. B.Ed. Thesis,

University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Matemilola, P. (2002). “Contrastive linguistic analysis of vowel harmony system in Igbo

and Yoruba”. Journal of Education, Legal and Management Studies. ABUJELMAS Vol.3, No.2, pp. 36-46.

Mbah, B.M. & Mbah, E.E. (2000). Topics in phonetics and phonology: Contribution

from Igbo. Nsukka: AP Express Publishers. Mbah, B.M. (1999). Studies in syntax: Igbo phrase structure. Nsukka: Prize Publishers. Mbah, B.M. (2006). GB syntax: Theory and application to Igbo. Enugu: St. Jon-Afam

Publications. Murthy, J.D. (2007). Contemporary English grammar. Lagos: Book Master. Ndimele, O.M. (2008). Morphology and syntax. Port Harcourt: M. & J. Grand Orbit

Communication Ltd. Ngoesi, M.C. (2000). Nchịkọta ihe ọmụmụ nke asụsụ Igbo. Nkpor: Optimal Press. O’Connor, J.D. (1973). Phonetics. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

102

O’Grady, W.; Dobrovolsky, M. & Katamba, F. (1996). Contemporary linguistics: An introduction. London: Pearson Education Limited.

Odlin, T. (1989). Language transfer: Cross-linguistic influence in language learning.

New York: Cambridge University Press. Ofomata, C.E. (2002). Ndezu ụtọasụsụ Igbo nke ndi junio sekondiri. Enugu: Format

Publisher (Nig) Ltd. Ofor, I.E. (2012), A contrastive study of English and Igbo morphological process. M.A.

Dissertation, Department of Linguistics, Igbo and Other Nigerian Languages, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Okafor, N.J. (2001). Auxiliary verbs and tenses in verbs. In V.O. Chukwu & F.U. Okoh

(Eds), Readings in English language for general studies (Vol.1, pp.29-39). Onitsha: Outright Publishers Limited.

Okonkwo, M.N. (1974). A complete course in Igbo grammar. Onitsha: Macmillan

Nigeria Publishers. Okoye, L. (2008). Ntụziaka maka ụdaasụsụ, ụtọasụsụ na omenaala Igbo. Enugu: Innoye

& Sons Company. Olaoye, A.A. (2008). Aspects of applied linguistics. Abuja. Israel Oguleye Publishing. Oller, J.W. (1971b). Difficulty in predictability. PCCLLU Paper Presented at the

University of Hawaii. Oluikpe, B.O. (1978). English in Igboland. Onitsha: Africana Publishing Ltd. Oluikpe, B.O. (1979). Igbo transformational syntax. Onitsha: Africana Educational

Publishers. Onuora, J.C. (2009). Usoro ọmụmụ Igbo ụtọasụsụ Agụmagụ na omenaala maka sinio

sekondiri. Onitsha: Patmonic Printers & Publishers Ltd. Onyemelukwe, I. Polyglotism for regional and global integration: A comparative study

of the French and Ndi Igbo, being a lead paper presented at the 1st National Conference hosted by Igbo Department, School of Languages, Federal College of Education, Zaria (20th April – 2nd May, 1999).

Opega, R.Y. (2005). English grammar and usage. Makurdi: Aboki Publishers. Otagburuagu, E. & Anyanwu, P. (2002). Concepts and issues in language studies.

Owerri: Spring Field Publishers. Politzer, R.L. (1970). Linguistics and applied linguistics: Aims and methods.

Philadephia: Center for Curriculum Development.

103

Saeed, J.Y. (2007). Semantics (2nd ed.). London: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Smith, B. (1969). Oral English for school certificate. J.N.E.S.A., 3(1), 74-76. Smith, S. M. (1981). Contrastive studies in two perspectives. In J. Fisiak (Ed.),

Contrastive linguistics and the language teacher, (pp.13-18). Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Stockwell, R.P. & Bowen, D. (1965). The sounds of English and Spanish. Chicago:

University of Chicago Press. Tinuoye, M.O. (1991), A contrastive analysis of English and Yoruba morphology.

Ibadan: OUP. Tomori, S.H. (2004). The morphology and syntax of present day English: An

introduction. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. Turville, J.R. (1965). Modern school English book two. Ikeja: The Caxton Press. Ubahakwe, Ebo (Ed.) (1979). The teaching of English studies: Readings for colleges and

universities. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press. Udensi, U.J. (2005). A pragmatic approach to language and communication skill.

Onitsha: University Publishing Company. Ugobueze, M.N. (2010). Common errors in Igbo grammar. In C.E. Osinomumu, B.R.

Ibiowotisi, S.O. Agwuna & C.C. Ekwealor (Eds.), Readings in Igbo & other Nigerian languages. (pp.84-95). Onitsha: Mid-field Publishers Limited.

Umeral-Okeke, N. & Ezenwa-Ohaeto, N. (2010). Grammar, syntax and use of English.

Awka: Viable Venture. Wallwork, J.F. (1969). Language and linguistics: An introduction to the study of

language. London: Fakenham Press Ltd. Wandruszka, M.W. (1971). Interlinguistik: Umrisseeiner neuen sprachwissenchaft.

Piper: Munich. Wardhaugh, R. (1970). The contrastive analysis hypothesis. Tesol Quarterly, 4(2), 123-

130. Weinreich, U. (1953). Languages in contact. New York: Hague Mouton. Weinreich, U. (1966). Empirical foundation for a theory of language change. In W.P.

Lahmann & Y. Malkiel (Eds.), Directions for historical linguistics (pp.95-188). Auistin and London: Hague Mouton Publishers.

Wilkins, D.A. (1974). Second language learning. London: Edward Arnold Publishers

Ltd.

104

Wilkins, D.A. (1982). Linguistics in language teaching. London: Edward Arnold

Publishers. Williams, D.C. (1990). English language teaching: An integrated approach. Ibadan:

Spectrum Books. Williamson, P. & Blench, R. (2000). Niger-Congo. In B. Heine & D. Nurse (Eds.),

African languages: An introduction (pp.207-210). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.