CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF COMPLEMENTISER PHRASES IN SELECTED YORUBA AND ENGLISH NEWS TEXTS

Abstract

Complementiser phrase (CP) is the maximal category that is projected from a complementiser which heads the phrase, and its proper understanding can greatly enhance a language learner’s competence. Contrasting the syntactic structure of CP in the learners’ first language (L1) with that of their target language (TL), which is a crucial scholarly way of identifying areas of convergence and divergence in the two languages, has not enjoyed much comparative investigation. Therefore, this research attempts a syntactic contrastive study of CPs in English and Yoruba texts, with a view to highlighting their similarities and differences. Data for the study were purposively sampled from selected British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) news in Yoruba and translated to English with the aid of Google Gemini – an online translation tool. Ten CPs were illustratively analysed from both languages using the Principles and Parameters Theory (PPT) of Chomsky’s Transformational Generative Grammar. In both Yoruba and English, all the CPs have embedded inflectional phrases (IPs). Also, while some CPs (i.e. arguments) are subcategorised by VPs, some (i.e. relative clauses) are subcategorised by NPs. The Yoruba Pé and English ‘that’ are base-generated complementisers; on the other hand, tó and tí in Yoruba are moved from the embedded IP to the Spec CP, while ‘who’ and ‘where’ in English originate inside the VP or PP and move successively cyclically through Spec-IP to Spec-CP. In English, ‘that’ functions both as a declarative complementiser and a relative marker, whereas Yoruba splits these functions: pé for declarative clauses and tí/tó for relative clauses. There is therefore a possibility for English L2 learners to confuse relative clauses with noun clauses, especially when they are both introduced by ‘that’; hence, there is a possibility for English L2 learners to confuse relative clauses with noun clauses, especially when they are both introduced by ‘that’. Subordinate clauses – nominal, adverbial and relative ones – need to be carefully taught and learnt, bearing in mind the differences and similarities observed. The dissimilarities identified should be the focus in the process of teaching and learning the English syntactic structures which have CPs.