A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE NOMINAL GROUP STRUCTURES OF ENGLISH AND URHOBO

Abstract

The paper undertook a contrastive analysis of the nominal group structures of English and Urhobo. Data for the study were randomly selected from books and articles published by native and non native speakers of English. For Urhobo, data were obtained from books and articles published by native speakers. The descriptive method was used for the analysis of data. The procedure for data analysis followed that specified by Lado (1964) which states that we begin with an analysis of foreign language and compare it structure by structure with native language. The nominal group structures of English and Urhobo were compared and contrasted using Halliday's scale and category grammatical model. The paper notes that the observed differences between the nominal group of both languages can create learning problems to the Urhobo learners of English. It is suggested that intensive exposure be given to the Urhobo learners in English nominal group structure.