A Contrastive Morphosyntactic Analysis of Noun Clauses in Agidi Dialect of Igbo Language and English

Abstract

This study is a morphosyntactic contrastive analysis of noun clauses in the Agidi dialect of Igbo and the English language. The Agidi dialect exhibits unique morphological and syntactic variations that is different from both Standard Igbo and English frameworks. The study adopts Contrastive Analysis (CA) and Transformational Generative Grammar (TGG) as its theoretical framework. The adoption of descriptive methods and the use of tree diagrams, the research systematically maps noun clauses in various syntactic positions to identify structural similitude and variance. Attention is given to the role of Igbo complementizers like na, ka, ma, and si, and how the Agidi dialect uses elements such as definite articles, auxiliary verbs, and melded word forms. Data were collected by the use of audio recorder to sieve out the purest form of Agidi dialect in word and sentences at different assembly. Findings show that although both languages share similarities in the functional roles of noun clauses, significant differences exist in word order. The study concludes that this structural variation may lead to negative transfer for L2 learners. Clearly, this study contributes to the fields of Igbo dialectology and comparative syntax, and helps in identifying and overcoming linguistic interference between English and the Agidi dialect of Igbo.