THE GRAMMATICAL AND GLOBAL FUNCTIONALITY OF THE INTERNAL STRUCTURES OF ENGLISH AND ANNANG CLAUSE PATTERNS: FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF A MINIMALIST-BASED-SYNTAX

Abstract

This paper studies The Grammatical and Global Functionality of the Internal Structures of English and Annang Clause Patterns in a comparative approach. It describes the ways of combining and ordering grammatical constituents such as verbs and noun phrases to form a clause, taking cognizance of the syntactic variations that are inevitable in the patterning systems in the grammar of the two languages. To achieve this purpose, it applies the Universal Grammar Principles which are used as basic elements in the Systemic Functional Grammar model as theoretical framework while Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis is used in order to establish similarities and differences which may be operational within the two languages. The results indicate that more than 85% of clause types identifiable in the two languages under comparison are similar and so could facilitate learning of the target language (English) by an Anaang bilingual while the remaining 15% could be regarded as a mild difference which cannot impede communication and learning of English by an Anaang bilingual in a second language situation. Conclusion was drawn that since the margin of the difference is minimal, an arrangement for a remedial programme would go a long way to bridging the gap of the difference between the two languages.