Chapter Two
2.0 Literature review
In the study of language, many schools of thought have emerged, which show, to a great extent, different views on the nature and structure of language, as well as how it is acquired or learnt.
In this chapter, the researcher presents a review of literature related to the study. The researcher will also examine works done so far in order to discover differences or gaps and make useful contribution to knowledge by filling the gaps.
According to McArthur (216), Contrastive analysis is a branch of linguistics that describes similarities and differences among two or more languages, at such levels as phonology, grammar, and semantics, especially in order to improve language teaching and translation.
Furthermore, Lado (qtd in McArthur 216) believes that contrastive analysis is a means of identifying the areas of difficulty for language learners that could be managed with suitable exercise…. Obi-Okoye summarizing Thamos Lado, Osgood and Headbloom (1979) definitions, says that contrastive analysis compares and contrasts the sub-systems of the two languages in contact, with the view of finding possible areas of differences (148).
From the above assertion, it can be said that contrastive analysis helps to solve the problems likely to be countered by the second language learners. Consequently, the researchers will contrast and analyse the system of word-formations of English and Igbo verb to show areas of differences and similarities. According to Eyisi,
verb is a word or a group of words that is used to tell what someone or something is, does or experiences. It is a compulsory element of a sentence expressing an action done by the subject or what is becoming of the subject… it is regarded as an essential part of speech, since no sentence can be deemed acceptable without it. e.g. talk, be, see, shall, ought to, cook, have, come, will, used to, close, do, eat, may, and have to.(22)
Clearly, Orji like Eyisi states that a verb is a word which fits into an inflectional verbal paradigm e.g. walk, walks, walking, walked, goes, going, go, gone. Hence a verbal paradigm is the present tense, the present participle, the past tense and past participle†(20).
According to Aremo the predicators in the actual sentences are all verbs… simple sentence patterns in English have just two obligatory parts: the first part is the subject, and the second part is the predicator(s) which are verb or verb phrase…. (10, 20).
Based on the above information, there is one finite verb in a simple sentence. Adindu’s contribution is that, “when verbs occur in a long chain, the last one is the finite verb, whereas the proceeding ones are auxiliary verbs…†He further explains that “any verb governed by the infinitive markers “to†is no longer a finite verb.
Finally, a verb in the progressive form that has no tense is a participle and not a finite verb†(24).
The validity of the above assertion is confirmed in the explicit words of Latilo and Olooku on the concept of verb; main verbs which are also called lexical verbs can be used alone or stand on their own in the sentence. Examples are as follows:
1. The boy came home by himself after school
2. We attended the seminar together.
They further gave more idea about English auxiliary verb by saying that auxiliary verbs are used with the main verb as a helping verb to the main verb.
Examples are:
1. We will attend the seminar together.
2. The principal is teaching in the main hall.
3. The boy has been coming to school regularly (19).
Apparently, agreeing with the view of Latilo and Olooku, McArthur affirms that, “verbs are classes of
words that serve to indicate the occurrence or the performance of an action or the existence of a state or condition….†(1083). According to him, there are two main types of verb: full verb and auxiliary verbs. In terms of form, he says, full verb is divided into two: regular (weak) and irregular (strong) verbs. Auxiliary verb is further divided into primary auxiliary and secondary auxiliary verbs, for example:
1. Primary auxiliary (be, have, and do) etc.
2. Modal auxiliary (may, can, shall, must, aught to, need and dare) etc.
On a similar note, Chukwueloka defines a finite verb as, that verb that has meaning, it is a verb that portrays a definite meaning in a sentence. A finite verb can be used in a present or in a past (and through this kind of use, specific meaning can be deduced from the sentence containing a verb) (132).
Chukwueloka further explains that infinitive verb has no specific meaning on its own. He observes that this form of a verb is characterized by two things: to infinitive, and –ing forms. (133).
From this discussion, it is clear that infinite verb cannot be meaningful on its own. It is also worthy to note that, finite verbs can only be combined in a clause, while phrase contains no verb at all except in the infinitive form.
Again, some linguists use a general term in describing verbs of English: Verb is regular or irregular in nature. A verb in English has four forms and the construction of three of these forms is predictable from the first (uninflected) form. Irregular verb has five forms, the last two are predictable. Thus, McArthur asserts that ‘a verb that does not follow the general rules for verb forms in English is irregular. They do not have a normal- ed ending form like in some regular verbs’ (533).
According to Latilo and Olooku, a verb can be defined as, an action or doing word which indicates the deed (action), the condition of a person or a thing, what is done to somebody or something, an information about a person or a thing. Thus pointing out that, there are two types of verbs: regular and irregular verb. The regular verb take -ed to form both past tense and past participle form of the verb. (17).
