A Contrastive Analysis Of Conjugation Of English And Igbo Verbs

(A verb is a word or group of words that tells us something about a noun or pronoun. It is the verb that explains to us the thought contained in a sentence. In the Igbo language verbs varies, examples are: verb root, affixes, auxiliary, verbal derivatives and enclitics).
In the course of this research, the researcher interviewed an Igbo teacher in Anambra State which says that the Igbo kinds of verbs are formed, and  this  gives colour to the meaning  of  the original verb to whose root  it is attached. These instances are illustrated in the following table.

This illustration is an extended form of combination and extended forms of verbroots, the infinitives, the present continuous and past  tense  forms  of  the  verb  as the table below demonstrates.

Okonkwo further explains that Igbo verbs form their past tense by adding some affixes to the verbs like;  ru,  ri and re etc; to the present tense form of the verb (ire) sell.

In conclusion, verbs in Igbo language have received worthy attention from various authors, and interviewed contributors. They gave details of the different  forms  of verb formations and systems of derivation of new verbs in Igbo language.
Generally, this review has shown that, there are many ways of word-formation processes in  English  and Igbo verbs. So, while the English centres their word- formation on the addition of “s” inflection to the present tense and the  infinitive forms  of singular verbs,   “-ing” to the present participle, “-ed” to the past tense and past participle (perfect) of regular verb. The irregular verb is characterized by change of vowel sounds, while the Igbo verbs on their part centre its word-formation on the prefixing of “na” for present participle;  suffixing re, ri,  ra, ru, etc. for the past tense, and prefixing “go” (Omego), (Origo), and (Ojego) etc for present perfect and past participle.
Strengths and Weakness of Contrastive Analysis
Though contrastive analysis predicts errors, if the errors may not cut across all aspects of the language. Richards (1974) behaves that it predicts  “move  errors  at the level of phonology than syntax.
Richie, (1970) does not condemn contrastive analysis in its entirerity but argues that “concentrating too much on the trouble spots without due attention to the structure of the foreign language as a whole will leave the learner with a patch work of a fruitful, partial generalizations.
Scott and Tucker in Rivers (1971) observed that contrastive analysis ought not to be over emphasized because after all, not all second language  errors  have their sources in the mother tongues interference.
Research by Dula and Burt (1972:1974) on how Spanish-speaking children acquire English observed that “native speakers of the English language makes similar mistakes as the Spanish students and concludes that the goofs by Spanish students are not as a result of transfer from the first language.
Most language scholars behave  that  interference  is not the only cause of errors and relying on it alone for the prediction of errors would be quite misleading, because other factors that are physiological and pedagogic could cause errors. They believe that ignorance of rules restrictions is the real cause of errors and there are more things involved in language learning and teaching than dreamt in contrastive analysis. They raise the question of what happens when the teacher/researcher does not have the tools to describe both the L1 and L2. Richard, (1974) concludes by saying that predictions from a contrastive analysis are not tested against the actual language performance of the L2 learner. In this regard contrastive analysis predicts errors that never materialise.
Contrasting the verb formation processes in English and Igbo, I  wish to justapose the verb formation process in the two languages to bring out their differences and similarities. The English has two major verb formation processes which are; derivation and inflection. Just as the Igbo language has many verb formation processes which includes: