A Syntactic Reconciliation of Conditional Tenses in English and Anaang at Distributional Equivalence

Abstract

This paper looked at Conditional Tenses and the types in English and Anaang languages. It tried a reconciliation of the tenses and types at a distributional equivalence with a proof of adequate similarities and dissimilarities through the use of Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis instrument as a theoretical framework in the syntactic rank scale. Thirty (30) sentences were constructed and administered on eighty (80) respondents who were selected by simple stratified random sampling technique at (10) each from the eight (8) local government areas in Akwa Ibom State whose native language is Anaang. The respondents were required to change a given tense type to the other two types in each case such that 2,400 sentences were finally generated from the three types of conditional tenses. It was revealed that the three types of conditional tenses which exist in English are also available in Anaang and operate at an absolute distributional equivalence. Hence, an Anaang learner/user of English would not encounter any problem in his use of English conditional tenses and vice versa in a second language situation. It was recommended among others, that this study be replicated using other language families in other sections of the country while areas of difficulties should be made to serve as a basis for the selection of Instructional materials by curriculum planners for remedial programmes.