LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13 : 3 March 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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A Comparative Study on Relative Clause Structure in
English and Arabic

Ibrahim Hassan N. M. Al-Washali, Ph.D. Scholar
S. Imtiaz Hasnain Ph.D.

Abstract

Comparative study is important for those students who study a second language and/or foreign language and for those who translate from a language into another. It is important for those Arab students who study English to compare English and their language (Arabic). This paper compares English and Arabic at the grammatical level. The main focus is on the relative clauses structure in English and Arabic to provide some suggestions that may help the teachers as well as the course designers who are concerned with English language teaching/learning in Arab world. The scope of this paper has been restricted to the comparison of the relative clauses structure in English and Arabic.

A Brief Review of Contrastive Analysis

Contrastive analysis is any investigation in which the structures of two languages are compared. It is the systematic study of a pair of languages with a view to identify their structural differences and similarities. Historically it has been used to establish language genealogies. It is an inductive investigative approach based on the distinctive elements in a language.

Contrastive analysis is the process by which the mother tongue and the target language are compared in order to identify the differences and the similarities. This process is designed to predict the areas of difficulties the learner of the target language will face. The prediction is that the similarities will facilitate learning while differences will cause the problem.

There is an important relationship between linguistic theory and contrastive analysis. Contrastive analysis has been influenced by the structuralist approach, transformation approach, and communicative approach. In the beginning, contrastive analysis was influenced by American Structuralism. The structuralist Bloomfield "defines and delimits the areas of linguistic enquiry. He rejects the Universalist idea about language on the basis that each individual language has its classes and categories; therefore, the only useful generalizations about language are inductive generalizations." (Syal and Jindal: 2007 p: 45)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Ibrahim Hassan N. M. Al-Washali, Ph.D. Scholar
Department of Linguistics
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh 202002
Uttar Pradesh
India
ialwashali1@gmail.com

S. Imtiaz Hasnain, Ph.D.
Professor of linguistics
Department of Linguistics
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh 202002
Uttar Pradesh
India
imtiaz.hasnain@gmail.com

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