NEGATION IN ENGLISH: A CONSIDERATION OF THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN THE SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC ELEMENTS

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorAJALA, Angela
dc.date.accessioned2014-02-06T10:37:41Z
dc.date.available2014-02-06T10:37:41Z
dc.date.issued1999-09
dc.descriptionA THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA, IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE.en_US
dc.description.abstractABSTRACT In the investigation reported here the researcher assessed the use of negative elements/forms by two hundred and eighty-seven (287) subjects drawn from four states in Nigeria. The study, which was carried out in 1997, had subjects selected through stratified random sampling, which ensured participation from different academic disciplines. Seven tertiary institutions across the nation were used. The schools were located in Ogbomosho (Oyo State), llorin (Kwara State), Kaduna and Zaria (Kaduna State) and Ugbokolo (Benue State). Works written by other linguists, language experts and psycholinguists concerning negation were consulted and the recent trends exposed by the various grammatical schools were critically examined. These formed the underpinning for the 73-item test instrument on which the subjects were tested. The cross - linguistic and cross-psychological comparisons aimed at giving a good balance to the instrument had earlier been carried out. Subjects were tested in identifying, producing and converting negative elements to measure the depth or shallowness of their performance in this linguistic task. Five sub-tests were given: The first sub-test looked at the conceptualization and use of negative words, subtest one was largely context - free or of general orientation with regard to negative patterning. The second sub-test required a manipulation of the grammatical formulation involved. The third and the fourth sub-tests centred on interpretation, the appropriate syntactic response being dependent upon the meaning assigned to the sentence or text. These two sub-tests (i.e. sub-test three and four) were thus context dependent. The fifth or last sub - test was the only continuous text used to gauge the subjects' mastery or ignorance of the negative message so as to show that not only words, phrases and sentences could convey a proper negative idea but that, negation could also be present in a large text or presentation. In this last sub-test, the selection of the appropriate response was dependent upon details provided by context in the text. Findings from the study revealed that a high level of sensitivity backed by a rich degree of exposure to the English language was a pre - requisite for good performance on the given tasks. These findings emerging from the investigation also showed that the subjects' receptive skills were higher than their productive skills. In addition, the findings also revealed subjects' limited manipulative ability regarding other patterns/forms of the negative other than the conventional not or n't. In scoring the sub-tests the 5 - band rating that was used consisted of: Excellent, Good, Fair, Weak and Failed. There was no overall "Excellent" performer among the schools based on the rating system used in this investigation. Significantly, even the highest performing school (Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho) fell only within the overall rating band of fair (average). Based on the findings, the researcher has made a point-by-point specification of the varying but integrated strategies that should be put in place to improve responses of Nigeria students to language forms in general and to negative constructions in particular. Most significantly, the need to incorporate listening-in sessions and handling a variety of exercises has been highlighted.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/426
dc.subjectNEGATION IN ENGLISH,en_US
dc.subjectCONSIDERATION,en_US
dc.subjectINTERPLAY,en_US
dc.subjectSYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC,en_US
dc.subjectELEMENTSen_US
dc.titleNEGATION IN ENGLISH: A CONSIDERATION OF THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN THE SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC ELEMENTSen_US
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
NEGATION IN ENGLISH A CONSIDERATION OF THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN THE SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC ELEMENTS.pdf
Size:
4.01 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.58 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
ARTS