ON MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION OF PLURAL NOUN MARKINGS IN ENGLISH AND OKPAMERI

Abstract

The wrong markings of English plural nouns are usually noticeable in the utterances of Okpameri ESL learners. Therefore, this study seeks to contrast plural noun markings in English and Okpameri so as to see how these plural markings are morphologically realized in the languages. The study is predicated on Contrastive Analysis as the theoretical framework. The adoption of this theory is hinged on the conviction that the theory has observational, descriptive, and explanatory adequacies. Ibillo, being the central community in Okpameri, was selected as the field of research. A test instrument of 58 nouns with their pluralizations in English was requested to be translated to Okpameri language in order to establish the plural noun markings. Adopting a purposive sampling technique, four secondary schools at Ibillo community were selected. Fifty students from each of the school were selected. Students in SS 3 class who are Okpameri ESL learners were the subjects of the study. The study revealed areas of similarities and differences of plural noun markings in the two languages. The similarities indicate grammar universality while the differences revealed cultural variations in lexical structures. The study has revealed the likely problems Okpameri learners may be confronted with while using some of the Z₁ morphemes because they are not morphologically marked in Okpameri words. This study, therefore, concludes by recommending that language teachers are to come up with practical demonstrations of English plural noun markings in the second language being learnt. By so doing, the perceived difficulties in English plural noun markings will be minimized.