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

Abstract

This paper attempts a look at Conditional Tenses and the types existing in English and Anaang
languages. It tries a reconciliation of the tenses and types at a distributional equivalence with
a proof of adequate similarities and dissimilarities (if any) through the use of Contrastive
Analysis Hypothesis instrument as a theoretical framework in the syntactic rank scale. To
achieve this purpose, 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. From the data collected, 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. Conclusions were drawn that 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.