A Contrastive Analysis of Quantitative Adjectives in English and Nupe Languages: Implications for Curriculum Development

Abstract

Language differs in various aspects such as phonology, syntax, morphology, and semantics. The differences in two languages in most cases constitute barriers in language learning while similar areas facilitates learning. Nupe and English languages are two distinct languages, therefore differences are expected. This paper carries out a contrastive analysis of qualitative adjectives in English and Nupe languages with a view to highlighting areas which Nupe learners of English as a second language will find easy or difficult to learn. The major area of similarity between the two languages is that, Nupe, like the English language, has features which act as the English quantitative adjectives. The paper also discovers numerous areas of differences such as, in the position of quantitative adjectives in the two languages and differences in the number of quantitative adjectives in the two languages, among others. Recommendations were offered to tackle the problems highlighted in the study.