Contrastive analysis of noun formation in the English and Idoma languages.

Noun, as a naming word, is one of the fundamental parts of the lexicon of any language because of its central position in the formation of sentences. However, the pivotal function of the noun differs from one language to the other. This is largely because of the differences in their linguistic backgrounds and compositions. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the peculiarities of the functional and structural formation of nouns in the English and Idoma languages. The English language serves as lingua franca in Nigeria because of the Nigeria's multi-ethnic setting. Unravelling the peculiarities of the functional and structural formation of nouns in the English and Idoma languages becomes necessary for the Idoma speaker who uses the English language as a second language. The knowledge of the disparities and similarities that exist in the formation of nouns in both languages will go a long way in helping the second language users of both languages, especially the English language, competently and appropriately. Robert Lado's Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis was used as a guide in the study. Again, the study elicited data both from primary and secondary sources. The similarities and differences between the English and the Idoma languages are descriptively examined through the use of tables and glossaries. The findings reveal that the English and Idoma languages have some common structural features, namely kinds of noun, genders of noun, free morphemes etc.; they equally share some morphological processes such as compounding and clipping. However, nouns in the English language begin with both consonant and vowel sounds as well have regular inflection as a suffix, but the Idoma language has its regular inflection as a prefix. The English language has zero morphemes unlike the Idoma language. The study, however, recommends that scholarship be made available to encourage scholars embark on comparative and contrastive studies; the study equally recommends that more scholarly attention be paid to noun formation of other African languages and dialects side by side with the English language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]