The Morphology and Syntax of Adjectives in English and Pashto: A Contrastive Study

Abstract

This study is an attempt to carry out a contrastive analysis of adjectives in Pashto and English, adopting a corpus-based approach to examine their morphological and syntactic properties. The study highlights the way Contrastive Analysis (CA) can be useful in understanding the uses of adjectives along different parameters in Pashto and English languages and facilitates the learning of English as a second language. The findings of the study show that adjectives show both similarities and differences in the target language (English) and in the source language (Pashto) and learners generally map their knowledge of adjectives in English on the basis of their morphology and syntax of Pashto adjectives. The study reveals that one of the causes of grammatical inaccuracies concerning the use of English adjectives among the Pashto native speakers is the interference of their first language (Pashto). This study addresses a key concern for Pashto-speaking learners interested in learning English worldwide. The Contrastive Analysis of English and Pashto provides a foundation for designing more effective language learning strategies. Moreover, this analysis can also help in predicting potential obstacles a learner may possibly face in the learning of English as a second language.

Keywords: Linguistic Interference, Contrastive Analysis of Pashto and English, Syntactic Structure, Morphological Changes, Cross-linguistic Comparison