A Contrastive Analysis of Topicalization in English and Urhobo.

Abstract

This research is a contrastive Analysis of Topicalization in English and Udrhobo a South Western Edoid Nigerian language. Its objective is to explore topicalization in English and Urhobo Languages using basic Chomsky’s Phase theory model to establish points of divergence while noting convergence in the derivation of the investigated phenomenon so as to highlight areas of learner’s difficulty which will be useful to teachers as best strategies un teaching process. The study utilized two sources of data namely primary and secondary sources. Through observation and textbook, internet and dictionaries, data was collected and analyzed. The theoretical framework adopted for the study is the Phase Theory. The data analysis posited that the theory is a suitable mechanism for the analysis of the investigated structure, lexical items are assigned to probes as a result of the features they possess to realize goal and every syntactic operation is done in phases which is the only level of representation.