The Conditional Sentence. A Three Way Analysis of English, Fante, and Pidgin

Harry Milton Hayford

• Publisher: GRIN Verlag
• Year: 2023
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9783346885890
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Essay from the year 2023 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, , language: English, abstract: Conditional sentences play key roles in discourse. At home, parents tend to use conditional sentences to influence their children's behaviour. This research looks at the conditional sentence and its formation. The analysis looks at how conditional sentences are constructed in Fante, English, and Ghanaian Pidgin English (GPE). The research lists three examples of each of the four types of English conditional sentences and translates them into GPE and Fante. The analysis found out that all three languages use the same format for the construction of the zero conditional sentence. With respect to the first, second, and third conditional sentences, the study found out Fante had a different tense and aspect system and thus realised the three types listed above, but its subordinate clause was more contextual and phonologically based (stress). On the other hand, GPE uses forms from its substrate, Ghanaian languages, and its superstrate. Its subordinate clause for the three types of conditional sentence are contextual and phonologically based, just as is in Fante. However, no matter the formation process, the research has proved that the four types of conditional sentences can be realised in both GPE and Fante. The research proves that grammar has universal properties. Grammatical construction method may differ, but the same meanings can be realised in all languages, or in this case the three languages under review. The study has proved that conditional sentences exist in Fante, GPE, and English and the same meaning can be expressed in all three languages.