Contrastive Analysis of Arabic and English Verbs in Tense, Aspect, and Structure.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to show the contrast between Arabic and English tense, aspect, and structure, first in grammatical description and then in the data. In Chapter Two we studied Arabic tense, aspect, and structure; in Chapter Three we indicated these features in the English verb. Based on grammatical descriptions in Chapters Two and Three, we contrasted the Arabic and English verb features in Chapter Four in order to discover the similarities and differences. In Chapter Five we validated the grammatical assertions concerning tense, aspect, and structure of the two languages against the data. In Chapter Six we summarized the similarities and differences as discovered in the grammatical description and as supported by the data, in the following: Tense. (1) Arabic and English are similar in tense in that they both indicate tense by morphological forms. (2) Both languages have two tenses; Arabic, perfect and imperfect; English, Past and non-past. These tenses are similar in function. The Arabic perfect and the English past are narrational and the Arabic imperfect and the English non-past are situational. (3) Arabic and English tenses are generally similar in timing, i.e., the Arabic perfect and the English past express earlierness. The Arabic imperfect and the English non-past express simultaneity with the moment of speaking. (4) The Arabic imperfect and the English non-past are different in that the Arabic imperfect may denote simultaneity with the main verb while the English non-past does not. Aspect. (1) Arabic and English are similar in the classification of aspect. Both Arabic and English have a major class of aspect namely perfective/imperfective, and sub-classes of aspect which include the progressive, predictive, habitual, and generic. (2) Arabic and English verbs are different in the progressive and habitual aspects. Arabic expresses progressive aspect with two kinds of verb structures. English uses only one. English denotes past habitual aspect by two types of verb structures, while Arabic uses only one. Structure. Arabic verb structure is different from English in that where Arabic has particle + main verb, particle + particle + main verb or auxiliary + particle + main verb, English has auxiliary + infinitive or auxiliary + past participle.