Inherent Grammatical Inconsistencies: A Challenge for Learners of the English as a Second Language

Abstract

Like any other natural language, English is rich and complex by virtue of its arbitrary and conventional symbols. Such symbols characterize the language with inherent grammatical irregularities in linguistic areas of morphology, syntax, phonology and spelling. In morphology, for instance, L₂ learners of the language unconsciously learn how to form new words in so many different ways. They form nouns, as an example, by adding -ment to some verbs to get statement and attachment. L₂ learners of the language are also taught that words ending in -er mean something or somebody that does something, like teacher, tapper, or drummer. A singer is somebody that sings. But does such part of the body like finger *fing? Do shoulders *should? Does liver *live?  In inflectional morphology, adding -ed suffix to a verb, depending on context, indicates simple past or past perfect tense, like entered, killed, or kicked. But such -ed past tense morpheme is not applicable to the formation of past tenses for verbs like write (wrote), eat (ate), or come (came). From these few examples, it is assumed that grammatical rules of the English cannot be trusted, so to say. It will result to incongruities should the rules be applied mechanically. This is because the grammatical rules for word formation are not all together consistent. The inherent irregularities pose a challenge to the L₂ learner in acquiring communicative competence in the language. This paper is an attempt to investigate the inconsistencies prevalent in the grammatical rules of the English language, which have salient exceptions that L₂ learners are not always conversant with. The objective of the study is to highlight these grammatical flashpoints which confuse L₂ learners when they encounter the grammatical rule exceptions in normal communication events. Such investigation covers other  linguistic areas of syntax, phonology and spelling. In pursuit of these objectives the paper will attempt to shed light on the following: why the pronunciations of many English words are not related to their spellings; why many words are not pronounced as spelt; why English spelling is so irregular, and; why the irregularities in the spelling and pronunciation of English words.

*Linguistic sign of unacceptable