Sentence Pattern between Punjabi and English Language: Contrastive Analysis

Abstract

The objective of this research is to know the similarities and differences between Punjabi and English basic sentence patterns. This research is on the contrastive analysis between Punjabi and English sentence patterns in the Punjabi bilingual handbook. The method of this research is a descriptive method as documentary analysis. The writer used a research materials such as books and paper as the sources of data for this research. To collect the data, the writer conducted the following techniques: a) Selecting the book which majorly used in formal and informal education; b) Copying the book from one of school in Medan which used this book as their material in learning Punjabi and English language. From the result of the data, the similarities of English and Indonesian basic sentence patterns can be seen from the following parts of each pattern. The subjects in Punjabi and English are the same. It is person or thing, and the verb in both languages is a transitive verb that needs an object and an intransitive verb that does not need an object. The differences between the two languages lie in the verb and the complement or object in the sentence pattern. In English, the pattern is S+V+O ( Subject Verb Object) but in Punjabi, the position is changed as S+O+V (Subject Object Verb). The verb is a linking verb (LV), that links subject and complement which is used in the nominal predicate. Based on the result, I suggest that the languages teacher should give a clear explanation about the roles of usage and examples of basic sentence patterns and should be able to predict the difficulties faced by the beginners based on the difficulty given by the teacher to minimize errors made by the beginners in the future.