A Contrastive Study on the Interrogative Sentences of Korean and Shona for Korean Language Education

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyse interrogative sentences in Korean and Shona for purposes of Korean language education. To achieve this, this paper is guided by the contrastive linguistics theory whose methods are utilised to analyse interrogatives of these two languages in order to reveal the similarities and differences in their structure, form and syntax. The study focussed on two types of interrogatives that is, the wh-questions and the yes-no questions. In dealing with wh-questions in the area of Korean Language inculcation, the most central question is the position at which the wh-word is articulated. In Korean, the wh-word appears at the original position that is, a position congruent to the argument being queried in a corresponding declarative sentence. In Shona on the other hand, the wh-word is articulated at the sentence final position, regardless of the position in a corresponding declarative sentence of the argument being queried. For yes-no questions, Korean utilises the interrogative verb form while Shona utilizes a question particle ‘here’ which, similar to Chinese 吗[ma] and Japanese か[ka], when placed at the end of a germane declarative sentence, transforms it into a yes-no interrogative sentence.