FRENCH AND HAUSA: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF QUALITATIVE ADJECTIVE

Abstract

This study presents a comparative analysis of qualitative adjectives in French and Hausa, exploring their syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic dimensions. French, a Romance language characterized by grammatical gender and inflectional morphology, employs a system of qualitative adjectives that agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify. Conversely, Hausa, a Chadic language, exhibits a distinct approach where adjectives typically follow nouns and show limited inflection, thereby reflecting a different morphological structure. The research investigates how qualitative adjectives function within the sentence framework of both languages, analyzing their placement, agreement rules, and modification patterns. Special attention is given to the semantic roles these adjectives play, including denotative and connotative meanings, and how cultural contexts influence their usage. For instance, the qualitative adjectives in French often convey aesthetic, emotional, or evaluative nuances, while Hausa adjectives may reflect socio-cultural values unique to the Hausa-speaking community. By employing qualitative methods such as textual analysis and native speaker interviews, this research provides a nuanced understanding of how language structure reflects cognitive and cultural frameworks. Our analysis is streamlined towards the part of speech; particularly – Adjectives (Qualitative adjectives and adjective of colour).  This will be useful in examining why some features of French are not in Hausa and vice versa. The theory of Robert Lado will facilitate the contrastive analysis of the both languages. This comparative analysis of qualitative adjectives in French and Hausa not only underscores the linguistic diversity between the two languages but also enhances our understanding of the interplay between language and culture. The findings aim to contribute to fields such as linguistics, translation studies, and intercultural communication, offering valuable insights for educators, translators, and language learners.