THE USE OF NEGATIVE POLARITY ITEMS IN ENGLISH AND SWAHILI: A SYNTACTICO – SEMANTIC ANALYSIS

The present paper contrasts English with the Swahili language at the level of syntax and semantics as far as the use of negative polarity items is concerned in order to foretell how divergences may hinder the learning of the other language as a foreign language. After the description of the structure on the use of negative polarity items in both languages, it has been observed that both English and Swahili coincide on the use of negative polarity items since both use negative polarity items to express the negation and NPIs are preceded by a negative marker in order to be non- assertive. The results have also revealed that in Standard English, negative polarity items cannot be used in the subject position in a declarative negative sentence instead we use pronouns, such as no one, nobody, nothing, etc., therefore, in the Swahili language, a negative polarity item may be used in the subject position and followed by the negative marker without an incidence on the meaning of the sentence. All these dissimilarities between English and Swahili languages on the use of negative polarity items may cause problems to the learners of the other language as a foreign language.