A Synta-Pragmatic Analysis of Auxiliary Verbs in the Compositions of Students of Isa Mustapha Agwai Polytechnic, Lafia

This study focused on a syntax-pragmatic investigation of the use of auxiliary verbs by National Diploma one (NDI) Accountancy and National Diploma two (NDII) Office Technology Management students of Isa Mustapha Agwai I Polytechnic, Lafia. Using the Linguistic Error Analysis by Corder and the Relevance Theory by Spencer and Wilson as the guide, the data which was sourced from a total population of two hundred and nineteen students was analysed using the simple percentage. Ten examination scripts were purposively sampled and presented for analysis. A total number of one hundred and twenty-five auxiliary verbs were counted from the ten sampled scripts, out of which eighty-three were wrongly used which represents 66.4% of erroneous use. The findings revealed that although many of the students have a fair knowledge of the auxiliary verbs, they lack the skills in using them correctly and appropriately. The view of this study is that despite the high number of erroneous use of the auxiliary verbs, their meanings are still deductible from the functions they perform in the sentences. This work therefore, concludes that there is need for lecturers of English in tertiary institutions to look beyond the grammatical rules and deploy a pragmatic method of interpreting the writing of these students, who are second language learners of English.