Contrastive Analysis: Gorontalonese and English Noun Phrase

The main objective of this study is to gain an understanding of the different and similar features of Noun Phrase in the vernacular language of Indonesia; Gorontalonese, with English. Gorontalonese is one of Indonesia's vernaculars that is rarely investigated, including the structure of Noun Phrases. Comparative study of Gorontalonese and English is also very rare. This study presents the similarities and the differences of Noun Phrase structures of Gorontalonese and English. To achieve this purpose, the structure of the Noun Phrases in both of the languages have been provided. They were taken from newspapers, relevant text-books, online journals and other data sources. The theories about Gorontalonese are very limited, because there was only handful of researchers. The findings of this study will be helpful for further researchers to develop their arguments when conducting their study in the same field. This study has supported the theory, in which the order and structure of Noun Phrases in both languages are distinct, while Gorontalonese is considered as a head-last language and English is a head-initial language. In Gorontalonese, the head of the Noun Phrase is always placed at beginning of the phrase followed by the other supporting elements, which helps in the description of the head noun. On the other hand, the Noun Phrase in English follows the supporting elements, which is placed in the beginning of the Noun Phrase, which helps in the description of the head Noun Phrase.