International Journal of Language & Linguistics

Investigating Syntactic Errors in Yoruba Home Videos subtitled in English
Adebola Adebileje, Bukunmi Akinwale

Abstract
The article investigates syntactic errors found in selected Yoruba movies subtitled in English. Using Corder’s (1967) five-step procedure: (i) selection of a corpus language, (ii) identification of errors,(iii) classification of errors into types, (iv) explanation of the errors, and (v) evaluation of errors, 93 sentences are analysed. Study reveals nine major error types: subject-verb 9%, tense 14%, spelling 14%, article 16%, prepositional 18%, pronominal 7%, verbal 17%, adverbial 6%, and noun errors 2%. Also, Selinka’s causes of errors are used to explain the errors; results show that, 44% of errors are as a result of language transfer, 43% are due to strategies of learning, 10% are due to strategies of communication and 4% are as a result of overgeneralization. It is also noted that errors occurred as a result of fossilization and the language being acquired but not learnt. Yoruba movie translators must undergo qualitative formal learning of English to deliver error free translations.

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