A Comparative Study of Word Order and Sentence Structure between English and Myanmar Language

The purposes of this research were aimed 1) To study the word order and sentence structure of English and Myanmar language. And 2) to compare the word order and sentence structure in English and Myanmar languages. This research project examines the similarities and differences between English and Burmese with regard to the functions of word order and sentence structure in clauses. Data for the study come from Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels in simplified English and its Myanmar translation books. Analysis of word order elements is based on Bloor and Bloor’s (2004) and Halliday’s (1994) Systemic Functional Grammar theories related to English syntax.

Burmese is now officially called Myanmar language which belongs to Burmanic branch of the Tibeto-Burman family, a subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The English language, on the other hand, belongs to the Indo- European language family. In Myanmar, the kind of grammatical apparatus such as agreement between subject and finite in person, number, or gender, is not as in English. Some of the differences and similarities between these two languages can be traced through their origins. This study compares the positions and functions of word order elements (Subject, Finite, Predicator, Complement, Adjuncts) and Sentence Structure in both Myanmar and English languages. The findings reveal the differences and similarities between the positions and arrangement of word order in English and Myanmar clauses based on Halliday’s (1994) and Bloor and Bloor’s (2004) Systemic Functional Grammar. After analyzing both language structures, the writer then analyzes the method of translation in this Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels based on knowing of
the similarities and the differences of English and Myanmar structures. Sentence Structure in English contained in this thesis is dividedinto four sentences, namely simple sentences, Compound sentences, Complex sentences and Compound-complex sentences. Busentence in but sentence structure in Burmese contained in this thesis divided into two sentences namely simple sentences, Compound sentences.

The results further show that English and Myanmar languages have some similarities in the positioning of Subject, Adjunct and Complement and at the same time some differences in the arrangement and position of Finite/Predicator. Since this study focuses mainly on word order of SFPCA clause elements, sentence structure and other aspects of grammatical points such as syntax are the scope of this study. Further studies can be carried out on such aspects to get a better understanding of the meaning and differences of the two languages.