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CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS
It was soon realised, however, that difficulty depends not only on linguistic
but also on psychological considerations. In spite of this, it stands to reason
to suppose that differences may and do lead to difficulty, although the degree
of difficulty cannot be predicted on the basis of linguistic difference alone.
Let us examine the six categories shown above in some more detail. Num¬
ber 1 is the case where there is no linguistic difference. An example is the
Hungarian /s/ sound which is articulated in the same way as English /s/, so we
do not have to learn how to pronounce English /s/. It seems clear that this is
an easy learning task. Similarly, the Hungarian word mad4dr corresponds to
English bird in most contexts, so again learning and using bird correctly (at
least in its basic meaning) is unlikely to cause great difficulty. Adjectival mod¬
ifiers in Hungarian precede the noun, and they remain in the singular with a
plural noun, just like in English. In French and Romanian they come after the
noun, while in German and Russian they precede the noun but are pluralised
before plural nouns. It is easy to guess that the Hungarian pattern can be
transferred to English (positive transfer may work), and learning this pattern
does not constitute a large learning task, while in the other above-mentioned
languages the differences may lead to difficulty.
Convergent phenomena, or convergent categories (Number 2) were claimed
to cause relatively little learning difficulty. Hungarian makes a distinction
between könyv and füzet, while English often uses book as a correspondent of
both words; the Hungarian words vörös és piros may both correspond to English
red, and oktatni and nevelni may both correspond to English educate. Expe¬
rience shows that such differences are indeed easy to handle. However, some¬
times they may cause difficulty, e.g., when one wants to make a distinction in
English between oktatás and nevelés, sajt and túró, or cseresznye and meggy.
In Number 3, we find cases where L2 lacks a structure or item that is pres¬
ent in L1. According to the hierarchy of difficulty, this difference usually
causes moderate difficulty. In the present author’s experience, this may be true
in general, yet the degree of difficulty cannot be predicted: e.g., the difficulty
of learning that the Hungarian endorsing item (rdmutatdsz6) before clauses
(Tedd azt, amit akarsz — Do what you want) has no equivalent in English may
work out differently for different learners. In vocabulary learning and use,
expressing or translating into English culturally bound terms (disznótor,
disznotoros, cifrasztir, diszmagyar, etc.) may cause serious problems.
In Number 4, the distribution of structures or items is different, which can
also cause moderate or more serious difficulties. Thus, for example, Hungar¬
ian has a velar /n/, but its distribution (and phonemic status) is different from
that of English /n/. The distribution of various grammatical structures and
lexical items may also show considerable differences (for example, the distri¬
bution of content, satisfied and happy is different from that of elégedett and
boldog, and the distribution of friend is different from that of barát).
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