Mood in English and Arabic: A Contrastive Study

Abstract

This research paper intends to examine the mood systems in both English and Arabic with the objective of figuring out the similarities and differences between the two languages. The main aim of the study is to investigate the potential difficulties that are caused by the difference of mood systems in both languages and that the Arabic speakers may face during their attempt to learn English. Consequently, the study adopts Contrastive Analysis in its analytical approach in order to achieve that objective. Contrastive Analysis is applied systematically in this study, and it consists of four basic steps. The first stage is outlining the mood systems in both languages. The second is selecting the mood types for comparison. The third is addressing the possible similarities and differences of mood systems in the two languages. The final stage involves foreseeing what challenges may face the Arabic speakers in acquiring English due to the differences. The findings reveal that despite the fact that certain mood-difference barriers may occur in the process of learning English, the thorough comprehension of mood systems in English and Arabic and realizing the similarities and differences make the Arabic learners overcome those barriers. Furthermore, the results of this research are expected to open the scope for researchers to make studies on the influence of mood systems on the intercultural communication and other fields of applied linguistics.