The Use of English Conditional Sentences in Major Barbara, The Death of a Salesman and The Glass Menagerie

Abstract

Abstract

In this study, the researcher investigates the use and the frequency of English conditional sentences : Type "0" , Type "1" , Type "2" , Type "3" , Mixed types and Real conditionals by analyzing texts of three plays: Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and The death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. The research aims at knowing the most and the least frequent types of English conditional sentences in the three plays. It also aims to see whether the uses\functions of English conditional sentences in the mentioned plays match or mismatch the use\function of English conditionals in the teaching materials, and English for Palestine "12" which is used as a model for comparison. This study has two research questions: 1- What is the frequency of using each type of conditionals in the three plays Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and The death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller ? 2- How do the uses of conditionals in the plays match or mismatch those in the grammar books for teaching? The results of the study shows that the frequency of using English conditional occurrences in the three plays are ordered from the highest to lowest as follows: Type "1" with 24.7%, Type "0" with 21.6%, Type "2" with 17.2%, Mixed type with 6.2% , type "3" with 4.0% and Real conditionals with 3.1%. The number of instances of the expression "as if" is 23 with a percentage of 10.0% in all plays. Findings also indicate that the use of English conditionals type"0" in the three plays doesn’t match the use\function in English for Palestine "12". While it shows a match within other types such as type "1" , "2" and "3".