The ability of the Iraqi undergraduate student at the university level at recognize homographic noun -verb pairs in English

Abstract EN

This research investigates the problem of recognizing homographic noun verb pairs (HN-VPs).

HN-VPs are words in which each pair has the same letters writing but with different phonetic transcription, stress position and word class! They are also different in meaning but this matter is not of importance in the present study.

In the present study, three hypotheses are put forward : Firstly , that Iraqi! Third - Year students at the Department of English / College of Education / ! University of Tiara are more able to recognize HN-VPs grammatically than! Recognizing them phonetically.

Secondly, those students do not recognize that! Changing the phonetic transcriptions and stress positions on these pairs means! Changing the word class.

Thirdly, they do not make proper progress as they I reach the third stage concerning HN-VPs and they have no enough knowledge I about their phonetic transcriptions and stress changing on them.

Two tests of the I recognition type are designed in order to prove the three hypotheses mentioned I above.

The first test aims at assessing the students' ability to recognize HN-VPs grammatically.

The test consists of (20) items and at the end of each sentence, a pair of HN-VPs with their parts of speech are assigned beneath each word, for example [desert („.), desert(v.) ] .

The second test aims at assessing the students' ability to recognize the phonetic transcriptions of HN-VPs and that stress mark changing leads to word class changing.

In this test, the (20) items of the first test are given, but the difference lies in the HN-VPs.

They are given with only their phonetic transcriptions, for example, [desert / 'death / desert /de z3 : t /].

This research proves that students are more able to recognize HN-VPs grammatically because grammar for those students is rule governed, particularly concerning sentence structures, and the repetition of these rules makes students able to distinguish the correct word class of HN-VPs.

It is-a-l so proven that it is difficult for those students to recognize the class of HN-VPs phonetically.

Knowledge they supposed to have of HN-VPs during their study is not enough to recognize the correct word class of HN-VPs and that stress changes the class of them.