The Language Structures of Interrogatives in Charles Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities": A Stylistic Study

Abstract

This study aims at analyzing the structures of interrogatives used in Dickens's novel "A Tale of Two Cities". It is directed to identify and categorize these structures; and then to ferret out Dickens's stylistic tendencies of using them in the novel under study. A qualitative approach was used as a research design of the study. The data were extracted from the material of the novel after having an extensive reading. The structures were identified and then categorized. Out of more than 800 interrogatives in the novel, ten examples for each category were selected randomly. In addition to categorizing, they have been interpreted stylistically. The qualitative analysis of the data revealed that the author used various categories of interrogative structures in the conversational parts of the novel. These included regular full-formed structures of interrogatives, elliptical structures of interrogatives, statement-formed structures of interrogatives, parenthetical structures in interrogatives, vocative structures in interrogatives, and structures with question tags. In terms of stylistic interpretation, these structures revealed the author's stylistic tendencies to employ these interrogative structures which are linguistic features of spoken language in conversations for enhancing the dialogic language. This dialogic language can be manifested in the utilization of features of an oratorical style in Dickens's novel in hand