Dialogue in Fiction: The Syntactic Level

Abstract

The article explores the syntactic peculiarities of dialogue in fiction. We focus on three such features: structural types of sentences, communicative types of sentences, and syntactic stylistic devices. Simple sentences have a distinct advantage in the characters’ conversation due to the fact that they allow the speakers to express their thoughts concisely and clearly thus ensuring the effectiveness of interpersonal communication. The quantitative distribution of communicative types of sentences in the dialogue may be explained by the fact that in the course of conversation the speakers/characters try to learn something they are interested in (interrogative sentences) and to notify the addressee about something important (declarative sentences). The prevalent use of elliptical constructions and aposiopeses reflects the natural omissions that occur in colloquial speech. Thus, at syntactic level, the conversation in fiction bears resemblance to colloquial speech.