The syntactic functions and structures of WH-and that-nominal clauses in English Language with reference to Animal farm by George Orwell

Abstract

The present study analyses the syntactic functions and structures of Wh- and That-nominal clauses in English Language with reference to Animal Farm by George Orwell. The study employed documentary research method for data collection. The findings of the study show a total number of thirty four (34) Wh- and That-nominal clauses in the dialogue section. There are five (5) Wh- nominal clauses and a total of twenty nine (29) That-nominal clauses. The study concludes that the dialogue section reflects a wide range of That-nominal clauses relative to their Wh- counterparts. The study further demonstrates that the dialogue section of Animal Farm demonstrates a variety of syntactic functions and structures of Wh- and That-nominal clauses. The data illustrates four (4) syntactic functions, subject, object, adjective complement and appositive. The Wh-nominal clauses are indicated as subject and object while That-nominal clauses are observed as subject, object, adjective complement and appositive. The study thus illustrates that That-nominal clauses show more variety of syntactic functions than the Wh- ones. In the case of syntactic structures, the study indicates that That-nominal clauses reflect more varied syntactic structures than Wh- ones since That-nominal clauses demonstrate five syntactic structures while the Wh-nominal clauses show two structures