THE SYNTACTIC FUNCTIONS OF WH- AND THAT-NOMINAL CLAUSES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE WITH REFERENCE TO ANIMAL FARM BY GEORGE ORWELL: THE CASE OF DIALOGUE SECTION

The present study analyses the syntactic functions 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. This paper also employed the interpretivist paradigm and has analysed the data both qualitatively and quantitatively. The study further used the descriptive and case study designs. In this study, the descriptive research employed the George Orwell's novel, Animal Farm. The focus of the study was to analyse syntactic functions of the Wh- and That-nominal clauses as used in the novel. 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 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.