STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF SENTENCE STRUCTURE IN TONI MORRISON’S PARADISE

Abstract

Stylistics is a discipline that is found in both language and literature. It is a platform that is used in the analysis of a text via the instrument of language.  The aim of this paper is to analyse the use of different types of sentences by Toni Morrison in Paradise.   A sentence consists of a subject and a predicate. It is a basic unit of English grammar. This study adopts Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) as highlighted by Halliday (1985 and 1994) as the theoretical base of the work. The theory is suited for this work because it specifically looks at language as a whole system of choices existing in complex structural relations.  This study uses the qualitative and quantitative methods of analyses to analyse the selected lexico-syntactic features of Morrison’s selected work. The findings of this study among others reveal that, Morrison uses more simple sentences than compound and complex sentences in her novel.