Abstract:

This paper examines the use of hypotactic syntactic structure in Wole Soyinka’s The Interpreters. This novel has continued to receive critical attention over the years because of its dense linguistic structure. All literature exists in the form of language: either as spoken utterance or in writing. Language is, therefore, the most important element of fiction, since it gives existence to all the other fictional elements—theme, plot, setting and characterization. A study of language of a literary work is first of all a study of its style—an author’s way of writing. Such a study involves, among other things, an examination of the syntax, diction, idioms, and imagery. Syntax refers to the structure of sentences. At the simplest level, it means the order or arrangement of words within a sentence, or the grammatical arrangement of words, phrases and clauses to give a sentence its structure. Sentences are randomly selected from the novel for the purpose of analyses. They are examined and analysed to ascertain the hypotactic structures which formed the bedrock of this study. The Lexical-Functional Grammar Theory of Bresnan (1971) is adopted for the analysis. The study finds out that Soyinka’s syntactic structures in the novel are really complex. The study recommends that readers at all levels should arm themselves with good knowledge of linguistics to make meaning out of the novel.