ASSERTIVE-COMPLEX CONSTRUCTIONS IN SEVEN DIALS:A STUDY IN PRAGMASTYLISTICS

Abstract

The present paper attempts to scrutinize the pragmastylistic facets in Charles Dickens’s short story “Seven Dials” as an impressionistic sketch. It endeavours to identify the syntactic constructions and their related pragmatic features in addition to their significance in disclosing the writer’s intents. The study proposes that there is a relationship between the syntactic-pragmatic structures of the story and the targeted message of the writer. In order for this proposition to be validated, stylistics, pragmatics and pragmastylistics are briefly introduced. Then, the short sketch is analysedpragmastylistically in accordance with Leech and Short (2007), Quirk et al. (1985) and Searle (1979) models. Accordingly, the syntactic constructions and the illocutionary formulations of the sketch are investigated in detail arriving at the hypothesis that the writer has achieved his intended theme via his prevalent use of an assertive-complex structures in his story.