Adverbial Clauses in English Novels: Perspectives through Pragmatic Aspects and Semantic Denotations
Keywords:
Adverbial Clauses, English Novels, Pragmatic Aspects, Semantic DenotationsAbstract
This study investigates adverbial clauses in English novels through their pragmatic aspects and semantic denotations. Previous studies concerning adverbial clauses selected the materials of written texts from EFL learners, political news and English cookbooks. However, the current study focuses on the materials of English novels for studying the use of adverbial clauses in English. The source of data in this study was gathered from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Dahl, 2007), Coraline (Gaiman, 2009), The House in the Cerulean Sea (Klune, 2020) and Libertie (Greenidge, 2021). A total of approximately 200,000 words, provided 135 tokens. Three English linguists were instructed to check the data analysis to ensure intercoder reliability. The data analysis in this study follows Swan (2016) who classified the semantic denotations of adverbial clauses in English into eight categories. The pragmatic aspects of adverbial clauses in this study follow Diessel (2008) regarding iconicity of sequence and end-weight principle. The results show that the highest percentage of semantic denotations of adverbial clauses in English novels is temporal adverbial clauses at 61.48 percent. Most adverbial clauses in English novels pragmatically follow iconicity of sequence. The researcher in this study expects that the results of this study will be beneficial for learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in terms of correctly using adverbial clauses in narrative writing and short stories.
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