Syntactic colloquiality in the novel by Dorota Masłowska, entitled “Kochanie, zabiłam nasze koty” (English title: ”Honey, I killed our cats”)

Abstract

Syntactic treatments, which imitate spoken language, are crucial determinants of the colloquial style, alongside lexis. Responsible for the impression of interacting or communing with the spontaneously created text, which is a record of the living language of the narrator and characters, they are concerned with numerous simplifications and schemes. Among many diversified linguistic phenomena found in the novel by D. Masłowska, entitled “Kochanie, zabiłam nasze koty” (English title: “Honey, I killed our cats”, seemingly contradictory syntactic tendencies are used; the elliptical nature of syntax on the one hand, and, on the other hand, numerous repetitions both with regards to lexis and the construction of sentences. The segmentation or breaking up of utterances, as well as their excessive expansions, is similarly contradictory. Drawing from the spoken language aims to connect the at times unreal word depicted in the novel with the reality of the recipient, and to present the literary characters in a reliable way, more often than not associated with ordinariness.