Syntactic Functions and Pragmatic Aspects of Preposition Stranding and Preposition Pied-Piping with wh-Relativizers: Perspectives from English Novels

Abstract

This study examines syntactic functions and pragmatic aspects of preposition stranding (PS) and preposition pied-piping (PP) with wh-relativizers as used in English novels. While previous studies focusing on the syntactic functions and pragmatic aspects of PS and PP with wh-relativizers selected the data from international corpora and academic research articles, this study contributes to the perspectives of English novels. The materials in this study were gathered from nine best-seller English novels (www.amazon.com).  They are The Power of One (Courteney, 2007), Naked Lunch (Burroughs, 2016), Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Brontë, 2016), Middlemarch (Eliot, 2019), A Class of Kings (Martin, 2019), The Nature of Middle-Earth (Tolkien, 2021), Moby Dick (Melville, 2020), The Promise (Galgut, 2022) and Far from the Madding Crown (Hardy, 2022). Approximately 450,000 words of English novels provided 51 tokens, referring to sentences. The data analysis of PS and PP with wh-relativizers follows Radford’s (2009) generative grammar. The results in this study show that PP with wh-relativizers occurs at 92.16 percent, whilst the occurrences of PS in this study are only 7.84 percent. The syntactic functions of PP with wh-relativizers are always used as adjuncts. The higher frequency of PP with wh-relativizers in English novels is explained by markedness theory and standard English, whereas the lower frequency of PS is due to archaic form and spoken register. It is hoped that the results in this study will be useful for learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) and learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in terms of applying the use of PS and PP with wh-relativizers in writing English novels and writing English short stories accurately and appropriately.