Linguistic and Stylistic Means in the Function of (Non)communication in the Novels of Ernesto Sabato

Abstract

The subject of the paper is the research of linguistic and stylistic aspects of prose texts of the Argentinian novelist Ernesto Sabato, with the aim of presenting the impossibility of communication between the heroes of the novels: “El Túnel” (“The Tunnel”), “Sobre héroes y tumbas” (“On Heroes and Tombs”) and “Abaddón, el Exterminador” (“The Angel of Darkness”). This paper will consider (non) communication as a result of loneliness, mistrust and lack of understanding of the heroes of Sabato’s novels; it will provide an overview of the discourse features, i.e., speech used by Sabato’s heroes and their stylistic choices, in order to point out the frequency of certain lexical and syntactic forms in their speech, as well as the meaning hereof in the text. The aim of this paper is to examine the manners in which the text comprehension is slowed down by exploring the discourse of the heroes of Sabato’s novels, whereas the process of text comprehension also includes experiencing the (un) spoken in narrative communication, as well as the aspect of redundancy in linguistic expression. In addition, the paper reveals the presence of certain figures of syntax in Sabato’s novels as an additional tool in the research of (non)communication at the syntactic level, whereas collecting indicators of the character of Sabato’s heroes in the text, have led to the conclusions on individual and stereotypical character-traits.