DICTION AND LANGUAGE STYLE USED IN A NOVEL “LOVE FROM A TO Z” BY S.K. ALI

Abstract

This study purposes to identify diction and language styles used by S.K. Ali in her novel Love from A to Z. A descriptive qualitative method was used, content analysis as the technique in this research. The data consisted of words, phrases, and sentences that represent types of diction and language styles. The data were collected by reading, taking note, classifying, and interpreting. To ensure the data credibility, triangulation was conducted by performing content analysis, interviews, and questionnaires. The findings show that the novel contains twelve types of diction, with denotative words being the most frequent type, occurring 73 times out of 163 data items. The research also revealed three types of language styles including affirmative language style, comparative language style, and contradictory language style. Based on frequency data, the category of comparative language style was the most common category with 134 occurrences, followed by affirmative language style with 121 occurrences and the last was contradictory language style with 119 occurrences. Diction and language style are utilized to help developing characters, represent culture, convey emotions, and describe the experiences of Muslim teenagers.