Language
Style of language
Anne Frank wrote her diary in Dutch, and in 1952 the publishing house Doubleday publishes the English edition. Although Anne Frank kept the diary between the ages of thirteen and fifteen, the language style she used is anything but childish and simple. The young author, who wanted to become a writer after the war, uses complex sentence structure, employs an extremely extensive vocabulary for her age, and uses numerous stylistic devices. Since the diary deals mainly with her thoughts and feelings, it is also characterized by emotional language that uses numerous raw descriptions.
Paratactic and hypotactic sentence structure
The hypotactic sentence structure predominates in Anne Frank`s diary. This is a structure in which the main clause is accompanied by one or more subordinate clauses. This makes her descriptions of the secret annex seem extremely lively. Nevertheless, individual sections are also characterized by a paratactic sentence structure, which is a stringing together of main clauses. Anne`s style thereby seems varied resulting in a flowing reading melody.
When Anne talks about her complex inner emotional wor...