Adjective Intensification as a Means of Characterization

Abstract

This paper examines the use of intensifiers on the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer in order to establish the ways in which they can be used for characterization. We found that the male and female characters used intensifiers differently (similarly to what is found in natural speech), but also that intensifier choice was related to changes in social networks for several of the female characters on the show (so and totally). Furthermore, intensifiers were also used to distinguish the British characters on the show from the American ones (extremely, terribly, and bloody). By comparing our results to findings for other television shows (Friends) and for natural speech, we were able to establish the extent to which the show makes use of (then) innovative linguistic features for characterization. These findings underline the extent to which scriptwriters and/or actors were able to use linguistic features to index specific types of character.

Adjectival Retention: Persuasive Texts Students Universitas Negeri Makassar

“…Adjectives are characterized by phrases that recognize them with a precursor (Schiff et al, 2014). Furthermore, the use of adjectives has a similarity in natural language with the language of television (Reichelt & Durham, 2017). This shows the significance of adjectives in a text.…”

Interjections and individual style: A study of restoration dramatic language

“…Hall-Lew et al, 2021). Sociolinguistic analyses of fictional dialogue provide important perspectives compared with other kinds of language (Bednarek, 2012; Reichelt and Durham, 2017). Drama captures a writer’s understanding of a broad set of interactional contexts (comic, tragic), making it a (typically) more diverse text-type than other historical sources (e.g.…”

“…This rightly implies that questions of style cut across literary and everyday language, according with more recent work that situates literary language within an individual speaker's wider understanding of language resources and contexts of use. 1 Exploring literary language (in prose, film, verse, drama) provides a lens on how linguistic features are perceived and used, highlighting the complexity of stylistic choices and the connection between changing (or unchanging) style in literature and in other contexts (Bednarek, 2010(Bednarek, , 2011Evans, 2018;Reichelt and Durham, 2017).…”

Book Reviews: Accent in North American Film and Television: A Sociophonetic Analysis

“…In the case of accents which are not spoken near us, it may be that our only impression of an accent is through actors on a TV show or a film. Sociolinguistic research on language in television and film over the past ten years has grown and has had a broad focus; some studies have focused on how accents and dialect can be used to stereotype or differentiate characters (Lippi-Green 2012; Fought & Eisenhauer 2022); others have examined specific linguistic features (Tagliamonte & Roberts 2005; Reichelt & Durham 2017), while others yet aim to see what can be learned from and about the use of language, accents, and dialect in fiction more generally (Hodson 2014; Queen 2015; Bednarek 2018).…”