Linguicism in Hollywood movies? Representations of, and audience reactions to multilingualism in mainstream movie dialogues

Bleichenbacher, Lukas

doi:10.1515/multi-2012-0008

Cited by 37 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…This part of the paper delineates why characters are given Scottish accents in Hollywood movies and TV series and how this specific accent impacts and contributes to characterisation. Given that the selection of a character's accent is always deliberate (Bleichenbacher, 2012;Lippi-Green, 1997;Minutella, 2016), the paper seeks to analyse the reasons which prompt movie creators to select the Scottish accent for a character.…”

Section: Reasons For Inclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hollywood has been frequently criticised for its stereotypical representation of accents and languages, along with further prolonging the prominence of English over other languages in their movies (Bleichenbacher, 2012). Such detrimental aspects of Hollywood are frequently lambasted not only by scholars (Davé, 2017) but also by moviegoers (Bleichenbacher, 2012). The Scottish accent is no exception.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Representation of the Scottish Accent in Hollywood Movies and TV Series

Gimpl

2023

FHS

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Both Scottish culture and the Scottish accent have been oft misrepresented in Hollywood movies and TV series starting in the 20th century and continuing into the 21st. The purpose of this paper is to analyse said misrepresentations, determine why characters are given Scottish accents, how that accent contributes to their characterisation and what kind of character types tend to receive the Scottish accent. The paper concludes that the Scottish accent is selected for certain characters because the previous success of Scotland-based Hollywood movies has made the accent popular among audiences, thus Hollywood, utilising what has worked before and seeing the popularity of the accent, decided to bestow the accent to more characters. It is also given to characters to make them humorous; the accent sounding foreign makes it funny for American audiences, thus many comic relief characters have got it. Tough-as-nails and masculine characters can likewise receive Scottish accents. Moreover, certain archetypes are assigned with the accent in mind by default, such as the Highlander warrior and dwarves, its usage in their case being questionable notwithstanding. Lastly, having a Scottish accent is integral to characterisation, which is exemplified by analysing Shrek, McDuck and three other hyper-stereotypical cartoon characters.

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Section: Reasons For Inclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Representation of the Scottish Accent in Hollywood Movies and TV Series

Gimpl

2023

FHS

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“…The enemy was not only visible on the cinema screen, but also audible. The role of using linguistic means for constructing enemy images has already been studied [9][10][11], on corpora of films including [12][13][14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linguistic Means of Constructing ‘Enemy Number One’ in the US Cold War Cinema

Kulikova,

Riabov

2023

Vestn. Ross. univ. družby nar., Ser. Teor. âzyka semiot. semant

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The study examines how the US Cold War cinema employed linguistic means to construct images of the USSR and American communists. The research relevance is determined by: the need to study the techniques of creating the enemy image as one of the crucial issues in international relations; and the importance of the topic amidst the aggravation of Russia- US relations. The study aims at analysing the usage of linguistic means in such practices of constructing/deconstructing the images of ‘enemy number one’ as dehumanisation of the enemy, its normalisation, domestication, and rehumanisation. The research novelty lies in the fact that, for the first time, the language as a resource for constructing enemy images in the Cold War films is analysed. The material for the study makes American films of the 1940s-1960s, in which contaminated speech for depicting Soviet characters is extensively used. Particular attention is paid to the means of creating speech portraits of Soviet characters. The research methods used are descriptive, linguistic, and sociolinguistic methods, and discourse analysis. The authors conclude that linguistic means (primarily linguistic competences and accent) were instrumental for creating enemy images in the cinematic Cold War. Linguistic otherness served as a means of emphasising second-rate culture, which in turn was intended to mark political foreignness. Linguistic means helped fulfil functions of the enemy image: showing its otherness; depriving it of the linguistic abilities as an essential attribute of humanity, helping dehumanise it; emphasizing its civilisational inferiority; and making the enemy comical. Finally, attention is drawn to the fact that the cinematic image of ‘enemy number one’ contributed to the hierarchisation of languages; everything Russian was associated with communism and therefore perceived as inferior and hostile.

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“…The study focuses on the dialogue of selected episodes of Generations: The Legacy to unpack contentious language usage outlooks. Bleichenbacher (2012) notes that film dialogue is a result of the language planning process, enabled by agents such as the production company, the director, the crew, and actors. Elements such as what characters in the story and what audiences hear when they are watching the story are a result of many ideological decisions that took place behind the scenes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linguistic Dominance and Translanguaging: Language Issues in Generations: The Legacy

Aiseng

2022

Front. Commun.

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The use of language(s) in media is very important as it can determine inclusion or exclusion. As such, the use of language in the media is contentious. This paper traces two language issues in one of the SABC's longest-running soap operas, Generations: The Legacy, language ideology and a tool against that language ideology. The former refers to a linguistic dominance of isiZulu and the latter refers to translanguaging. With the use of transcription data analysis and audio-visual analysis, the current study has concluded that there are issues of linguistic dominance and translanguaging in Generations: The Legacy. These language issues are perpetuated through the narrative and characters of the story. The appropriate theoretical framework for this paper is the use of language in popular culture, with the view that the use of languages in popular culture can exclude and include, can empower, and disempower. Focusing on the dialogues of the soap using selected episodes as case studies for analysis, the study has also concluded that creative decisions made in the soap are ideological. These findings raise questions about the use of media to perpetuate certain language ideologies and raise questions about whose interests are served by these language ideologies and how to fight these language ideologies.

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Linguicism in Hollywood movies? Representations of, and audience reactions to multilingualism in mainstream movie dialogues

Cited by 37 publications

References 15 publications

The Representation of the Scottish Accent in Hollywood Movies and TV Series

The Representation of the Scottish Accent in Hollywood Movies and TV Series

Linguistic Means of Constructing ‘Enemy Number One’ in the US Cold War Cinema

Linguistic Dominance and Translanguaging: Language Issues in Generations: The Legacy

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