language movies

th3thirdman

I am taking linguistic anthropology. I need to find a movie that relates to linguistics and write a page on it. thing is I can't find anything good on netflix. I was hoping that this great community might have an idea.

Kate of Lokys

Well, you could take a look at the second Google result for "movies about linguistics" - it's a list of 35 films ranging from documentaries to Hollywood musicals, compiled for some university's film festival a decade and a half ago. I know Enemy Mine was on Netflix for months (not sure if it still is), and stuff like My Fair Lady or Nell should be available at any half-decent local video store.

th3thirdman

I did see that list thank you. My thought in posting here was to maybe get a movie out of the blue. not the movie out of the blue that would not work for anything. But perhaps a movie that someone has seen and felt is had something to offer. I don't know I thought that was the point of sites like this to converse and share our own Ideas not just what google says.

Kate of Lokys

There isn't really anything on this topic to converse about that doesn't involve doing your homework for you, though. If your assignment is to write a one-page paper on a movie about linguistics, and you want people to suggest "out of the blue" movies and justify their relevance as linguistic subjects to you, your work is pretty much done for you.

I mean, I could recommend Pootie Tang as an example of the absurdity and exclusionary powers of exaggerated subcultural dialect, and I could praise its inversion of the dramatic impact of language: the main character's speeches are understood and admired by the inhabitants of the film's fictional world, but to the external viewer, they're senseless. Then you could watch some YouTube clips of the movie, pull out some examples, add a couple of sentences to my thesis statement, and have yourself a paper - but doing that would completely defeat the point of the exercise, which is to get you to think about a film from a linguistic standpoint. Heck, even that list I linked takes you halfway there by summarizing the language-related content of each film.

Feel free to use Pootie Tang, though - it's a pretty safe bet that none of your classmates will write about it, so hey, points for originality by proxy.

Writing an academic paper on Pootie Tang is probably a terrible idea.

Do it.

th3thirdman

Actually pootie tang is the kind of thing I was looking for! Thank you so much. I was not looking for it to be justified as I want to watch as many movies that are suggested as I can and find my own thesis. I understand your point of view and respect it. I have seen what some of my classmates are doing and I know that 5 of them are doing the gods must be crazy. one stargate and one mad max. I just wanted to do something different and was drawing a blank.

Esh

Kate of Lokys wrote: »

There isn't really anything on this topic to converse about that doesn't involve doing your homework for you, though. If your assignment is to write a one-page paper on a movie about linguistics, and you want people to suggest "out of the blue" movies and justify their relevance as linguistic subjects to you, your work is pretty much done for you.

I mean, I could recommend Pootie Tang as an example of the absurdity and exclusionary powers of exaggerated subcultural dialect, and I could praise its inversion of the dramatic impact of language: the main character's speeches are understood and admired by the inhabitants of the film's fictional world, but to the external viewer, they're senseless. Then you could watch some YouTube clips of the movie, pull out some examples, add a couple of sentences to my thesis statement, and have yourself a paper - but doing that would completely defeat the point of the exercise, which is to get you to think about a film from a linguistic standpoint. Heck, even that list I linked takes you halfway there by summarizing the language-related content of each film.

Feel free to use Pootie Tang, though - it's a pretty safe bet that none of your classmates will write about it, so hey, points for originality by proxy.

Writing an academic paper on Pootie Tang is probably a terrible idea.

Do it.

Doesn't really work. It's exclusionary to the viewer, but we're outside of it. Everyone in the movie understands it, even the rich white executives. So it's actually inclusive rather then exclusive in the world of the film. Pootie brings everyone together because EVERYONE loves Pootie.

Kate of Lokys

Esh wrote: »

Doesn't really work. It's exclusionary to the viewer, but we're outside of it. Everyone in the movie understands it, even the rich white executives. So it's actually inclusive rather then exclusive in the world of the film. Pootie brings everyone together because EVERYONE loves Pootie.

Well, that was a half-assed spur-of-the-moment linguistic analysis, and you're right, I shouldn't have labeled the dialect as subcultural, since it does span racial and socioeconomic boundaries. But it does still serve an exclusionary purpose by placing a language barrier between the audience and the protagonist, which does subvert standard tropes of dramatic monologue.

More importantly, I'm on the verge of convincing someone to write a scholarly treatise on Pootie Tang. Why can't you just let me enjoy my small victory over academia, Esh? Why you gotta be like that.

Esh

Kate of Lokys wrote: »

Esh wrote: »

Doesn't really work. It's exclusionary to the viewer, but we're outside of it. Everyone in the movie understands it, even the rich white executives. So it's actually inclusive rather then exclusive in the world of the film. Pootie brings everyone together because EVERYONE loves Pootie.

Well, that was a half-assed spur-of-the-moment linguistic analysis, and you're right, I shouldn't have labeled the dialect as subcultural, since it does span racial and socioeconomic boundaries. But it does still serve an exclusionary purpose by placing a language barrier between the audience and the protagonist, which does subvert standard tropes of dramatic monologue.

More importantly, I'm on the verge of convincing someone to write a scholarly treatise on Pootie Tang. Why can't you just let me enjoy my small victory over academia, Esh? Why you gotta be like that.

Because I'm currently working on a BA in Applied Linguistics with a minor in Anthropology (and one in French).

It's my thing!

Your analysis would work well for a film class I think.

th3thirdman

This is for extra credit so I think I am ment to play with it a bit. Also I am getting an A in the class so even if I did use Pootie Tang,one of my favorite movies, I would be ok. I am now thinking of talking about how Mel Brooks in "Young Frankenstein" uses minimal pairs to achieve a comedic effect.

ahava

I think in the summer class I took on linguistics and accents around the US, we watched a clip from some Kevin Costner movie where he was in Amish country. A stranger among us?

the prof used it to point at the language differences between the Amish community and how their accent grew. It was a long time ago, but that was the first thing I thought off the top of my head....