从英语语言学角度分析电影《不一样的爸爸》

The Study of Linguistics of the Movie: I am Sam

组长：段梦梦

组员：叶思聪、巫安琪、袁倩云、

吴洒、吴霞、郑超俊、

曹东力、傅玲玲、孙黎君Film is an encyclopedia. It is one of the most influential public communication medium nowadays. It is an art culture form which is full of the beauty. It is a comprehensive application which combines with contemporary science and technology and art. In order to better understand the embodiment of Linguistics in English movies, this article would analyze the features of dialogues in the original English movie I am Sam from the perspective of Linguistics.

一. Briefly talk about some scope of linguistics

There are six aspects of linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. When we study different content of the communication, we can learn different branch of linguistics. For example, in the movie, Rita asks Willy to sleep by the sentence “It’s time to get ready for bed.”This refers to the study of pragmatics, which the study of meaning is conducted, not in isolation, but in the context of language use. In other words, the speaker talks through makes people to do something.

And when Sam has to separate from Lucy, he says that “and then the words, they got too big”, and he asks the woma n that “Can I hug her bye bye?” Form these sentences, according to the syntax——the study of language rules, we can learn that this person——Sam, he is different from other people. When we want to say “but I can’t to express”, we usuall y not to choose the one Sam says “and then the words, they got too big.”

There is another sentence goes like this：“Doesn’t every parent want their kid to be smart?”In this sentence, “parent” refers to not only is Sam himself but of all the world’s parents, which conveys the meaning that Lucy is smarter than Sam himself is just what he wanted. Here, language is used to convey meaning, which refers to the study of semantics——a study of meaning.

二. Explore design features and functions of language from I am Sam

Language is productive or creative in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. At the beginning of the movie, when Sam gets into the lift, he says” Hurry up. The first floor is two more floors. Hurry up. The second floor, one more floor.” It performs the productivity of language. Language has many different expressive forms from one to another. Even for one person, he can have a variety of expressions. Usually, we, normal persons, would not count like that. But for Sam, his intellectual capacity is around that of a 7-year-old, so he counts like that. This design feature of language can also be found in the following sentences: “It’s make me happy hearing you read. It’s make me happy when you’re reading.” And