Movie clips are introduced in class for a cultural aspect to language.
(Feel free to check our lecture PowerPoint for the weblinks to the videos online!)
This time, focus specifically on the movie, Pygmalion (1938), and think on the following questions:
(1) What do you think is special about the language used in the movie?
(2) How do you relate the language topics/issues (e.g., dialect) to whatever you see and hear in the movie?
Note that your should answer the questions above in at least one complete paragraph.
In my opinion, the special part about the language in the movie is that it can be divided into lots of groups according to Professor Henry Higgins. He made phonetics seem like magic by found out where a person was from merely by their accents. I used to think that people will absent-mindedly change their accent when moved to a new county, but maybe there are still subtle differences. Another special thing I found is that there seemed to be a list of rank of dialects, and people knew it well, for people were fascinated by Eliza Doolittle as soon as she spoke. But I found it queer that they didn’t think Eliza was an actual British but a foreigner because she spoke perfect English. That came to a rather strange conclusion that perfect English mustn’t be mixed with any kind of dialect. Then who on earth gave definition to “perfect English”?!
ReplyDeleteAs for the topic, I think it is named delicately. Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with his sculpture, and Henry Higgins also fell in love with the fair lady he created. I think there are some kind of sarcastic in both the mythology and the movie. Not only in the metaphor of the creators’ narcissism, but also the concept of chauvinism.
(1)In my opinion, the special part about the language used in the movie is that although Eliza Doolittle spoke English from the beginning to the end of the film,we can obviously perceive that the accent she spoke English was extremely different. Eliza Doolittle had a very queer accent when she was speaking English at first.However,through Professor Henry Higgins’and her efforts,she finally spoke fluently Britsh English and let others never have a chance to find out her poor background.It’s really intresting.
ReplyDelete(2)Many people are required to speak standard English.It can’t be accepted if there exists any non-standard English or local accent.According to the film,Professor Henry Higgins could’t stand Eliza Doolittle’s pronunciation and spared no efforts to
improve the way she spoke English.This certifies speaking standard English is the mainstream ; nevertheless, it may led to language death.
1. In my opinion, Eliza used lots of dialect, unrecognized sounds, wrong grammar at the beginning and her accent was very different from Professor Henry Higgins'. After being taught by Professor Henry Higgins, she finally spoke the standard English.
ReplyDelete2. Dialect stands for the feature of one area. Professor Henry Higgins could tell where the speakers from by their accent, the way they speak and the words they used.Of course, he also could change the speakers' accent into standard English by teaching. However, it also means that there are some features were replaced with mainstream culture and there are some languages are disappearing.
(1)In my opinion，the accent used by Eliza Doolittle was quite different with those people in upper class because of the environment she grow.She grow in slums and she naturally spoke with dialect ﹐queer noise.But after she met Professor Henry Higgins and taught by him﹐she finally spoke standard English.
ReplyDelete(2)I found a strange phenomenon in the movie. Professor Henry Higgins has taken Eliza Doolittle to a banquet and everyone were curious about her identity.At that time﹐a man proclaimed that Eliza Doolittle was not British because a British couldn‘t speak standard English.But﹐﹐ who formulate“ what is standerd English？“and “why a British can‘t speak standard English？”That‘s confused.
It used two different dialects to contrast the opposite society level . Even though the language which they were talking about were all called English , they still had many different part ; just like tone , accent , and words ,and so on. Interestingly , the director tried to show a phenomenon about how this case will happen when two different dialect collide .
ReplyDelete(1)The heroine’s accent was awful . She often used the stress on the wrong syllable ,therefore, her pronunciation may make the listener uncomfortable . Moreover , her grammar was also poor , and the poor expression may lead to discrimination by the classic level . By contrast , the leading man was the opposite aspect of the heroine .
(2) There were many topics were mentioned or used in the movie . For example , the hero used many euphemisms to communicate with heroine . The people in classic level often used the accent to classified the different group . The stereotype was showed between males and females in the society .
Name:何家瑜
ReplyDeleteIn my point of view,I think the special part about the language used in the movie is that Professor Henry Higgins could observe one‘s accent , then he knew where the person from.I agree that when everyone says other languages, it will have their own accent except people who moved there when they were little.Like we can guess where foreigners from when they speak Chinese and they can guess where we from when we speak English or other languages.
After watching this movie "Pygmailn",I think language can be related to a person‘s social status and social regulation between male and female.Eliza Doolittle had Cookney accent.Cookney is a dialect in working class,so you could listen Cookney among working class in British.So that we can know that Eliza Doolittle‘s social status was working class.So English accent is related to social status.The higher your social status was,the less your local accent would have.And high socety always said "standard English" inBritish.In the movie,a part was Higgins knew that Eliza was about to leave,and he said "Damn,damn,damn." to her."Damn" was a forbidden for women in that era,but it was free for men to use.Through this case we can know that social regulation was different between male and female and high society‘s attitude was proud and arrogant.
Name:張昭儀
ReplyDelete1.The people in the movie are all saying English. Though they are speaking the same language, the accent is different from district to district (regarded from the movie.)The professor Henry Higgins could tell the people from different area just by their “special” pronunciations. And the most interesting part of language falls on Eliza, the main actress. We can clearly see the “improvement” on her. From the first beginning, she had the poor grammar, the weird intonation and the vulgar model particle. But after the professor paid his all “love”, Eliza finally speaks “exquisite” English.
2.It occurs to me that language is habit-forming. Every area has its own special custom, so it evolves to different language, including different intonation, different slang…etc. In my opinion, we would tend to consider Eliza’s English to be nonstandard and nobility’s English to be standard, just because we judge it by the social status language’s users.
Phonetics of a language might be the spindle in this story.In Pygmalion, professor Higgins ( Leslie Howard ) is the upper class of British who teach the lower class guttersnipe, Eliza. It is common that how you speak your language can be an identification to where you are from or which class you are in to.Moreover, the movie had implied that a well pronunciation or a bad one can cause a huge difference. But in the movie there one thing that confused me a lot, why the standard British pronunciation is the best?
ReplyDeletename: 楊皓倫
ReplyDelete1.The director actually used the two accent in English to symbolized the differences in the society. In other words, the English used by the Professor is the more upper class one, and the one Eliza used before is the lower one. The interesting part of this is that the professor change the way Eliza speaks English, and made her get to the upper class of the society.
2. It points out that the accent you have in English or in other languages really makes a big deal. If you can speak the same way as the local people there, you might eventually get a better treatment. Take this as an example: if you’re in an British restaurant asking for a cup of water, you should say you want a cup of “wal-tar”, instead of “wa-ter”, or else the waiter will just ignore you and give you the face saying “what the?”(personal experience). The point is: it’s really important to understand the local accent!
name: 林勝亞
ReplyDelete1. I think it is accent that is special about the language they used in the movie. As you can see in the movie, even people who living in the same city, speaking the same language, English, their accent still have some tiny difference. This is why Professor Higgins can easily distinguish where people came from.
2. Different environment create dialect. In the movie, the main character, Professor Higgins, consider only standard dialect as “perfect English”, in addition, he really disgusted with the nonstandard dialect Eliza spoke. However, there is no denying that they are both speaking English.
1. Although both Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins speak English, they have completely different accent because they came from different background.
ReplyDelete2. In the movie, Professor Henry Higgins devoted his time to studying linguistics, so he could tell the difference from people's accent. He tried to change a poor woman, Eliza Doolittle, from her speaking to physical appearance.
He taught her the pronunciation of standard English, corrected her grammar, dressed her up. Finally, Eliza succeeded to become a lady, but she couldn't be herself anymore. She had to give up her dialect (non-standard English) and be polite in order to conform to the customs of the society. There is an unchangeable stereotype in people's mind. Women needed to pretend themselves to meet the expectations in the upper class.
People are superficial because we are limited by gender or social situation. We often judge others by appearance rather than their mind or thought.
(1)In my opinion, the accent used in the movie is one of the special part. We can see that even living in the same city, and using the same language. Some people like Professor Henry Higgins can speak English more correctly and elegantly, however, some people like Eliza Doolittle just can’t speak the “perfect English” we considered. The other special part is the body language, in the movie Eliza Doolittle first behaved like a bad-mannered girl ,but after she been taught by professor , everyone consider she as a countess.
ReplyDelete(2)In the class, we have discussed about “masculism” and “feminism”. In my opinion, the movie tend to be more masculism, the Professor Henry Higgins can speak beautiful English and have powerful background. I don’t know why but in romantic movies the male roles seem to be more superior.
Name:林庭亘
ReplyDelete1. According to this movie, I can clearly know why people always relate languages with cultures. English is the "globish" that most of people used for communicating with foreigners,but it shows many differences due to people's backgrounds, economic status, and a lot of reasons. In the movie, Eliza Doolittle turned her image from a poor person into a elegant lady using the different accents.Thus,my conclusion is that a different accent that show a different culture,even a different person is the a special thing about a language in the movie.
2. In the past, a lot of people despise others whose accents are different from themselves.In the movie, Professor Henry Higgins contributed his time and efforts to help Eliza Doolittle for making her can go to a party and meet Queen Elizabeth. However, why people should change their accent,speaking habits just for making others think that they are qualified enough to join any conversations or activities? Since Eliza Doolittle's transition that she got Professor's help,she started being mistaken about where her hometown is. The misunderstanding is so common in a society and even now,we still will try to guess others' backgrounds due to their accents. I think we can use the differences of languages and accents to guess a person's background but not judge a person from that.
Name:劉蓉蓉
ReplyDeleteI think the most special feature shown in the movie about the language-- English--is the subtle relevance which accent have to the identity of users. English accent could sometimes reveal a person's social status, yet which accent is the better? It seems to be the "standard English" in the movie, which is however subtly reversed by a statement in one scene that no indigenous English woman speaks perfect English. This feature reminds me of the opposition to using English as lingua franca since it may lead into discrimination. If speaking the same language with only the difference of accents could present the difference of social status sometimes, how about dialects? Will the distinction turn into bias and even discrimination? Take USA for instance, when they talk in English, will there be an unconscious prejudice against the African-American owing to their dialect? It is certain that English plays as a bridge among people with different language, but, I think, at the same time we should not forget that English is often combined with power that may affect us without our knowledge.
Name:紀乃嘉
ReplyDelete1.I think the special part is that the difference between the lady been taught and not been taught. It is a big shock for audience that how come a pronunciation adjustment could make a flower-selling girl to b a elegant lady.
2.A language speaking could show people the person’s social status. In the background of this movie, it’s a crucial key to estimate a person
Name:柯穎
ReplyDeleteAfter watching this movie , many ideas just came into my mind . In my opinion , language is magical . It can be the tool to distinguish between foreigners and natives . It can also help different countries’ people communicate with each other fluently and joyfully .
In this film:
(1).I think the special part in the movie is that Professor Henry Higgins’ great observation of people by subtle differences in both accent and the behavior of lifestyle . Also Eliza Doolittle , a pygmalion who didn’t speak fluent and standard English at first , ultimately became popular with her nearly perfect British English and her noble bearing .
(2).Dialect is spoken everywhere , and all of us need to contain different uses in other countries . Though Professor Henry Higgins didn’t show his respect to some non-standard English users , he is still a good example in this film . He can not only make good use of language , but he also teach Eliza Doolittle about Phonetics .Although her accent doesn’t standard , but through their practice again and again , it’s still amaze everyone on the spot in the banquet finally . I had a sudden moment of epiphany after this movie watching , that is , practice makes perfect.
Name:羅郁婷
ReplyDelete1.)In my opinion, though we use language in the same way, there are still lots of different from person to person. Everyone has their own special accent, especially if people from different district. In the movie, the professor Henry Higgins who learns phonetics can easily discriminate where the person from.
2.)Learning in some term means correct. We are been required to speak standard English, correct grammar, good behavior, etc. During the ancient Europe, the behavior had been more important than nowadays. They had serious class distinction. But sometimes excessive learn the standard English might lead to the language death.
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ReplyDeleteProfessor Henry Higgins can distinguish where people come from by listening to their accent. That's the most interesting part of the phonetics.The main idea the movie want to show us is that by changing one’s style of speech, choice of words, and the content he/she talking about can really bring him/her from grassroots to upper class. In the movie, I noticed that Eliza always said “taking cab” instead of “taking taxi”, which was more frequently used in U.S. and, however, more nonverbal than the former. I think this may be related to the environment, the slums, Eliza used to live in. Unlike people in the upper class, they merely used spoken language to communicate with each other. All in all, that’s how the language people use roughly reflects to the social class they placed and the reason why Professor Higgins wanted to transform Eliza.
ReplyDelete(1) I think the special part of this movie is professor Higgins turned Eliza ,who was a pygmalion,into a fair lady through changing the way she talked.In this movie ,we know who are you or where you come from with your language.Therefore,it was interesting that nobody knew she was a pygmalion after professor Higgins successfully taught Eliza how to speak liked a lady.In sum,the tone,the accent or the phrase in language we use can be the clue for others to know us,and I think this is how special and interesting the language is.
ReplyDelete(2) I think the language is various ,and there are many different accents in one kind language.Professor Higgins think Eliza's accent in English is bad,and he tried to rectify her pronunciation and teach her English usage.However,one scene in the movie ,after Eliza succeeded in pretending a lady at the banquet, a man thought Eliza is the nobles from Hungary.Because the real British could not speak standard English. But what is standard English ? Maybe the English the British speak is the real English.Language is evolving,and thus, I think there are no eternal standard in the language.
Name 黃平心
Delete1. Professor Henry Higgins thinks people can be distinguished where they come from by the accent. However, he trains Eliza Doolittle and makes her change her original accent and wrong grammer. Finally, Henry Higgins makes Eliza Doolittle become a noble and graceful lady. This is the point which I think unimaginable and special.
ReplyDelete2. Although Eliza Doolittle is taught what the standard English is by Professor Henry Higgins, there is a person, who claim that he was Henry Higgins’s student before, think Although Eliza that she isn’t a local British person. It makes me reflect on what the correct English is. The local British people usually use the dialect, but the dialect is not thought it is a standard English. So language is very fantastic, you don’t know the standard or the dialect is the correct language.
1. The language in the movie is special in its "old style". The way the actors and the actresses speak, the tone they use, and the words the use are all only heard in old English movies. Nowadays, people in UK won't speak in this way and this tone anymore. So I think these "old style speaking ways" are the special features of this movie.
ReplyDelete2. After Dr. Higgins's teaching, the different way Eliza speaking is an example of the term "register". At first, Eliza speaks in a vulgar and casual style - it is an example of a kind of informal register, and after Dr. Higgins teaching her, she speaks in another style which is gentle, elegant, and formal - it shows another type of register. This is what I think can relate to register in the movie.
Name: 陳孝鈞
ReplyDelete(1)
In my point of view , the most special aspect of this film is that the it tries to convey audiences that the situation of cultural shock among different ethnic groups. The pronunciation elements are widely used in Western movie industry. Pygmalion is an originally abstract conception which use the ancient Greek mythology to construct a story which a flower selling woman becoming a lady with social status,and the director used the talking way of the leading role to show the transform between the beginning and the end of the movie .
(2)
Pygmalion is a movie of old generation. In this film,we can tell difference from the movie and the society today not only through the plot itself but also the conversations of the characters. That is, language is evolving,and the culture is ,too. Nowadays, English is still different from all over the world. It depends on the users' habits and their living. However ,the plot ,which the Dr.Higgins wants to improve Eliza's style of conversation ,is taken as opposition on the multicultural. Conceivably,the dialects or the differences between registers is the main reason why culture is so different and the nationalities all develop its usage of the same tool of communication, language .
As far as I know, there are two special parts in the movie. One is that Professor Henry Higgins can tell where the people come from according to their different accents. Another is that Professor Henry Higgins makes his efforts to create a brand new Eliza Doolittle and ,eventually, she becomes a fake aristocrat of upper class. Nonetheless, she talks with a extreme perfect British accent. To me. that is a little bite sarcastic.
ReplyDeleteIn turn, As previously mentioned, ’’Phonetics’’. Professor Henry Higgins uses this language system to train that girl’s eccentric accent. Although it seems to be successful, Eliza Doolittle be a particular, more queer girl. In my opinion, he outsmarts himself ,but they finally fall in love .I believe that the power of love is so strong.
(1)There are two main accents of the main character. The first one is the cockney accent spoken by Eliza, which is spoken by working class. The other one is the British accent spoken professor Higgins, which is spoken by higher social status. In the end of the movie, Eliza was able to speak the British accent as the one spoken by Higgins.
ReplyDelete(2)I relate the dialect to I see and hear in the movie. First, I think that the professor Higgins is very good at identifying the different accent and inferring where he or she came from. It showed us that we can know others by what he or she said.
There could be plenty of ways to explain simply one dialogue (as what you have done based on the Communication Model earlier), let alone the entire movie. That is, please do not worry about whether your ideas are right or wrong! What you mentioned here will be considered good enough as long as it shows how much you have learned about language, culture, and communication!
ReplyDeleteName:徐韜橙
ReplyDelete(1)In my opinion, I think the language in the movie was been used as a tool to transfer a flower-selling girl into an elegant lady.After the professor Higgins training, Eliza changed herself into a lady speaking fluent and standard English, which is far from who she was.Another part of the language used in the movie is phonetics.Professor Higgins can find out where are the person from only by listening to their accents.
(2)In the movie, there are many places where we can find parts emphasizing masculism.Like professor Higgins, if a man speaks fluent and standard English, he will receive well treatment.On the opposite, females like Eliza who speaks English with an accent usually own low social status.So if people want to get higher social status, they have to change their way of speaking English.Therefore, some of the special dialects or accents may disappear.
(1)In my opinion, the language in the movie symbolize a status.No matter who you are, if you can speak a fluent and standard English, you could be considered to a perfect lady or a wonderful gentleman. Even more, professor Higgins can recognize where the person came from by listening to their own accents.
ReplyDelete(2)In the movie, English is the most powerful language. How fluently or standard you speak English determine which social status you are.Like Eliza, before she met professor Higgins, she spoke a terrible accent with inelegant behavior. But in the end, her live had totally changed due to her wonderful pronunciation.