Anthropomorphic grammar? Some linguistic patterns in the wildlife documentary series Life
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Alison Sealey
Alison Sealey is Senior Lecturer in Modern English Language in the Department of English, University of Birmingham. She has published extensively in applied linguistics, discourse analysis, and the application of social theory to these areas. In addition to numerous journal articles, she is the author of several books, includingApplied Linguistics as Social Science (with Bob Carter) andChildly Language: Children, Language and the Social World .
and
Lee Oakley
Lee Oakley is a postgraduate research student in the Department of English, University of Birmingham. His research interests include the transmission of ideology in educational and informational texts, and the linguistic construction of gender and sexuality in society. He is currently undertaking a PhD on the use of evaluative devices in British sex education textbooks.
Abstract
Human language inevitably depicts the world from a human point of view. This article briefly reviews key positions on the use of anthropomorphic and anthropocentric language taken by scientists and discourse analysts. It then presents the data used in this investigation – a corpus of transcripts of the television series Life. The methods of analysis are explained, as is the focus adopted, which is less on the more obvious, lexical choices made by the presenter, David Attenborough, and more on the grammatical patterns which we suggest play a significant role in the depiction of the wide range of species represented in the programs. Three grammatical features – pronouns, the connective so, and the to infinitive form – were explored in context, and the results demonstrate how, separately and together, they play a significant role in the representation in these texts of animals' perspectives, connoting in subtle ways both intention and evaluation. We suggest a need for greater dialogue between broadcasters, discourse analysts, and ethologists.
About the authors
Alison Sealey is Senior Lecturer in Modern English Language in the Department of English, University of Birmingham. She has published extensively in applied linguistics, discourse analysis, and the application of social theory to these areas. In addition to numerous journal articles, she is the author of several books, including Applied Linguistics as Social Science (with Bob Carter) and Childly Language: Children, Language and the Social World.
Lee Oakley is a postgraduate research student in the Department of English, University of Birmingham. His research interests include the transmission of ideology in educational and informational texts, and the linguistic construction of gender and sexuality in society. He is currently undertaking a PhD on the use of evaluative devices in British sex education textbooks.
©[2013] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Announcement
- Masthead
- Ethnopolitical discourse among ordinary Malaysians: diverging accounts of “the good-old days” in discussing multiculturalism
- Words as weapons for mass persuasion: dysphemism in Churchill's wartime speeches
- Concession and reassertion: on a dialogic discourse pattern in conversation
- Interaction in the virtual world: an analysis of students' construal of pedagogic subject positions in a 3D virtual learning environment
- Exceptions to rules: a qualitative analysis of backward causal connectives in Dutch naturalistic discourse
- Anthropomorphic grammar? Some linguistic patterns in the wildlife documentary series Life
