Exploring Film Dialogue Discourse

Abstract

The paper falls in the area of discourse analysis and presents an initial framework for research into the nature of audio-visual text, namely the discourse of fi lm dialogue. This preliminary exploration should serve the purpose of fi nding areas worth further examination. The corpus to be studied is an episode from Friends (2002/2003). The utilized method is a SWOT analysis (an analysis in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) within which specifi c features are indicated and observed. In the paper it is proposed and discussed that the strength of the studied discourse is its being a paragon of neutral/informal speech and idiomaticity of the language; the weakness is seen in the relative ‘unnaturalness’ of the verbal conduct; the opportunities are represented by their potential to build pragmatic awareness and intercultural competence in viewers; the threat can be embodied in an incautious choice of the title or topic with regard to the viewers’ age and intellectual capacity. The explored features are explained and exemplifi ed utilizing portions from the target corpus. The preliminary enquiry triggers further questions and implications.