What movies are suitable for pragmatic analysis?
A pragmatic discourse analysis of the movie "Casablanca"
1. Overview of the movie "Casablanca"
The movie "Casablanca" won the 16th Oscar in 1944 In the competition for the awards, it won three awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, and received six nominations. For this classic film, previous experts and scholars mainly analyzed the film’s music, narrative structure, and character analysis from the perspective of film studies. However, this article conducts a discourse analysis of the film from the perspective of pragmatics to help the audience better understand the film. Understand the character's personality and the undertones in the dialogue.
The movie "Casablanca" tells the story of a love triangle about two men falling in love with a woman. This spy story of politics and love takes place between the conflict between democracy and dictatorship in the context of World War II. The theme of the film is the sacrifice of love for a glorious cause. In an era of war and gunpowder, hope and despair coexist, and love and ideals seem so pale in chaotic cities and chaotic people's hearts. The spirit of "small self" obeying "big self" is always worthy of praise. This love story runs through The film praising the people's anti-fascist struggle has thus become an immortal classic.
2. Principle of Cooperation
American language philosopher Grice pointed out that in order to ensure the smooth progress of language communication such as conversation, both the speaker and the listener must abide by certain principles. Basic principles, especially the "cooperative principle"; and believes that people always cooperate with each other in verbal communication, and both parties have the same desire: both parties can understand each other's words, and have the same Cooperate. Therefore, people adhere to certain principles of cooperation in order to realize this wish. So, how do people abide by the principle of cooperation in conversation, achieve mutual understanding and cooperation, and achieve smooth communication? Regardless of the cultural background of the speaker and the listener, they all abide by the basic principle of "cooperation principle" and provide the words or information required for communication according to the purpose of conversation or the direction of communication.
The principle of cooperation includes four categories, and each category includes a criterion and some sub-criteria.
A. Quantity Maxim: The information provided should be what is needed for communication, and no more and no less.
(a) The words provided should contain the information required for the purpose of communication
(b) The words provided should not exceed the information required
B. Quality Maxim: The information provided is true. Don’t say things that are false and don’t say things that lack sufficient evidence.
C. Relevant Maxim: The information provided must be relevant or relevant.
D. Manner Maxim: Be clear when providing information. Avoid obscurity, avoid ambiguity, be concise, and be organized.
However, the Cooperative Principle is a description of people's actual behavior, not a guide to how people should do it, and therefore should not be regarded as a norm. These guidelines are not a bottom line for speaking, but the basis for people to understand words. Therefore, the importance of the Cooperative Principle is not limited to itself, but also to the pragmatic effects produced by violating it, i.e. the "conversational implicature" as Grice refers to it.
3. Deliberate Violation of the Principle of Cooperation in Movies
This article explores how the dialogue in the film demonstrates the character of the characters by deliberately violating the principles of quantity, quality, and relationship in the Principle of Cooperation. , enhance the artistic charm of the film. Deliberate violations of the maxim of manner are not stated here. Since many dialogues in the film reflect deliberate violations of the principle of cooperation, only typical dialogues are selected for analysis in this section.
1. Deliberate violation of the principle of quantity. After two German couriers were killed in Casablanca, the German police leader Major Strass came to Casablanca to pursue the case. The French regime-maintaining police chief Reno went to the airport to greet Strass. At the airport, Director Reno said: " You might think the weather in Casablanca is a bit warm," Strass replied: "All Germans have to adapt to the various climates to get to the Sahara.
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Captain Renault: You may find the climate of Casablanca a trifle warm.
Major Strasser: We German must get used to all climates, from Russia to Sahara.
The implicit meaning of Director Reno's question is that the Germans cannot adapt to the climate here and should not come here. When Director Reno asked this question, Major Strass should have answered yes or no, but he did not answer like this , but the above answer. Obviously the information he answered exceeded the communication needs and violated the principle of measurement in the principle of cooperation. At that time, Germany took the initiative in the war and Germany had occupied Paris. Major Strass said this The meaning of the answer is that the Germans can capture any place they want. Through such an answer, the image of an aggressive German officer is portrayed.
2. The heroine Ilsa's deliberate violation of the moral code. When she and her husband Laszlo walked into Rick's Tavern, Ilsa recognized Sam playing the piano, and then there was a conversation between Sam and her. When Ilsa asked about Rick's whereabouts, Sam said : “Haven’t seen Rick all night. Later, Ilsa asked Sam when Rick would come back, but Sam said: "Rick has gone home and will not be back tonight." ”
Lund: Where is Rick?
Sam: I do not know. I have not seen him all night.
Lund: When will he be back ?
Sam: Not tonight no more he ain't coming. He went home
Sam had met Rick before Ilsa and Sam's conversation, and He knew that Rick would return to the tavern soon, but during the conversation, Sam said that he had not seen Rick all night, and concluded that Rick had gone home and would not come again tonight. In this dialogue, it can be seen that Sam said that he had not seen Rick all night. The information provided was untrue and clearly violated the principle of quality in the conversation principle. The reason why Sam provided false information to Ilsa was because she did not want Ilsa to see Rick again, because when she was in Paris, Ilsa Ilsa's leaving without saying goodbye deeply broke Rick's heart. Sam was worried that Rick would be sad when he saw Ilsa. He didn't want Rick to see Ilsa again, so he provided untrue information to Sam. As both Rick's old friend and Rick's employee, this dialogue analysis highlights the deep friendship between Sam and Rick.
3. Stella's deliberate violation of relationship norms. After Major Si caught the murderer of the two German couriers in the tavern, he met Laszlo, the leader of the Czech left-wing movement in the tavern. He was worried that Rick and Laszlo were involved, so he questioned Rick.
Major Strasser: What is your nationality?
Rick: I am a drunkard.
When Major Strasser asked Rick's nationality, Rick: Rick answered that he was an alcoholic. Obviously his answer had little to do with the question. He violated the relationship norms in the principle of cooperation. The reason why Rick answered like this was because he wanted to convey such a feeling to Major Strass. Information: He does not care about war and politics. No matter whether it is the arrest of Jujiat or the upcoming arrest of Laszlo, he will not intervene, which shows that Rick is a centrist. This also means that Rick will do everything possible to help Ilsa and Laszlo in the future. Laszlo's departure forms a sharp contrast, highlighting Rick's overall view.
IV. Conclusion
The movie is a portrayal of real life. From the above analysis of classic dialogues, we can see that people are In actual communication, the implicit meaning is often expressed by violating the principle of cooperation. This article uses the principle of cooperation as the theoretical basis and analyzes the dialogue in the film "Casablanca" to analyze how the dialogue in the film deliberately violates the principle of quantity, quality and relationship in the principle of cooperation. principles, thereby effectively helping the audience understand the implication of the characters' words in the play, grasp the character traits of the film characters, and improve the audience's overall appreciation of the film. Not only that, film and television teaching from the perspective of pragmatic analysis will also play a positive role in promoting the comprehensive reform of foreign language teaching.