The necessity of pragmatic function analysis of movie conversations

Im, Mi Jin

Article

Journal of English Teaching through Movies and Media 2009;10(1):193-213.
Published online June 30, 2009.

The necessity of pragmatic function analysis of movie conversations

Mi Jin Im

영화대사에 대한 화용적 기능 분석의 필요성

임미진

Abstract

This paper emphasizes that pragmatic analysis of movie conversations is necessary to improve speaking ability. Most students focus on uttering grammatical sentences or speaking fluent English. Even though a sentence is grammatically and semantically correct, however, it can be incorrect from a pragmatic perspective. Most people communicate with each other by speaking every day. They speak in order to convey their opinions, ideas or specific facts. Sometimes people listen to a speaker's utterance and notice their intention or conversational purpose, and then try to give a right response. Therefore a student focusing on improving speaking skill has to realize the pragmatic functions in a natural conversation. This paper suggests three kinds of pragmatic function: conveying a fact or a specific opinion, uttering intention or purpose, having an effect on an interlocutor. A conversation should be analyzed according to these three pragmatic functions. A movie has high authenticity in terms of natural conversation in daily life so that a conversation in a movie is selected as a sample for a pragmatic analysis. Knowing the pragmatic function of each utterance can be helpful in communicating naturally. Speaking is not just producing grammatical and meaningful sentences. It has to be considered in the specific context of people talking to each other. A student who is interested in speaking has to focus on the pragmatic functions of utterances.

Key Words: pragmatic function analysis;English speaking;movie