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5 - Directives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

Carmen Fought
Affiliation:
Pitzer College, Claremont
Karen Eisenhauer
Affiliation:
North Carolina State University
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Summary

This chapter presents a quantitative analysis of directives and the variation in their syntactic forms as related to gender and power. Directives are defined as speech acts in which a speaker attempts to get the recipient to carry out or refrain from action. This chapter focuses on who gives and receives directives, and more specifically on the function of linguistic mitigation strategies and how they correlate with the gender of the speaker and addressee in Disney and Pixar films. The issuing of directives is very common in Disney and Pixar films; because they are an essential plot element, their frequency is unrelated to gender. However, the use of mitigation as a politeness strategy is strongly correlated with gender in both Disney and Pixar, independent of other important contextual variables such as urgency and institutional power (p < .01 for both data sets). In the films, male authority is shown as hierarchical, direct, and aggressive; female authority is shown as subtle, and based on persuasion, suggestion, and collaboration — a pattern which echoes research findings on real-life behavior across a number of contexts.

Type
Chapter
Information
Language and Gender in Children's Animated Films
Exploring Disney and Pixar
, pp. 105 - 130
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Directives
  • Carmen Fought, Pitzer College, Claremont, Karen Eisenhauer, North Carolina State University
  • Book: Language and Gender in Children's Animated Films
  • Online publication: 01 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108894586.006
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  • Directives
  • Carmen Fought, Pitzer College, Claremont, Karen Eisenhauer, North Carolina State University
  • Book: Language and Gender in Children's Animated Films
  • Online publication: 01 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108894586.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Directives
  • Carmen Fought, Pitzer College, Claremont, Karen Eisenhauer, North Carolina State University
  • Book: Language and Gender in Children's Animated Films
  • Online publication: 01 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108894586.006
Available formats
×