• The Conference
  • Home
  • Programme
  • Venue & directions
  • Organizing Committee
  • Scientific Committee
  • Exhibitors & sponsors
  • Satellite events
  • Conference Party
• Past & future
  • Previous symposia
  • Finland 2014
  • Spain 2016
• About FU Berlin
  • University homepage
  • Humanities at FU

Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1000

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Good guy – bad guy, deep voice – high voice? On linguistic white and black hats*

Authors: Müller, Folke
Submitted by: Müller, Folke (Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany)

In my dissertation project, I'm carrying out an empirical, acoustic analysis of the oldest German sound movies from the time of their invention in 1929 until the end of the fifties. My focus lies on prosodic features, since the paraverbal elements of language (i.e. the way of "how" someone speaks) are considered particularly important for the impression on the listener.

Until now, historical sociolinguistics drew mostly upon written sources for the simple fact that sound documents from earlier centuries do not exist. An exception to this is the 20th century of which both audio and audiovisual recordings have been preserved until today. While audio recordings have been the primary source for historical studies dealing with questions in relation to the standardization of language in the last decades (e.g. Van de Velde et al. 1996; 1997 on Dutch), the few studies examining audiovisual data like television programs or movies have focused on the spreading of single features in time (e.g. Elliott 2000 on rhoticity). My main research interest, however, is to examine paraverbal features in sound movies in relation to social factors (such as age, gender, social status, and political role models) in different societal systems (Weimar Republic, Third Reich, FRG, GDR). Even though sound movies cannot be taken as a one to one image of spoken dialogues in the "real world", they represent linguistic stereotypes of their epoch (cf. Müller forthc.).

In my presentation, I will focus on the contrast of "good guy" and "bad guy" in movies of the "Third Reich" and in the post-war period. I want to show that paraverbal features such as pitch and its variability are prosodic cues to characterize the movies’ hero and villain. One might assume that the "voice of evil" was as deep as nowadays Darth Vader’s. But rather the opposite is true: It is usually the hero who has got the deepest voice whereas the villain is characterized by a significantly higher pitch. Considering the fact that movies of the "Third Reich" played a key role not only as a means of entertainment but also for propaganda, I assume that the sharp distinction between "good guy" and "bad guy" is by no means coincidental but served as a subtle way of teaching the audience on the desired role models and the behaviour preferred by the regime. By comparing different movies and their main characters I will discuss the following questions:

- Which stereotypes can be found in the analyzed movies, and how are they highlighted by paralinguistic and prosodic features?

- Do these profiles change in dependence of different political systems? (e.g. what kind of movie characters are shown positively, and by which prosodic features? How sharp is the contrast between "good" and "evil"?)
- Are these feature profiles consistent throughout different movie genres?
* In old American westerns, white and black hats commonly helped the spectators to distinguish between the movie’s hero and villain.