Leiden University Student Repository

Kemper, Ellen (2020)

The Circle of Linguistics; A Whole New Word A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Linguistic Stereotyping in The Lion King and Aladdin

Bachelor thesis | Engelse taal en cultuur (BA)

This bachelor’s thesis has investigated the use of accents in the portrayal of characters in Disney movies. The thesis is of sociolinguistic nature and will contribute to the field of language ideology and language attitudes. Previous studies on accent use in children’s television and Disney movies tended to only focus on animated Disney movies and did not usually take live-action versions into account (Dobrow & Gidney, 1998; Fouts, Callan & Lawson, 2006; Sønnesyn, 2011; Lippi-Green, 2012; Reinacher, 2016; Soares, 2017). To fill the niche between the animation-focused studies and the recent release of live-action remakes of older Disney movies, this thesis compared two sets of Disney movies in order to detect a change in the accent use between the first and latest release. It is important to understand language use in combination with character portrayal to see whether conveyed stereotypical messages have changed or have remained the same.

Accents

Stereotype

Sociolinguistics

Movies

Disney

Rhoticity

Author

Kemper, Ellen

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Smakman, Dick

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en