My Big Fat Greek Wedding - Movie Review Example

An Analysis of Speech Acts in the Film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” This research investigates speech acts performed in the romantic comedy film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (2002). Written by Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick, the movie portrays the cultural, personal and family conflict of Toula Portokalos, a Greek-American woman, when she falls in love with an American man, Ian Miller, who has no relationship with the Greek culture. The humor in this movie is based on the intercultural differences between the American way of life and the Greek family, and Toula’s distance from a world in which she thinks she does not fit. The present project aims at analyzing the types of speech acts, the illocutionary points and the request strategy types in this movie, taking into account the theory of speech acts proposed by Searle. The selected data for this research consists on all utterances of the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, which were transcribed in order to assure a clear analysis of speech acts. It is possible to distinguish between the film dialogues and the narration of Toula, the main character, mostly at the beginning of the film. The dialogues taken from a movie resemble natural interactions between people, although this material is scripted and fictive; and they enable an empirical study of speech acts. In this sense, it is important to consider the role played by conversation in the speech act theory, since the reference to conversational sequences is presupposed in the study of speech acts, as stated by Sbisà (102). The analysis of the movie data allows an empirical study from conversation to individual speech acts, as Sbisà suggests (110), and not in the other direction, since the theory must explain the facts instead trying to adapt the findings to the theory. Most of the time, the movie represents conversations between the characters, and, despite not being its main goal, the results of this research can be useful for further insights regarding the relationship between speech acts and conversation. The present study analyzes the realization of the speech acts of requests, and provides an overview of the illocutionary points. The analysis is focused on the area of speech act verbs. The theory of speech acts was applied to analyze the data, because it provides insights about the language use, and allows studying films in a detailed way, which can reveal the communicative practices represented on them. Searle’s approaches regarding illocutionary points, verbs, indirect speech acts and conversation are taken into account for the application of the speech act theory. The procedure of the research consisted of the following steps: (a) identifying the five different illocutionary points according to Searle; (b) identifying illocutionary verbs; (c) applying the classification of request strategy types by Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper (18). Austin’s ideas contributed to the development and systematization of Searle’s speech act theory, which has aroused great interest, and any general pragmatic theory must account for speech acts (Levinson 226). Austin classified performative verbs into verdictives, exercitives, commisives, behabitives and expositives (44), but other schemes have been later developed (Levinson 234). Searle’s classification of illocutionary points, with their representative verbs, is useful and clearer for research purposes, despite Levinson’s statement that it is neither definitive nor exhaustive (240). Illocutionary acts are the minimal complete units of human linguistic communication, according to Searle, and we perform them whenever we talk or write to each other (Mind, Language and Society 136). “In general an illocutionary act consists of an illocutionary force F and a propositional content P” (Searle and Vanderveken 1). Speakers may also perform indirect speech acts, in which a different illocutionary force or propositional content is conveyed from what is directly expressed (10). The illocutionary point, the most important component of the illocutionary force, is defined as the internal point or purpose of a determined speech act, and it is achieved on the propositional content (14-15). According to Searle, there are five different types of illocutionary points (Mind, Language and Society 148-150): 1. Assertive illocutionary point, which commits the hearer to the truth of the proposition (e.g. statements, descriptions, classifications, explanations) (148). 2. Directive illocutionary point, which attempts to get the hearer to do something (e.g. orders, commands, requests) (148-149). 3. Commissive illocutionary point, which commits the speaker to undertake course of action represented in the propositional content (e.g. promises, vows, pledges, contracts, guarantees, and threats) (149). 4. Expressive illocutionary point, which expresses the sincerity condition of the speech act (e.g. apologies, thanks, congratulations, welcomes, and condolences) (149). 5. Declarations, which “bring about a change in the world by representing it as having been changed” (e.g. declaring war, resigning, firing) (150). In the syntactical structure of the sentence, Searle identifies the illocutionary force indicator, which shows “what illocutionary act the speaker is performing in the utterance of the sentence” (Speech Acts 30). Some illocutionary force indicating devices in English are word order, stress, intonation contour, punctuation, the mood of the verb, and performative verbs, that is, those which indicate the performed illocutionary act at the beginning of the sentence. Searle and Vanderveken analyze many verbs which name illocutionary forces, that is, they imply an illocutionary point as part of their meaning (180). Some examples in English are the following: 1. Assertives: assert, claim, state, deny, assure, inform. 2. Commissives: promise, threaten, swear, accept, refuse, offer. 3. Directives: request, ask, tell, require, order, suggest, warn. 4. Declaratives: declare, approve, confirm, bless, name, call. 5. Expressives: apologize, thank, congratulate, welcome, greet. The presence of the verbs studied by Searle and Vanderveken was quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed in the film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, and it is summarized in table 1 below. Some verbs have different illocutionary points according to their sense. That is the case of the verb tell, which has an assertive as well as a directive illocutionary force. For example, “Tell him whos the cook of the family” is assertive, while “I’ve told you to watch the boys” is directive. Both utterances are taken from the movie data. Table 1. Illocutionary verbs in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” Illocutionary point Verbs Total % Utterances 1. Assertive tell 10 20,83 – Anyway, I tell her. – In Greece, don’t tell anyone how she is. – Tell her I open up the dry cleaners every day… – Let me tell you something, Toula. – She told her ma, who told my ma, who told your ma. – I will tell my sister. – Tell me what? – I’m the best cook of the family. Tell him. Sub-total 10 20,83 2. Commissive promise 2 4,16 – I promise. – But I promise you this: You can marry anybody you want. accept 1 2,08 – I’ll do anything, whatever it takes to get them to accept me. bet 1 2,08 – I didn’t notice it, so I bet they won’t. swear 1 2,08 – Yes, I’ve got a gun and I swear… Sub-total 5 10,41 3. Directive ask 7 14,58 – But you never come here to ask me can you date my daughter. – I’m sorry not to ask you if I can date your daughter. – A respectful boy would come here and ask for my permission. – Jenny has something she wants to ask you. – Just ask me. – So I can’t ask you to be my best man. – You’re not gonna ask me to be your best man? tell 4 8,33 – Tell me what to say. But don’t tell me what to say. – I’ve told you to watch the boys. – We’re not lucky when they are telling us where we should live, what we should eat. order 2 4,16 – We’re gonna order our own invitations. – I ordered the invitations two weeks ago. Sub-total 13 27,08 4. Declarative name 1 2,08 – Now name three things the Greeks did for us. call 3 6,25 – Just call back when you are ready to book. – I’ll call the club and see what’s open. – What’s it called for the reception? Sub-total 4 8,33 5. Expressive thank 11 22,91 – Thank you. – Okay, thank you. Bye-bye. – Thank you so much... Thank you. – How do you say “thank you” in Greek? – Thank you. – Thank you, thank you very, very much. – Thank you. – Thank you. – Thank you. welcome 5 10,41 – Welcome to my home. – And welcome, welcome to our home. – Welcome to the Portokalos family. Welcome the Miller family. Sub-total 16 33,33 TOTAL 48 100 The highest number of illocutionary verbs found in the film are expressive (33,33%), followed by directive verbs (27,08%). The expressive verbs are thank, used in polite expressions such as “thank you”, which are common in everyday conversation, and welcome, often in conventional contexts when guests are received, e.g. “Welcome to my home”. The presence of directive speech acts in the movie justifies the study of requests. The request sequence considered by Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper (17) and the nine request strategy types arranged by indirectness (18) are appropriate classifications to study this phenomenon. In the film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, all request strategy types were identified. Speech acts are expressed in the positive or negative declarative form, as well as in interrogative and imperative sentence-type. This richness in expressive forms is useful for the application of speech act theory, since it enables the consideration of the meaning and intentionality in different types of utterances. Many questions were answered by an indirect speech act, which frequently occurs in conversations (Searle, “Conversation” 9). The following table defines the request strategy types, and show the respective utterances in the movie: Table 2. Request strategy types in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” Strategy type Utterances 1. mood derivable: “utterances in which the grammatical mood of the verb signals illocutionary force” (Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper 18). Maria: Nicko! Don’t play with the food! Maria: Come on, eat. Gus: Now name three things the Greeks did for us. Gus: Give me a word… Maria: Kostas! Get her! Gus: Be careful! Maria: Voula! Have something to eat before you go to work! Voula: Don’t sorry me. Gus: Put some Windex. Taki: In Greece, don’t tell anyone how she is. Athena: Put it back here. Angelo: Shut up, Nikki. Angelo: Ma! Tell her I open up the dry cleaners every day… Nikki: Angelo… bite me. Voula: Be a lady! Athena: Come on, boys. Let’s go. Mike: Let’s go. Mike: Keep the change. Gus: Get married! Make babies! Maria: Come on. Don’t you worry. Maria: Let me tell you something, Toula. Maria: Don’t cry. Gus: Take this bag down to the bus depot… Maria: Don’t you worry. Voula: Tell me what to say. But don’t tell me what to say. Gus: Send Angelo or Nikki to the travel agency… Toula: Hold again, please. Mrs. White: Listen. Keep your mother off my lawn, out of my basement and away from my roof! Gus: Give me a word, any word… Gus: Look everybody! Look who is back again. Sit down. Toula: Just call back when you’re ready to book. Toula: Just stop. Ian: Don’t go. Nikki: Let me put it this way: You’re busted. Maria: But end it now! Maria: Toula, eat something! Maria: Don’t you walk away from me! Sit down! Ian: Try not to be too loud. Ian: Come here. Toula: Let’s just go somewhere. Please, let’s just go, just go. Maria: Talk to him. Toula: So try. Voula: Let me touch your hair. Toula: Just ask me. Ian: Show them a brochure. Toula: Let me see the list. Nick: Let me help you with those. Maria: Ian, eat, eat. Nick: Listen. Athena: Let the man talk! Nikki: Wait! (…) Look at the earrings I have found to match the bride maids’ dresses. Nikki: Don’t worry. Nick: Look. Nick: Don’t let your past dictate who you are, but let it be part of who you will become. Maria: Hurry. Put it on the spear. Nick: Listen. (…) everyone let’s come in the house. Voula: Come, sit, come, sit, sit. Go, go, go now. Come, sit down, sit down, sit down. Voula: Don’t be shy. Aunt: Don’t worry. Maria: Listen to me, Toula. Nikki: Wait, wait. Nikki: Give me the camera. Gus: Nicko, let’s go, let’s go. Toula: Nick, go to the airport and pick up the band. Gus: Put some Windex. Voula: Get out, get out! Toula: Please, let that be the end of your speech. Ian: Wipe off! Ian: Let’s go in. Rodney Miller: Let’s go. Paris Miller: Let’s go. Ian: Let’s go. 2. performatives: “utterances in which the illocutionary force is explicitly named” (18). Nick: I promise. Gus: But you never come here to ask me can you date my daughter. Ian: Well, I’m sorry not to ask you if I can date your daughter. Gus: A respectful boy would come here and ask for my permission. Athena: I’ve told you to watch the boys. Nick: Yes, I’ve got a gun and I swear… Nick: I didn’t notice it, so I bet they won’t. Mike: You’re not gonna ask me to be your best man? Maria: We’re not lucky when they are telling us where we should live, what we should eat. Toula: But I promise you this: You can marry anybody you want. 3. hedged performatives: “utterances in which the naming of the illocutionary force is modified by hedging expressions” (18). Aunt Freida: Jennie has something she wants to ask you. Ian: So I can’t ask you to be my best man. 4. obligation statements: “utterances which state the obligation of the hearer to carry out the act” (18). Toula: And while the pretty girls had to go to Brownies, I had to go to Greek school. Toula: Why do I have to go to Greek school? Athena: I have to drop the boys at the hockey, and I gotta get to the Jewel. Nikki: Ma! I had to drop Dimos at work. And now, I gotta go open the travel agency… Maria: We must let Kostas think this was his idea. Gus: We have to invite the Adamopoulos! Gus: We have to have Thomas Kazimakis. Maria: I gotta go. Toula: Do we have to go in? 5. want statements: “utterances which state the speaker’s desire that the hearer carries out the act” (18). Toula: Don’t you want me to do something with my life? Voula: Do you want my help? Maria: Yes, I want your help! Maria: He just wants you to be happy. 6. suggestory formulae: “utterances which contain a suggestion to do x” (18). Gus: You’d better get married soon. Gus: Give me a word, any word, and I show you that the root of that word is Greek. How about arachnophobia? Girl: How about kimono? Ian: No Greek. Italian. Tomorrow night? 7. query preparatory: “utterances containing reference to preparatory conditions (e.g., ability, willingness) as conventionalized in any specific language” (18). Voula: Taki, you couldn’t wait for me? Mike: Could I get some more coffee, please? Toula: I would book it for you. Would you hire me? Ian: Hey, would you like to go have Greek food? Ian: You wanna have dinner with me? Ian: I’d like to take you there if you’d like to go. Toula: Could you stop? Ian: May I please date your daughter? Ian: Would you like to go up? Harriet Miller: Would you like a coffee? Harriet Miller: Everyone like cheesecake? Ian: Will you marry me? Gus: You’d like some meat? (…) You’d like meat, everybody? 8. strong hints: “utterances containing partial reference to object or element needed for the implementation of the act” (18). Toula: (as part of Toula’s request to go to college) “I’ve got all A’s in computer. But there’s a lot of new stuff to learn now...” Ian: (because he wants Toula to tell him more about her) I don’t know anything about you, except you’re Greek. Maria: (to make Gus accept Toula’s marriage) He wants to marry in the Greek church. Nick: (because he wanted his mother to give him something to eat) I’m hungry. Nick: (because he wants Toula to let him manage the invitations) I’ve got the greatest connections for invitations. 9. mild hints: “utterances that make no reference to the request proper (or any of its elements) but are interpretable as requests by context” (18). Toula: (because Maria touches her cheeks with the hands) You’re gonna make me swallow my tongue. Maria: (when she and Voula tried to convince Gus to let Toula work at the travel agency) That would be no good, no good, no good, because neither Angelo nor Nikki know how to use the computer. Toula: (in response to her mother’s request to end the relationship with Ian) I love him. Maria: (to make Gus accept Toula’s marriage) They love each other. It’s done. Gus: (because he wants Toula to let him organize a big wedding for her) I come to this country with eight dollars in my pocket to make all this for you. And… who knows how long I’m gonna be alive? The mood derivable strategy type was the widest used in the movie, due to the abundance of imperatives. The analysis of speech acts emphasizes Toula’s position between two worlds: the Greek and the American. She exemplifies many American conventions regarding speech acts, but, at the same time, she knows that she handles with a rigid family, that is difficult to convince. She combines the indirectness of speech acts with a lot of reasons for her requests, and she intends a determined effect in her hearers. She uses strong and mild hints, that is, nonconventionally indirect strategies according to Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper (18), when speaking with her parents. Toula: Dad... Dad... Dad, I’ve been going through our inventory. We have been doing a lot of unnecessary ordering. So I’ve been thinking that maybe we should update our system. Like we could get a computer. I don’t know if you remember, but I’ve got all A’s in computers. But there’s a lot of new stuff to learn now. So, if you want, I could go to college. And take a few courses. In this case, the request is not explicit formulated, but it is possible to identify the parts of a request sequence according to Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper (17): alerters, like the address term “Dad”, repeated as attention-getter; supportive moves, e.g. Toula’s reasoning about the importance of having computers and her ability with them; head act (indirect, in this case); and internal modifications, specifically downgraders (“So, if you want, I could go to college“). When speaking with her aunt Voula, Toula applies conventionally indirect strategies (suggestory formulae and query preparatory), as seen in the example below: Toula: You know I’m learning about computers, right? Well, there is this course. It’s a seminar. It’s all about computers and tourism. They know all the latest applications and programs. And I can apply it here. And your business will double like it would triple. You can be with Theo more and you can take a vacation. I would book it for you. Would you hire me? On the other hand, Ian represents the American side, and he also uses conventionally indirect strategies, which show his cultural background. In the following example from his first date with Toula, she breaks the convention of the request, and answers affirmatively a question not intended to be answered that way: Ian: Hey, would you like to go have Greek food? Toula: Oh! That’s okay. Ian: Listen, I know this very great place. You probably know it. Zorba’s something. Anyway, I’d like to take you there if you’d like to go. Toula: I don’t wanna go there. Ian: What do you mean? Why not? The indirectness of requests has correspondence with politeness and with the effect they can elicit on hearers. When requesting something, the speaker wants the hearer to do what it is requested, and most of the time a negative answer is not expected. That explains Ian’s surprise when Toula clearly said that she did not want to go to the restaurant Dancing Zorba’s. The following dialogue between Kostas “Gus” Portokalos (Toula’s father) and Ian shows a similar situation, in the extent that, according to his own culture, Ian should not ask for permission to date a thirty-year-old lady. Gus: But you never come here to ask me can you date my daughter. Ian: Well, I’m sorry not to ask you if I can date your daughter. Sir, she’s 30 years old. Gus: I am the head of this house. Ian: Okay… May I please date your daughter? Gus: No! The Greek characters use predominantly imperatives as request (see Table 2), and they are seldom indirect. They rely on direct strategies, that is, the five first request strategies. For example: Aunt Voula (to Ian’s parents): Come, sit, come, sit, sit. (To guests sitting on a sofa) Go, go, go now. Come, sit down, sit down, sit down. Ian’s parents are portrayed in film as the other flip of the coin, and they practically do not utter direct speech acts, but exclusively conventionally indirect strategies, mostly as a mere communication formula, since they did not know what to talk to Toula about. For example: “Would you like a coffee?” “Everyone like cheesecake?” In the film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, humor is created by showing these contrasts between the Greek and American realization of speech acts, and by challenging the conventions about them. An example is the following contradiction expressed by Aunt Voula and Maria’s (Toula’s mother) agreement: Aunt Toula: Tell me what to say. But don’t tell me what to say. Maria Portokalos: Perfect. Aunt Toula: That’s good. The interactions between the Greeks emphasize the role of individual and social intentionality, as explained in Searle (Consciousness 142-155). When Toula wanted to work in her aunt’s travel agency, she needed permission from her father, but he would not give it easily. Therefore, her mother and her aunt Voula arranged to manipulate the interaction in such a manner that the father would allow Toula to work there and also think it was his idea (individual intentionality). That interaction show there are conventions and rules to be followed (a Greek girl is not allowed to work without her father’s permission), and additionally there is background information that both women share about their intention, and Gus’s personality. Toula’s narration consists predominantly of assertives, such as “nice Greek girls are supposed to do three things in life: marry Greek boys, make Greek babies, and feed everyone... until the day we die”. However, assertives hide the expression of criticism and frustration that Toula had towards her world and culture by means of irony. Irony, metaphor, hints and insinuations are examples of indirect speech acts, in which the meaning of the speaker’s utterance and the sentence meaning come apart in various ways (Searle, Expression 30). Regarding the limits of the data for this research, it is important to point out that the analyzed data is linguistic data. There are no references to intonation, gestures or the actions performed by the characters while they speak. No image analysis is provided, and other tools to analyze movies as works of fiction are not applied. Although there are non-verbal elements that affect the realization of speech acts in normal interactions, they are beyond the scope of this research, and the theories of speech acts do not provide yet with satisfactory answers about this phenomena, since they are concerned with the utterances. Furthermore, the considered linguistic data refers to the English dialogues, and omits the Greek utterances in the film. Interlanguage variation was not studied. The movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” employed all types of illocutionary points, in the form of illocutionary verbs, imperatives and indirect speech acts. Speech acts of requests play an important role in this film, and the request strategy types (with predominance of mood derivable) as well as the parts of the request sequence were identified. There are differences between the film characters regarding speech acts, which represent individual and social intentionality, and they give account on the cultural communicative practices influencing speech acts. Work Cited Austin, J. L. “Speech Acts”. In Volume One, Readings for Applied Linguistics. Ed. J.P.B. Allen and S. Pit Corder. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. 38-52. Blum-Kulka, Shoshana, Juliane House and Gabriele Kaspar. Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies. Norwood: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1989. Levinson, Stephen. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Sbisà, Marina. “Speech Acts, Effects and Responses”. In (On) Searle on Conversation. Ed. Herman Parret and Jef Verschueren. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: J. Benjamins Pub. Co., 1992. 101-110. Searle, John R. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. London: Cambridge University Press, 1969. Searle, John R. Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Searle, John R. “Conversation”. In (On) Searle on Conversation. Ed. Herman Parret and Jef Verschueren. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: J. Benjamins Pub. Co., 1992. 7-29. Searle, John R. Mind, Language and Society: Doing Philosophy in the Real World. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999. Searle, John R. Consciousness and Language. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Searle, John R., and Daniel Vanderveken. Foundations of Illocutionary Logic. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985. Read More