Linguistic Functionality In Hollywood Movie Trailers: A Comparison Of Blockbusters With Underrated Movies

Abstract

The multidimensional analysis (MDA) approach was brought in by Douglas Biber (1988) to compare written and spoken registers in English in the first instance, but it has comprehensively started getting applied to many different genres. The present study uses 100 texts of Hollywood movie trailers from five different genres i.e. romantic, horror, comic, animated and crime thrillers. The study aims to decipher the extent of variations found in the movie trailers pertaining to linguistic functionality. To explore the linguistic variation within movie trailers across genres, multi-dimensional analysis (MDA) is opted. Thereupon, the linguistic features used in the five genres are studied and contrasted against Biber’s dimensions. The comparative study found that most of the movie trailers of designated genres go along Dimension 1 and resultantly considered as informational rather than involved as per Biber’s textual dimensions. Similarly, the rest of the four dimensions collectively reveal slight variations in the selected trailers of varied genres. It can be claimed that the movie trailers are commonly created using standardized strategies and techniques without focusing on the particularities and demands of the specific genre.