The Study of the Changes in English Use through the Movie Dialogues in "Pride and Prejudice"

Abstract

Language is by no means in a static condition. It changes all the time. The close relation between language and culture makes the changes of a society can be reflected in its language. English writer Jane Austin’s novel Pride and Prejudice has been adapted into movie twice in the year of 1940 and 2005. Characters’ dialogues in the two movie versions are the subject of this research. In this thesis, characters’ dialogues in the two movies are compiled into two copra (Corpus 1940 and Corpus 2005). The relevant theories of sociolinguistics and pragmatics are employed to compare and analyze the differences in language in the 1940 version and 2005 version. The research findings offer suggestions to English language teaching and learning. Most English learners learn English for communicating, and they communicate with modern English speakers, so it’s important for English teachers and learners to realize that what they teach and learn should be modern language which is changing all the time, and their language teaching and learning activities should always keep pace with the constant change of language to avoid being out of date.