Phonetics and Hollywood. Accuracy and credibility of imitated Polish accents in Sophie’s Choice and The Zookeeper’s Wife
cytuj
pobierz pliki
RIS BIB ENDNOTEChoose format
RIS BIB ENDNOTEPhonetics and Hollywood. Accuracy and credibility of imitated Polish accents in Sophie’s Choice and The Zookeeper’s Wife
Publication date: 12.2019
Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2019, Volume 136, Issue 4, pp. 265 - 285
https://doi.org/10.4467/20834624SL.19.024.11317Authors
Phonetics and Hollywood. Accuracy and credibility of imitated Polish accents in Sophie’s Choice and The Zookeeper’s Wife
In many American films actors and actresses, native speakers of English who impersonate foreign characters, make an attempt to speak English with a foreign accent. The present paper is the first attempt at analyzing imitated Polish-accented English in two well-known Hollywood productions. It examines, compares and assesses the most salient phonetic properties of the accents employed by two American stars: Meryl Streep appearing as Zofia Zawistowska in Sophie’s Choice (1982) and Jessica Chastain playing the role of Antonina Żabińska in The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017). The major goal, however, is to study the perception of the two accents in order to establish whether they can be regarded as cases of genuine Polish-English speech. The analysis is carried out by means of a three-step procedure. First, a list of typical features of a Polish accent in English is established in consultation with several specialists in Polish English pronunciation. Next, both actresses’ accents are examined with regard to these properties. In the third stage their speech and two samples of a genuine Polish-English accent are assessed by a group of 100 participants (66 Polish students and 34 native speakers of English) in a perception study. The obtained results show that M. Streep’s accent is more accurate and contains more features of authentic Polish English than J. Chastain’s, which is reflected in the Polish listeners’ credibility judgements. Nevertheless, native English listeners view the two actresses’ accents as Polish to a similar extent.
Abele R. 2017. “The Zookeeper’s Wife” review: Jessica Chastain saves Polish Jews but cannot rescue the movie. [https://www.thewrap.com/the-zookeepers-wife-review-jessica-chastain/; accessed March 2018].
Avery P., Ehrlich S. 1992. Teaching American English pronunciation. Oxford.
Baumgarten M. 2017. “The Zookeeper’s wife”. [https://www.austinchronicle.com/events/film/2017-04-07/the-zookeepers-wife/; accessed September 2017].
Bleichenbacher L. 2008. Multilingualism in the movies. Hollywood characters and their language choices. Tubingen.
Blumenfeld R. 2002. Accents: A manual for actors. New York.
Bryła-Cruz A. 2016. Foreign accent perception. Polish English in the British ears. Newcastle upon Tyne.
Coupland N. 2003. Sociolinguistic authenticities. – Journal of Sociolinguistics 7.3: 417–431.
Crucchiola J., Jones N., Lincoln K. 2017. What kind of accent should actors use in period pieces? [https://www.vulture.com/2017/04/jessica-chastain-zookeepers-wife-accent-raises-questions.html; accessed September 2017].
Cruttenden A. 2014. Gimson’s pronunciation of English. [8th edition]. London, New York. Debruge P. 2017. Film Review: Jessica Chastain in “The Zookeeper’s Wife”. [https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/film-review-jessica-chastain-zookeeper-wife-150039568.html;accessed September 2017].
Dukore B. 1985. Film and theatre: Some revisionist propositions. – Modern Drama 28.1:171–179.
Ebert R. 2008. Roger Ebert’s four-star reviews 1967–2007. Kansas City.
Gausnell R. 2016. But what does a dialect coach do? [https://medium.com/@rebeccagausnell/but-what-does-a-dialect-coach-do-94981900f87a; accessed September 2017].
Hodson J. 2014. Dialect in Film and Literature. London.
Kenworthy J. 1987. Teaching English pronunciation. London.
Lippi-Green R. 1997. English with an accent: Language, ideology and discrimination in the United States. London.
Neuhauser S., Simpson A.P. 2007. Imitated or authentic? Listeners’ judgements of foreign accents. [http://icphs2007.de/conference/Papers/1335/1335.pdf; accessed November 2017].
O’Malley S. 2017. [“The Zookeeper’s Wife” review; https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-zookeepers-wife-2017; accessed September 2017].
Patenttranslator’s Blog. [https://patenttranslator.wordpress.com/2015/07/20/the-incredible-inauthenticity-of-fake-foreign-accents-in-american-movies/; accessed September 2017].
Robinson G. 2017. “The Zookeepeer’s Wife” lacks bite. [https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/the-zookeepers-wife-lacks-bite/; accessed August 2017].
Rogerson-Revell P. 2012. English phonology and pronunciation teaching. London, New York.
Rowe B. 1982. My year with Meryl Streep: Sophie’s Choice. [https://medium.com/read-watch-write-repeat/my-year-with-meryl-streep-sophies-choice-1982-58e3cc355942; accessed July 2017].
Sobkowiak W. 1996. English phonetics for Poles. Poznań.
Stolarski Ł. 2015. Further analysis of the articulation of /r/ in Polish – the postconsonantal position. – SKY Journal of Linguistics 28: 349–379.
Strandberg V., Buwa B. 1991. Appendix. An interview with William Styron. [https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/136910/14/14_appendix.pdf; accessed September 2017].
Strassberg R. 2014. Pamela Vanderway’s 5 must-know elements of dialect coaching. [https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/pamela-vanderways-must-know-elements-dialect-coaching-10420/; accessed September 2017].
Styron W. 1979. Sophie’s Choice. New York.
Swan M., Smith B. 2001. Learner English: A teacher’s guide to interference and other problems. Cambridge.
Szpyra-Kozłowska J. 2015. Pronunciation in EFL instruction: A research-based approach. Bristol.
Szpyra-Kozłowska J. 2018. The rhotic in authentic and fake Polish-accented English. – Lublin Studies in Language and Literature 42.2: 81–102.
Taste of Cinema – Movie Reviews and Classic Movie Lists. [http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2016/the-20-best-fake-accents-in-movies/; accessed September 2017].
The Krakow Post. [http://www.krakowpost.com/14750/2017/08/review-zookeepers-wife-film; accsessed September 2017].
Travers P. 2017. “The Zookeeper’s Wife” Review: Jessica Chastain goes Dr. Dolittle in WWII Drama. [https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-zookeepers-wife-re-view-jessica-chastain-goes-dr-dolittle-in-wwii-drama-125404/; accessed September 2017].
Walshe S. 2009. Irish English as represented in film. Frankfurt.
Walshe S. 2010. Dialect handbooks and the acquisition of stage accents. A critical study. – Waniek-Klimczak E. (ed.). Issues in accents of English 2. Variability and norm. Newcastle upon Tyne: 97–114.
Wells J. 1982. Accents of English. Cambridge.
Information: Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2019, Volume 136, Issue 4, pp. 265 - 285
Article type: Original article
Titles:
Phonetics and Hollywood. Accuracy and credibility of imitated Polish accents in Sophie’s Choice and The Zookeeper’s Wife
Phonetics and Hollywood. Accuracy and credibility of imitated Polish accents in Sophie’s Choice and The Zookeeper’s Wife
Maria Curie Skłodowska University, Plac Marii Skłodowskiej-Curie 5, Lublin, Poland
Maria Curie Skłodowska University, Plac Marii Skłodowskiej-Curie 5, Lublin, Poland
Published at: 12.2019
Article status: Open
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND
Percentage share of authors:
Article corrections:
-Publication languages:
EnglishView count: 1844
Number of downloads: 2840