LINGUISTIC PECULIARITIES OF THE FEMALE CHARACTER ARCHETYPES IN CONTEMPORARY CINEMA DISCOURSE BASED ON THE TV SERIES "WHY WOMEN KILL"

Abstract

The research focuses on the linguistic characteristics of the female characters' speech in the contemporary British television series Why Women Kill and the peculiarities of creating psycholinguistic images of female characters in accordance with the corresponding film archetypes. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that it attempts to analyze the psycholinguistic images of female characters in television series, and thus determines the originality and significance of this study. This research contributes to the enlargement of works dedicated to cinematography characters' language peculiarities revealing the correlation with a particular psychological archetype that presents the topicality of our research. The script is viewed as one of the primary universal methods for unveiling the character's image in an audiovisual text. Based on theories of character archetypes and the use of language in the media, this article examines the replicas and speech patterns of three prominent female characters to determine the linguistic choices used to convey character archetypes. The research is based on the script from the series Why Women Kill (2019) by M. Cherry. The descriptive method, contextual analysis, and method of quantitative calculations have been the appropriate methodological instruments for achieving the purpose of the study. W. Schmidt's (2007) classification serves as the basis for determining the primary psychological characteristics of the characters. The article examines the formation of psycholinguistic images of three female characters from the film archetypes The Nurturer, The Seductive Muse, and The Amazon. Beth Ann Stanton belongs to the film archetype The Nurturer, Simone Grove belongs to the film archetype The Seductive Muse, and Taylor Harding belongs to the film archetype The Amazon, as determined by W. Schmidt's analysis of the peculiarities of the characters' speech and his study of the implication of film archetypes. Beth Anne Stanton's adherence to The Nurturer film archetype is characterized by the high frequency of implications of formal language vocabulary, appellatives, and second-person singular pronouns, as societal recognition of The Nurturer film archetype is crucial. The defining linguistic characteristics of Simone Grove as The Seductive Muse film archetype are the use of hyperbole, the high frequency of first-person singular and second-person pronouns, and the repeated use of interjections, as The Seductive Muse film archetype is characterized by the constant attention of the audience and the demonstration of the importance of her own personality and other characters. Taylor Harding as The Amazon film archetype is characterized by the use of sarcasm, irony, and speech marked by assertiveness and vulgarity, as the Amazon film archetype is always ready to defend its point of view and professionalism, sometimes aggressively, in order to assert dominance.