Dominik Poos

Why Is The Villain Always British?: An Analysis of American Attitudes Towards British English And the Influence of Media, Using the Example of the Movie Gladiator Dominik Poos

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, University of Münster, language: English, abstract: Although they have been separated by history for many centuries, their common language often deceives into attributing America and Britain with equally common cultures, ideologies and communicative conventions. In this case, the English language acts as a "faux ami". This is nowhere more apparent, than in the attitudes both nations developed due to the perception of each other's English. These "language attitudes" are generated, expressed and modified in many ways and differ substantially. But what attitudes do Americans have towards British English? How are these attitudes generated, expressed and modified? And what influence do the American media have on these processes? This paper answers these questions by presenting previous attitude studies and analysing their results, using the movie "Gladiator" (2000) as an example for American media.