A Sociolinguistic Analysis Of Verbal Bullying In Matilda Movie

Abstract

In social interactions, people communicate to build relationships by exchanging ideas and information.  They use language to interact with others and to express their ideas as well as their intentions to those listening. Sometimes , people use the language not for the purpose of communications but in order to devalue or harm others which is known as bullying.The present  paper deals with verbal abuse (verbal bullying) that certain characters in Matilda movie engage in and to analyze them sociolinguistic ally. The chosen  samples  will be analyzed quantitatively   by using a theoretical framework based on Holmes' (1991,1992) studies to sociolinguistic, social variables and the social dimensions, which is divided into four scales, Rigby (2002) to refer to the functions of bullying and Stephenson and Smith (2002) to show its types, and qualitatively . It is concluded that several characters use language in abusive way (direct verbal bullying), the social distance scale is the one that is most frequently utilized in the film, according to the classification of these scales. It is also discovered that the most common function of bullying is to get power and control.