Verbal and Nonverbal Discourse of Male Characters in Animated Movies

Abstract

An observation on gender discourse (verbal and nonverbal communication) is the main concern of various scientific studies.  Verbal communication serves to express one’s own views, information and ideas in the form of sound and words. The spoken language involves face-to-face communication, while nonverbal communication (also known as silent language) is the transmission of messages through eye contact, facial expressions, gestures and spatial relationship between the sender and the receiver to convey a message. Researchers have substantiated in earlier studies that verbal and nonverbal communication patterns of men and women are quite different (Eagly & Johnson, 1990; Kring & Gordon, 1998). The goal of the manuscript is to observe and analyse discourse (verbal and nonverbal) of male mice characters in two animated movies (American – “The Great Mouse Detective” and Georgian – “Tsuna and Tsrutsuna”). Observation and qualitative research methods, as well as typological analysis are used during the study. Consequently, two animated movies (“The Great Mouse Detective” (American) and “Tsuna and Trutsuna” (Georgian) have been selected for farther analysis where the main heroes represent mice and rats.The study based on the observational research has revealed the fact that animated movie characters act in similar way male and female gender perform in various situations. Observation on movie characters implies the deep social and linguistic analysis of verbal and non-verbal discourse which is expressed in their actions and interrelations towards each other.