Speech Acts of Aggression in American Animation Movies

Abstract

The present study scrutinizes aggression as an influential social phenomenon in five American animation movies. Animation movies are often regarded as the finest form of entertainment, and children can learn a lot from them. However, they contain a huge number of aggressive scenes. Aggression and its social impacts have been examined from different perspectives. However, investigating aggression in American animation movies has not been conducted particularly from a pragmatic viewpoint. Thus, the present study attempts to bridge this gap by identifying types and causes of aggression pragmatically. The major goal of the study is to determine the types and causes of aggression performed by aggressors by looking at how speech acts are utilized to express each type and cause of aggression in the data that is being examined. To achieve the aim of the study, Searle’s (1969) classification of speech acts is adopted. The main conclusion of the study is that expressive speech acts are used in all types of aggression, with the highest frequency and percentages. Moreover, expressive speech acts are most frequently linked with the failure factor and the social learning factor as causes of aggression.