A structural analysis of film can make good on the traditional “film is language” metaphor in several ways. As a linguistic grammar formally partitions the world into sentential and nonsentential objects, a structural theory of film partitions the world into those objects that are narrative film scenes and those that are not. Additionally, it is argued, such an analysis offers substantive foundation for descriptions of structural relations between film scenes, the organization of film perception, the film as an aspect of human symbolic capacity, and of film aesthetics.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BaggettP. A. and EhrenfeuchtA., Information in Content Equivalent Movie and Text Stories, Discourse Processes, 5, pp. 73–99, 1982.
2.
ChatmanS., Story and Discourse: Narrative and Structure in Fiction and Film, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1978.
3.
WorthS., Studying Visual Communication, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1981.
4.
ArnheimR., Art and Visual Perception, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1971.
5.
BachK. and HarnishR. M., Linguistic Communication and Speech Acts, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1979.
6.
LangerS., Problems of Art, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1957.
7.
MillerG. A. and Johnson-LairdP. N., Language and Perception, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1976.
8.
CarrollJ. M., Toward a Structural Psychology of Cinema, Mouton, The Hague, 1980.
9.
LasherM. D.CarrollJ. M., and BeverT. G., The Cognitive Basis for Art, Manuscript, T. J. Watson Research Center, 1983.
10.
LangendoenD. T. and PostalP. M., The Vastness of Natural Language, Basil Blackwells, Oxford, 1984.
11.
JohnsonD. E. and PostalP. M., Arc Pair Grammar, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1980.
12.
CarrollJ. M., Structure in Visual Communication, Semiotica, 40, pp. 371–392, 1982.
13.
MetzC., Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema, Oxford University Press, New York, 1974.
14.
BresnanJ. (ed.), The Mental Representation of Grammatical Relations, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1982.
15.
ChomskyN., Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1965.
16.
ChomskyN., Lectures on Government and Binding, Foris, Dordrecht, 1981.
17.
FreedleR. (ed.), Discourse Production and Comprehension, Vol. 1, Ablex Publishing Co., Norwood, New Jersey, 1977.
18.
KintschW. and van DijkT. A., Toward a Model of Text Comprehension and Production, Psychological Review, 85, pp. 363–394, 1978.
19.
LasherM. D., The Cognitive Representation of an Event Involving Human Motion, Cognitive Psychology, 13, pp. 391–406, 1981.
20.
SchankR. C. and AbelsonR., Scripts, Plans, Goals, and Understanding, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 1977.
21.
BettetiniG., The Language and Technique of the Film, Mouton, The Hague, 1973.
22.
EisensteinS. M., Film Forum, LeydaJ. (trans. and ed.), Harcourt, Brace, and World, New York, 1949.
23.
ReiszK., The Technique of Film Editing, Communication Arts Books, New York, 1968 (originally published, 1953).
24.
PudovkinV. I., Film Technique and Film Acting, Grove Press, New York, 1958 (originally published, 1929).
25.
CarrollJ. M.TanenhausM. K., and BeverT. G., The Perception of Relations, in Studies in the Perception of Language, LeveltW. and Flores d'ArcaisG. (eds.), Wiley, London, 1978.
26.
BeverT. G. and HurtigR. R., Detectability of a Nonlinguistic Stimulus is Poorest at the End of a Clause, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 4, pp. 1–7, 1975.
27.
CarrollJ. M. and BeverT. G., Segmentation in Cinema Perception, Science, 191, pp. 1053–1055, 1976.
28.
CaplanD., Clause Boundaries and Recognition Latencies for Words in Sentences, Perception and Psychophysics, 12, pp. 73–76, 1972.
29.
CarrollJ. M., On Coordination Reduction, Lingua, 46, pp. 49–60, 1978.
30.
CarrollJ. M., A Linguistic Analysis of Deletion in Cinema, Semiotica, 34, pp. 25–53, 1981.
31.
HarriesH., Coordination Reduction, Stanford University Working Papers in Language Universals, 11, pp. 139–209, 1973.
32.
KousoudasA., Gapping, Conjunction Reduction, and Coordination Deletion, Foundations of language, 7, pp. 337–386, 1971.
33.
RossJ. R., Gapping and the Order of Constituents, in Progress in Linguistics, BierwischM. and HeidolphK. (eds.), Mouton, The Hague, 1970 (originally 1967 mimeo).
