The Result of Analyzing the Sociolinguistics Aspects of an Interview Video with Maze Runner's Casts








Halo, my lovely readers! How have you been doing all this time? I hope you all right. Well, it's been a long time since I posted my last post here. I didn't post anything for such a decade because I was so busy and I had no idea what to post. But, no one really care, isn't it? Alright.

So, in my last post, I have written some explanations of sociolinguistics. Shortly, sociolinguistics is a study of language and how it is used in society. If you want to see the full explanation of sociolinguistics and some of its examples, you can see them in my previous by clicking here.

In line to my previous post, my today's post will be talking about the analysis of some sociolinguistics aspects of a video. Especially, in this post, I will show you the result of analyzing the sociolinguistics aspects of an interview video with Maze Runner's casts that I have taken form YouTube entitled "Maze Runner cast LOST IT to cheeesy pick-up lines!" This post is especially made for accomplishing my final task of sociolinguistics course that has been given by my fully-respected and humble sociolinguistics lecturer, Ms. Yuna Tresna Wahyuna, S.S., M.Hum.

Anyway, before we jump into the main topic of our discussion today, I would like to give a description of a video being analyzed in some brief paragraphs below. 

THE DESCRIPTION OF THE VIDEO

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia5DIH-RsVexM1JhCJjCgR98_MD8nCYm2oVHbzStgVbHyRhn-DJH3IOZJTEiYXwlT-vcszzvyL8nE8qeVdo-tiPojLZS6CCDXTt-WmgWLW0eSdBAKvc8vPT6LVDT1YnEAJU1pqM-sonV4/s320/220px-MazeRunnerDeathCureFinalPoster.jpeg
Disclaimer: The photo is not mine

The video being analysed in this post is such an interview video that has been taken from youtube channel which belongs to Hot TV, an entertainment programme presented by Hot FM deejays and airs as a weekly programme broadcast by TV9 in Malaysia. The video is uploaded on January 23rd, 2018. The total duration of the video is five minutes and four seconds (5:04). The first second to three minutes and fifty-one seconds (0:01-3:51) shows the scene where the interview happened, while the rest of the video (3:52-05:02) shows the trailer of the final movie, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, which released in 2018.

Further, in the video, we can see that there are four people. Three of them are the interviewees and the other one is the host or the interviewer. Clearly, from the title of the video we have known that the three interviewees in this video are the casts of the American dystopian science fiction movie, Maze Runner, which is directed by Wes Bell based on James Dashner's 2009 novels of the same name. Respectively, their names are Ki Hong Lee (roled as Minho), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (roled as Newt), and Dylan O'brien (roled as the main chacter, Thomas). Meanwhile, the name of the friendly and hilarious host who's managed to hit the guys with her amazing flatteries is one and only, Sara. 

As we can see in the video, the atmosphere of the interview seems nice and fun. Clearly, Sara really knows how and when she needed to spell the trapped questions in the right time so that the guys didn't realize that the questions was coming and finally the whole trapped questions managed to surprise them.

THE RESULT OF ANALYZING THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS ASPECTS OF AN INTERVIEW WITH MAZE RUNNER'S CASTS

The video have been analysed and I have found some sociolinguistics aspects of the video including the interviewees and interviewer’s linguistic repertoire, their domains of language use, the use of code switching, the language use of migrant minorities and non-migrant minorities, the use of lingua franca, and the last but not least, the effect of gender and age to language use.
Without any further due, I’d like to directly show the analysing of the findings in each of the section below.

A.      THE LINGUISTIC REPERTOIRE OF THE INTERVIEWEES AND INTERVIEWER

According to Finegan (2004) in ELLO (2019), linguistic repertoire is “the set of language varieties used in the speaking and writing practices of a speech community”. This term represents all linguistic varieties, e.g. accent and dialects, used by a person from a particular speech community. In this section, I will explain the linguistic repertoire of the Maze Runner’s Casts and the interviewer, Sara, including the variety of the language they use, and their accents. 

1.        The Variety of the Language Used

There are clearly four participants in the video, respectively named, Ki Hong Lee, Thomas Sangster, Dylan O’Brien and the host, Sara. First, Ki Hong Lee. He was born in Seoul, South Korea, but he moved to Auckland, New Zealand when he was 6. Here, we can see that he basically is able to speak Korean because it is his first language when he was child, and when he moved to New Zealand, the ability to speak English consequently started to be part of his daily live until now on. In that case, there are at least two languages that he can use, Korean and English. Clearly, now as one of the great actors in America, the language that mostly used by Ki Hong is English. Whether to socialize to his friends in his neighbourhoods, or to communicate with his friends and acquaintances at work. 

On the other hand, the probability of Ki Hong using Korean is not much. Yet, still, there is a possibility that Ki Hong uses Korean to speak to his family in Seoul or even probably to his parents at home. In the video, clearly seen that Ki Hong uses English to communicate to his friends in casts, and to the host. The choice of the language used by Ki Hong of course is affected by social factor, if he talks in another language, let say Korean, the other participants in the video may not understand him.

Second, Thomas Sangster and Dylan O’brien. Thomas was born in London, while Dylan was born in New York. Even though they came from different regions, still, the language they use is English. So far, I do not know whether they have relatives from other countries that require them to speak different languages or whether they have learnt new languages for just their specific needs, but all I know is at least now they can speak English only. In the video, both of them use English to communicate because it is the language that they use every single day since they were children. 

The last is the host, Sara. She is a Malaysian and the language she uses every single day is Malay. However, in the interview, because the interviewees of the interview are English speakers, in order to achieve the communicative communication she uses English as well. In conclusion, as seen in the video, her language repertoire are at least Malay and English. 

2.        The Accents

In the video, it’s clearly seen all the participants use English to communicate. However, it could not be denied that almost all of them use the different accent to speak English itself. Thomas, individually, uses British accent because he was in London, and people in London use British English. Ki Hong, even though he’s part of Asian, it doesn’t seem like he still have his Korean Accent. The fact that he has lived in America longer than in South Korean may affect his English accent right now. Similarly, Dylan speaks with his American accent. It’s seen by the way he speak clearly and easier to be heard and to be understood than Thomas. On the other hand, Sara, because she is a Malaysian, while she was speaking English she still have her Malaysian accent. 

B.       THE DOMAINS OF LANGUAGE USE

In her book, Holmes (2013) states that someone’s domains of language use can be affected by some of factors—including who you are talking to, the social context of the talk, the function and the topic they are discussing. Here, in the video, we can see that actually there is no relation between Sara and the Maze Runners’ cast at all. Even, probably it was the first for Sara to meet them. Yet, still, they seems like so friendly to each other because the social context of their talks. It is because Sara, as a host on Hot TV itself, should be as friendly as possible so that the Maze Runner’s cast would feel comfortable during the interview. Similarly, the Maze Runner’s casts should be friendly too because it is basically their jobs.

Clearly seen that the interview is a kind of informal interview. The topic that they were discussing was of course around the Maze Runner’s movie information. Sara asked some questions to the Maze Runner’s casts about their experiences while making the movie and their opinions about a couple of things in the movie in a very friendly way. She even put some flatteries in her questions that make the interviews became more attractive.
Here are the list of some trapped questions that she asked to make the interview became more interesting. This questions also has managed to make the four of them getting more comfortable and closer to each other.

1.        Sara to Ki Hong, “Ki Hong, do you have a band-aid? ‘Cause I stretch my knee falling for you.”
2.        Sara to Thomas, “So, my parents always told me to follow my dreams, so can I follow you home, Thomas?”
3.        Sara to Dylan, “I’m sorry what was your name again? Can I call you mine?”

C.      THE USE OF CODE SWITCHING

In the minutes 3:22, Sara uses code-switching from English to Malay in order to make another jokes to the Maze Runner’s casts. She said straightly like, “Sara jodoh saya.” for answering Ki Hong’s question “Is there anything cool in Malaysia that we can say?” At first, the Maze Runner’s cast didn’t find out that what she told them to say was another trapped to flirt them. Yet, finally Dylan O’brien found out that she was up to something and he asked her what the sentence mean. Then, she told him the true meaning of the Malay sentence that she told them to say is “Sara is my soulmate.” Clearly, Sara’s behaviour again and again had managed to make all of them laugh, especially Dylan.

D.      THE LANGUAGE USE OF MIGRANT MINORITIES AND NON-MIGRANT MINORITIES

In this section, the subject of our discussion are only Ki Hong and Sara. To find out what I have analysed from both of them in this section, let’s look at this explanation below.

1.        Ki Hong Lee as an Example of Migrant Minorities

In the first section of linguistic repertoire, I have mentioned that Ki Hong was born in Seoul, South Korea. It basically means that his first language is Korean. However, when he moved out to Auckland when he was 6, because the majority language is Auckland is English and Korean is just minority language in Auckland, Ki Hong had to learn English in order to be able to communicate with his new neighbors and his new friends. Time passed, apparently because he lives in a community where English is a majority language, the language he mostly uses is English. Korean, which is Ki Hong’s first language, now probably be rarely used by him unless for a special occasion, e.g. talking to his family.

2.        Sarancak as an Example of Non-migrant Minorities

Someone’s code choice can also be affected by other factors, such as economic, social, and political. Here in the video, we can see that Sara can use English fluently even though she is a Malaysian. In that case, she is not using English because she moved to somewhere where she needs to learn English like Ki Hong’s case, however, she learnt English in order to fulfil her economic needs. She is one of the hosts in Hot TV programme broadcast by TV9 in Malaysia, that is why she needs to learn English so that she can communicate to her guests who doesn’t speak Malay, but English. 

E.       THE USE OF LINGUA FRANCA

According to Holmes (2013), a lingua franca is a language used for communication between people whose first languages differ. More generally, however, the term lingua franca describes a language serving as a regular means of communication between different linguistic groups in a multilingual speech community.  

Based on my explanation before, we have known that they came from different regions or even countries. In that case, their first languages are different. Ki Hong’s first language is Korean. While Thomas and Dylan’s first languages are English. Further, Sara’s first language is Malay. Clearly, they will not be able to communicate if they use their first language to talk to each other. 

Therefore, in order to be able to understand the languages of each other, the use the lingua franca to communicate in the interview. In this case, the lingua franca used is English.

F.       THE EFFECT OF GENDER TO LANGUAGE USE

In this section of analysing, I will show how the gender differences affects the use of language of the participants of the interview.

1.        Gender-Preferential Speech Features: Social Dialect Research

In the book written by Holmes (2013), the use of languages of different gender can be absolutely different. However, the book also explained that sometimes there would be no difference at all between the language used by the girls and the boys. This is indeed confusing to understand. But, if we see in our real world, this explanation would not be so hard to understand because indeed sometimes we found a girl who talks differently with the boy, and we also found a girl who talks similarly with the boy. 

In the interview video that we’re analysing, we can see that there are no so much differences between the way the guys talking and the way Sara talking. They talk like they are the same age, and they talk in same informal language to each other. They even used almost the same kind of vocabulary. In conclusion, sometimes, the preference of language used of the girls and the boys can be just same. It depends on how and when and to whom the language is used.

2.        The Woman and Man’s Behaviours during the Interviews

Clearly, we can see that three of them are man and the other one is a women. According to Holmes’s book (2013), woman being interviewed will tend to talk more than man being interviewed. It is because we know that sometimes the woman like to talk more than a man in nature. It’s like they tend to talk anything that’s even not really important to be said in the interview. Unlike woman, man would be really careful to answer the questions while they are being interviewed. However, we can directly know that those characteristics of woman and man being interviewed is just only happened in such a formal interview.

In the video, we can clearly see that the interview held by Hot TV is such kind of an informal interview. That is why both the Maze Runner’s cast and Sara talk in almost the same amount. Although, I can deny that Sara is more aggressive than the man. It is proved by the way she hit Ki Hong, Thomas, and also Dylan with her trap-questions. In conclusion, actually the man and woman’s behaviour in an interview is affected by what kind of interview, and the purpose of the interview itself.

Well, that is all the result of analysing sociolinguistics aspects of an interview video with Maze Runner’s cast done by myself. From my analysis, I can say that we, whether conscious or not, always involve some sociolinguistics aspects when we communicate with other person or people. It proves by even in that short and informal interview, we can find out many sociolinguistics aspects used in it. Not to mention the aspects that may I have not seen.

Alright, then. I think that is all from me today. I am so sorry if you find anything unappropriate in my post. I hope you can give me some suggestions so I can improve my next articles. Lastly, I hope you can find this article useful for you. Thank you so much. See you on the next post!

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