What do you assign to Mordor? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Lalaith · 10-03-2005, 05:36 AM

Hear hear, Eonwe!

What really gets my goat is linguistic imperialism - when English people in films are made to use American words.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was full of this sort of thing. So for example we had the very English Charlie and his very English father and grandfather, referring on numerous occasions to their 'pants'. Now, we know what a person with an American accent means by pants. But when a person with an English accent talks about pants, he means his underwear. What he puts on over his pants are trousers, which is what the characters clearly meant.
It's just silly, misleading and unnecessary - don't tell me an American audience wouldn't know what trousers were.

10-03-2005, 05:36 AM	#11
Lalaith Blithe Spirit Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 2,779	Hear hear, Eonwe! What really gets my goat is linguistic imperialism - when English people in films are made to use American words. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was full of this sort of thing. So for example we had the very English Charlie and his very English father and grandfather, referring on numerous occasions to their 'pants'. Now, we know what a person with an American accent means by pants. But when a person with an English accent talks about pants, he means his underwear. What he puts on over his pants are trousers, which is what the characters clearly meant. It's just silly, misleading and unnecessary - don't tell me an American audience wouldn't know what trousers were. __________________ Out went the candle, and we were left darkling