Change in politeness strategies with regards to gender differences in Disney Princess films over time.

Abstract

The present study looks at how politeness is used with gender and archetypes in Disney Princess films and how this changes over time. Thirteen Disney film scripts, nine animated and four live-action remakes, were transcribed and analysed for their uses of politeness markers that were compliments, apologies, and tag questions. It was found that politeness word count overall increased around 1.5%. Films had on average a frequency of 7% of politeness markers in their dialogue. Compliments were the highest used politeness form, and interpersonal was the highest used politeness function when compared to formal politeness and sarcasm. The Princess archetype, and women characters in general, decreased politeness over time, while the Prince character, and male characters in general, increased politeness over time. The increase and decrease for Prince and Princess archetypes demonstrates a potential relationship between politeness usage, and could indicate a minimum politeness needed in films. The remake films showed a general trend of increased politeness, and this was mostly by male characters. This study shows there was politeness change over time in these films related to character archetypes and gender, which could lead to further research on these topics in real world data.