British English and Characterization in American Movies

This paper reports on a study into characterization in American movies by means of language variety, focusing specifically on the use of British English. The analysis is carried out on two different movie genres, with a view to investigating whether different genres use language characterization differently. In particular, the study sets out to establish whether characters in superhero movies displaying fantasy and science fiction elements tend to use speech characterization more stereotypically than movies based on true stories or on realistic fictional movies.