The Formation Of Film & Television Language Meme: A Psychological Approach

Recent years have seen the popularity and prevalence of Film & Television Language (FTL for short) in the wake of the fast technological development of mass media tools. Not only in newspapers, magazines, internet, but also in our daily life, we can see some common use of FTL. In light of this phenomenon, the author makes an attempt to analyze it from the perspective of memetics. Memetics is a new theory for interpreting cultural evolution. A meme, invented to suggest an analogy with genes, is a unit of cultural imitation (Dawkins 1976). Memetically, language meme reveals from a new angle, the law of speech spread and language replication, besides the formation of language meme is accompanied by a series of psychological factors. So the present study focuses on how psychological factors of host affect the formation of FTL meme. This is a qualitative analysis based on the data collected from newspapers, magazines, Internet and daily use of FTL. The conceptual framework is constructed on memetics, the theory of imitation in psychology and hierarchy of needs theory in motivation theory. Based on the four stages of meme replication the core of the present research makes an analysis of the psychological factors of host which affect the formation of FTL meme.Meme is a unit of intellectual or cultural information that can be transmitted in a non-genetic way. There are many examples of memes which are in different styles, such as tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches, etc (Dawkins 1976). As one kind of meme, language meme is a transmission unit of language information which includes language form, the usage of language style. The unit of language information replicates and transmits by non-genetic means and consequently language develops and evolves in this way.FTL refers to the vocal language of dramatis personae in films or TV programs only in this paper. FTL meme refers to the vocal language of dramatis personae in films or TV programs imitated and transmitted from mind to mind. Its formation process consists of four stages: assimilation, retention, expression and transmission. In assimilation stage, the presented meme must be noticed, understood and accepted respectively by a host. In the next stage-retention, the meme must be retained by the host through memory. The expression stage goes on by the way of imitation, human being's imitation behavior is motivated by their psychological needs. FTL memes can be transmitted vertically from one generation to another and horizontally through the whole society in the last stage.Language meme is an interesting phenomenon in language use. A systematic research can provide both theoretical and practical values in linguistics. This study is a tentative research which is conducted by observing and analyzing the collected data. However it is hoped that the study will be helpful and beneficial to the study of language meme.