Grammatical complexity in film dialogue: a corpus-based study from a register-functional perspective

Grammatical complexity has traditionally been associated with the structural elaboration of texts, and, more recently, with the functionally-motivated use of syntactic patterns exhibiting internal variability along the written-to-spoken register continuum (Biber et al., 2022). Adopting a register-functional approach, the present corpus-based study investigates grammatical complexity in Anglophone film dialogue, focusing on the occurrence of finite and non-finite dependent clauses. Grammatical complexity in film language is assessed in relation to situational characteristics of onscreen dialogue and compared to previous findings on grammatical complexity in spontaneous conversation, with the overarching aim of contributing to corpus-based descriptions of language input relevant for second language acquisition. Results point to a functionally-driven distribution of clausal patterns, balancing narration, realism, emotionality, and economy of expression in the portrayed dialogue. They also show that while film language closely approximates the complexity of spontaneous spoken language, it exhibits distinctive features linked to register-specific communicative functions and medium-related constraints.