You Had me at Hello: Pronunciation Patterns of Famous Movie Quotes

Only a few films take on legendary status as “classics” – a result of multiple elements, like a script and its delivery, coming together for great effect.  What is your favorite Hollywood classic? Maybe The Wizard of Oz comes to mind, or maybe it’s Terminator.

SEE ALSO: English Pronunciation Lesson from Arnold Schwarzenegger

Now consider a famous quote in that movie.  In many great classic films there’s at least one line that stands out as memorable, so memorable that if you said it to complete strangers, they’d likely know where it came from.

1.  General context

Nonetheless, there are thousands of lines in those films, so what makes some of them, like The Godfather’s “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse,” get stuck in your head, but not “This Hollywood big-shot’s going to give you what you want” – both lines from the same scene, both spoken by the same character?

Cornell University study of a database’s list of top 1,000 film quotes found that indefinite articles are more common than definite articles for a similar reason.  If it were “I’m going to make him the offer he can’t refuse,” then we would wonder, “Which offer?”.

2.  Simple syntax

If we look at the patterns of famous movie lines, one of the most fundamental traits is universality.  “There’s no place like home” applies to contexts outside of Oz of course: it might be used in real-world contexts.

There are other, less abstract factors in English that communicate generalization, including usage and syntax.

These factors focus on not getting the brain hung up on particulars.  Most pronouns, for example, are in first or second person so that they don’t take the mind away from the scene, causing our brains to veer off into “Who is ‘he’?” rather than stay involved in the moment.  When third person pronouns are used, such as in the mentioned The Godfather quote, you’ll usually find the action and not its object emphasized.

In a similar vein, simple syntax doesn’t require the brain to pause for processing, like this quote from “Scarface”.

3.  Distinct Vocabulary and Pronunciation

Now let’s look at the distinguishing traits that actually do make a quote stand out enough for fame.

Although famous lines often have straight-forward syntax, their vocabulary can be distinct, such as Casablanca’s, “Here’s to looking at you, kid” and Gone with the Wind’s “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” See Clark Gable in action:

The actor contributes vitally to a line’s panache through intonation, emphasis, not to mention visual attitude, and often regional or foreign dialect is key.

4.  Dramatic Intonation

If the language is appropriately un-self-conscious, then what we remember is these principles of delivery (along with the backdrop of a scene’s atmosphere).

A dramatic drop of intonation (as Clint Eastwood has shown time and time again) communicates powerful authority, while a dramatic intonational rise could convey memorable desperation.

In a similar way, foreign accent or a specific regional dialect, may make both an actor and a quote more exotic and, therefore, more memorable.  We saw this with Schwarzenegger and many other actors in recent times.

5.  Charm and Magic of Holywood

Linguistically, a quote becomes famous through a combination of unobtrusive language structure, enough distinction to be unique without distraction, delivery, and maybe just a bit of Hollywood magic.