Complexity in film dialogue

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the complexity of cinematic discourse and, more specifically, of English film dialogue. Two types of complexity will be detected and examined. In the first place, relying on findings obtained through Biber’s multi-dimensional approach, film dialogue will be discussed as an elaborate network of co-occurring linguistic features. Then, it will be described as a register constantly oscillating between two exigencies, namely that of simulating spontaneous conversation and that of narrating. The latter issue will be explored using utterance launchers as an example.