Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke: linguistic clues to character status and identity

This study examines the pragmatic and lexical features of dialogue in Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film "Princess Mononoke", focusing on its 1997 English-language screenplay. The analysis explores how language use reflects social positioning, character intentions, and interpersonal dynamics, investigating the frequency and variety of use of speech acts, address terms, and lexis by the main characters in seven key scenes of the film. Employing both qualitative and quantitative methods, the study highlights how speech acts are used to perform communicative intentions and manage interpersonal dynamics; how address terms function as subtle markers of hierarchy, familiarity, and shifting power relations; and how lexical patterns in character speech reflect broader thematic and ideological positions. This research contributes to media and linguistic scholarship by showing how "Princess Mononoke" uses language not only as a narrative device, but also as a means of expressing complex moral and social discourse in animated cinema.