Essay on 'Inside Out': Critical Analysis

A. Introduction

1. Background

In natural communication, paralanguage takes an important part as an essential supplement to spoken language communication. When we used words, it creates language but how to deliver words so that meaning becomes clear? According to Trager (1958), human utterance fully consists of a voice set (Pennycook, 2006). The same verbal message can convey different meanings when we speak indifferently. So, we have to see that our voice is matter.

Voice carries intentional and unintentional emotional messages. Some people speak very high, some people speak low and some people have a harsh tone. Everyone's voice is distinct. For instance, When someone speaks quickly or speeds up his speech the audience would be difficult to catch the messages, therefore truly impossible for people to understand what we want to say.

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In contrast, low speech would make people perceive the speaker in many different situations like a lack of self-confidence. Then, people tend to see someone happy if the speed is fast and sad if the speed is fall. So, to understand the language, we can not just focus on the words, even though they are also important as a means to convey or express our emotions.

In everyday life, people will feel various kinds of feelings or emotions. Emotions always appear in each of our activities, indeed many people assume that emotions identically in a bad thing like anger. But it is important to know that emotions are not only limited to anger, the scope of emotions is also very extensive. In the verse of The Nobel Qur’an, Surah Fushshilat [ 41:30]: :

“Lo! those who say: Our Lord is Allah, and afterward are upright, the angels descend upon them, saying: Fear not nor grieve, but cheer them up of the paradise which you are promised.”

The letter above shows that sadness and happiness is other continuation emotion of anger. Sadness and joy always come and leave alternately. Happy because you think you have everything but once what is possessed is left, we become sad. Every people experience a variety of events that can cause many kinds of emotions. For instance, in the morning when our mother prepares lunch for us on campus or in the office, there will be happiness, or while on the way to campus or work when we are stuck in traffic, we will feel annoyed. All of that is our emotions. So, an expression comes from the body language and tone of voice used by people when experiencing the emotional phase. There is only a very strong impulse, there are very faint so the expression is not visible. Therefore, language is very important to be understood to aid life in this globalization era.

By that phenomenon, using paralanguage could give a current sign when we communicate with other people so we can understand the emotional messages delivered. When we see someone crying, we can think that they cry because they are sad, even seeing sobs we can deduce the intensity of sadness. But tears come out and provide no particular information about a certain experience of sadness because it also could indicate other situations.

Some emotions could recognize exactly based on the vocal signal but there is also difficulty in differentiating between similar emotions like respect and regard. In this case, Everyone has a different perspective based on how they see and hear something even its expressed in the same way.

In the movie, paralanguage can help the audience to prescribe a lot about the character’s background and their relationship with the other characters can be predicted. Paralanguage is also necessary to determine the emotions of the characters. So, this research will observe one of Pixar’s movies “Inside Out” (2015). Which is adapted from the story of Docter and Del Carmen.

In Inside Out movie there are 5 based emotions there are Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust (John-Laird and Oatley (1989)). All these five emotions live in a little girl’s mind named Riley in the Headquarters to control everything that happens in Riley’s mind in daily life. So, the researcher is interested in the “Inside Out” movie to be an object to analyze. Using the Inside Out movie can be able to represent simply the work of emotion and can build consciousness about the importance of emotions in someone’s life.

In this movie, we will see how emotions influence feeling, and it has a relation with paralanguage as paralanguage becomes important in determining the emotions of the characters. In addition, the other reason to choose this movie to analysis because paralanguage studies spoke a language that conveys the speaker’s meaning, feelings, and emotions. The true meaning behind someone’s words may be completely different from the literal translation. Many emotions can be experienced by people as their reactions to many situations. in every different situation, Paralanguage makes language communication to be more accurate, vividly and full of expressive force.

2. Problem Statement

After watching the movie, the researcher finds that there is a relationship between the paralanguage with the movie. And it needs to identify more deeply. So, the researcher formulates the problem statement below :

• How does paralanguage work to express emotion in Inside Out?

3. Objective of The Research

Based on the problem statement above, the researcher provides the purpose of the research :

• To identify and explain the paralanguage work in expressing emotion in the Inside Out movie

4. Significance of The Research

Based on the objective of the research above, the researcher provides the significance of the research :

1. The significance of the research is to give information about the paralanguage that works to express emotion in the Inside Out movie
2. The researcher also wants to show that paralanguage refers to some pronunciation characteristics in the inside-out movie
3. This research can be a reference for the next researcher that has a relevant study
4. And from this research, can help people to get an understanding deeply about paralanguage

5. Scope of The Research

Based on the explanation above, the researcher will analyze the works of paralanguage in the “ Inside out” movie according to paralanguage theory by Key (1975) who listed paralanguage: Vocal Qualities, Vocalizations, and Kinesics. It will be analyzed the paralanguage in expressing emotions and modifying meaning in the “Inside Out” movie.

B. Literature Review

1. Previous Findings

Below are researchers who have relevant studies with this research as a reference and comparison.

The first research was conducted by Elsadig Mohamed Khalifa & Habib Faddal (2017) “ Impacts Of Using Paralanguage On Teaching And Learning English Language To Convey Effective Meaning”. In their research paper, they explore the effect of using paralanguage on teaching and learning the English language to EFL learners. They are going to investigate the relationship between learners’ awareness of learning concepts and teachers’ paralanguage. Their research used a descriptive quantitative analysis method by using teacher and student questionnaires. Questionnaires allowed to 33 students and 16 teachers to answer 12 and 16 statements on the questionnaire respectively. The student questionnaire was going to investigate the effect of using paralanguage on learning English for EFL learners. Then, the result of the research showed, that there is a standardized test of the relational aspects between student learning and teacher’s paralanguage. However, students' perceptions of credible teaching depend on the teacher’s paralanguage. the difference between this research and their research is the object of their research and also they used a questionnaire to analyze the role of the paralanguage elements.

Another research was conducted by Azza, and Suzuas Misyah (2015). “Paralanguage Di Kalangan Mahasiswa Prodi Bahasa Inggris Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Batusangkar: Suatu Kajian Neurolinguistik. In her research, she explains the shape of Paralanguage and the impact of Paralanguage on sounds aspect segmental and suprasegmental. She also analyzed the impact of the Paralanguage on communication effectiveness among all students in the studying process. Her data collected was Paralanguage that found in English students of Batusangkar Islamic University. In her research, she used Simak Bebas Libat Cakap (SBLC) by using recording techniques and taking a note.

The third was “Paralinguistic Cues And Their Effect On Leader Credibility” that conducted by Monte Reid (2013). In his study, he wants to determine what paralinguistic cues can be used by leaders to increase the level of their credibility in communication and how to combine them to increase the biggest in their constituents. The technique of collecting data in this research is Survey-based behavior-oriented research. Survey-based behavior-oriented is an efficient way for gathering data research like an online survey. The online survey was sent electronically to 202 employees representing 12 countries around the world with 72 people responding. And according to the data represented in his study, he was choose fluidity and articulation that have the greatest effect on channel credibility.

The last was conducted by Eliot Masezi Sibuyi (2011) “The Analysis Of The Impact Of Nonverbal Communication In Xitsonga Discourse”. In his research, he aims to analyze the impact of nonverbal communication in English and Xitsonga cultures. Xitsonga is one of the eleven official languages in South Africa. He wants to examine nonverbal communication understanding that influences effective communication between people in different cultures. The technique of collecting data was used qualitative method. Then, the result of his study, communication is influenced by the culture in which it occurs; hence members of different societies, generations, social classes, ethnic groups, and cultures use their nonverbal behavior differently to express messages. Consequently, nonverbal communication is considered one of the important aspects of language that includes language, culture, identity, behavior, perceptions, attitudes, and group reference framework.

According to all of the previous findings above, it can be concluded that all of the research is analysis about paralanguage, that they used paralanguage to analyze their object. All of the previous findings above are discussed in paralanguage in different content. Almost every finding above used different elements from paralanguage to analyze the different objects. And for the similarity with this research, there are still no previous findings that analyzed paralanguage in emotion. So, the researcher will analyze another problem that is different from the previous findings above. The researcher will investigate paralanguage, and analyze paralanguage work to express emotion in the Inside Out movie by using Key’s theory.

2. Theoretical Background

a. Paralanguage

There are many definitions of paralanguage stated by experts. The study of paralanguage is known as paralinguistics and was invented by Trager in the 1950s. It is believed that the conversational use of spoken language cannot be properly understood unless paralinguistic elements are taken into account (Briefs, Elec, & Al, 2016). Therefore, In our interactions with others, we need to interpret various social signs to understand the feelings and emotions of the speakers. The actual meaning behind someone's words may be entirely different from the literal meaning.

Then, according to George Trager and Henry Lee Smith (Hall & Trager, 1953; Trager 1958 ), who stated that body movements and voice quality, and other aspects of the voice are part of the language system. Paralanguage, which is also considered to be a form of non-verbal communication, refers to non-verbal, vocal messages (Adler & Rodman, 2000). And other modes of nonverbal communication can be used to transmit messages independently of language, paralanguage is communication that always occurs simultaneously with verbal messages. A similar verbal message can convey different meanings if it is said in different ways. So, overall paralanguage is the most accurate tool to convey our feelings to others.

A study by Mehrabian suggests that about 38% of the impact of a conversation is from how things are said. The intention and feelings of someone controlling information are important for emotional communication, there has been a lot of research on logistical thinking. Only a few studies have been conducted that discuss cues that are effective in sound but still immature phases. There have been proposed that auditory modalities may be important for the communication of emotions in comparing the presentation of affective information from facial and auditory cues (Briefs et al., 2016). Paralanguage is the most important thing after facial expressions in conveying feelings or emotions. According to their formula, paralanguage contributed 38% of the impact of the overall messages. Because face expressions contribute 55% of all messages' impact, and more than 90% of their emotional content is determined nonverbally (Mehrabian, Ferris).

According to Linguistics Encyclopedic Dictionary (2013), paralanguage refers to some pronunciation characteristics and pronunciation phenomena which produced follow the language when people speak, including pitch range, speech speed and rhythm, and so on. It is well known that the main function of language is communication, but there are few people who can realize the role that paralanguage play. (Wu, 2003) Then, according to In face-to-face communication, the verbal and nonverbal elements are combined; vocal aspects of speech are inherent in the production of speech, and gestures occur concurrently with the message (Key (1975)).

According to the theories above, it can be concluded that paralanguage refers to other aspects of sound that can be understood, for instance, speed of speech, tone (high or low), dialect, etc. Each of these sound characteristics communicates our emotions, thoughts, and feeling. Someone’s emotional state also can be expressed through facial expressions or another gesture.

Through voice and facial expressions changes, we can distinguish people who are angry, happy, sad, and so on.

Key (1975), listed components of paralanguage as follows :

1) Voice Qualities

How words must be spoken when communicated by using the characteristics of the sounds of the words. So, voice qualities are the characteristic of sounds. Such as timbre, pause, intensity or volume, tempo, pitch (level, intervals, range), intonation range, syllabic duration, and rhythm.

We use tone to differentiate our emotions such as anger, happiness, fear, sadness, and so on. Mixing our tone with other vocal qualities can give the other impressions that we are sad, happy, weak, strong, confident, confused, and bored.

a) Timbre

Timbre is the organically-determined permanent voice register or pitch that, as in musical instruments, sets individuals apart and allows us to distinguish them. It is determined by the length and thickness of our vocal bands: the longer and thicker they are, the slower their vibrations or frequency and the shorter and thinner they are, the greater their vibrations. For example, when we are in a crowded, we can hear various kinds of sounds such as male, female, and children's voices.

b) Pause

Pause refers to rest, hesitation, or a temporary stop. Every language has patterns of pauses that vary the tempo of their speech. They may enhance delivery or be filled unnecessarily to distract. Depending on the duration and frequency of pauses in an expression of speech, one may infer the state of a person. Too many pauses indicate a lack of control and an over-emotional expression whereas silence, which is a pause of a longer duration is considered a failure of dialogue. Moreover, a person who talks little is considered shy and uncommunicative. A different category of pauses called ineffective pauses, convey various facets of the personality and affective state of the speaker

c) Loudness

Loudness (i.e. volume or intensity) is generally used to show emotions such as fear or anger and is the perceived loudness of the speaker. It’s a measure of the physical strength of the signal and also plays a role in influencing the affective state of an individual. Each of us has a habitual personal conversational level such as loud, soft, quiet, or inconspicuous. Related to personality, status such as a superior speaking in a low volume to elicit close attention from a subordinate.

d) Tempo

Tempo or rate, including the duration of syllables, is understood here as the relative speed or slowness in the sequential delivery of words, sentences, and the whole of a person’s speech, including, of course, paralinguistic alternants and pauses and silent breaks, all part of our individual basic style and voice set. A fast tempo can indicate: willingness, a carefree attitude, gaiety, mastering of the situation, warning about something about to happen such as anger, annoyance, impatience, haste, urgency, dismissal of something said as unimportant, unpleasant, etc.

e) Pitch

The most versatile message-conveying feature of voice, which accompanies all verbal and nonverbal communicative sounds with the subtlest possible symbolic variations, is pitch, the acuteness (highness) or gravity (lowness) of tone caused by the faster or slower frequency of vocal band vibrations.

Pitch is the perceived frequency of sound and can affect social meanings. The different sizes of the vocal folds of men and women, influence pitch range so that adult male voices are usually lower pitched than female voices. The speaker uses different patterns of pitch, consciously or unconsciously, to convey different meanings. The changes in pitch or pitch contour convey shades of meaning such as surprise, tense, emphasis, etc.

f) Syllabic Duration

Besides the speech characteristics that depend mainly on pitch and volume, we consciously or unconsciously control the speed or tempo of each of the syllables that make up our speech by lengthening or shortening them with multiple functions applied to one or more words as from overslipped and clipped to single, double, and overdraw, and long overdraw.

Drawing can be a permanent trait in a person’s voice norm, whether continuously presenting someone who ‘speaks with a drawl’ or appearing only in a given situation with attitudinal functions and expressing a particular feeling.

We are all familiar with the more common functions of drawing, for instance:

Speaking in surprised indignation:

“Wh-a-a-t!” he exclaimed; “wh-a-a-t did you say? […]”

Calling someone:

“[…] We must go home. Ar — cher! Ja — cob!’/ “Ar — cher--Ja — cob!”

g) Rhythm

The combination of different patterns of pitches, loudness, syllabic duration, and speech tempo produces as we speak variations in the rhythm of that verbal-nonverbal flow, from very smooth to very jerky. for instance, influence rhythm greatly, from the staccato or jerky effect produced by the drawing of certain syllables to the smooth and sort of gliding of the glissando effect of drawing, as well as the irregular rhythm of faltering voice

2) Vocalizations

A noise produced by the body in the form of speech or sound that can be spoken or sounds without language structure, such as a whistle, laugh, moans, cries, yelling, grunts, murmurs, sighs, and so on. Even though it is not important but it also delivers meaning. This must be understood, that the real emotions that are deeply hidden, can be explored with paralanguage. For example, people with a tendency to depression, or people who already suffer from depression, usually speak slowly, with a low and decreased tone of voice. Talk fast, rude, and excited and the tone of voice breathes, so paralanguage is characteristic of people who are scared, who are afraid of some people or situations. But the tendency to often use vocalization expressions such as 'uu', 'ahh', or 'uuh' is seen as a sign of irritability and nervousness. examples in utterances, such as: “Umm”, “Ssshh”, “Uhh” etc.

3) Kinesics

Kinesics also known as body language is the whole body that can be used as a symbolic signal. There are two kinds of kinesics as follows :

a) Tactile Kinesics

Tactile kinesics is the conveyance of nonverbal communication related to physical, haptic interaction with another individual. Tactile kinesic includes interactional elements between two communicating parties through the use of interpersonal touch. For example, doing a high five is a tactile kinesic because it is suggestive of physical contact between the sender and the recipient.

b) Visual Kinesics

Visual kinesics is the conveyance of nonverbal communication related to the representation or movement of any part of the body or the body as a whole. Visual kinesics includes emotion that signifies bodily movements, such as facial expressions, eye contact and etc.

c. Emotion

The word “emotion” comes from the Latin word, 'exmovere', which means “to move”. The meaning of this word implies that the tendency to act is absolute in emotions. Darwin (1872/1998), argued that emotions are useful because could be a motivation for people to participate in deeds in order to survive. In solving a problem, emotion is very helpful for humans and another. Emotions are difficult to define but always consist of feelings, and behaviors and always occur in certain contexts that influence them. Its is main function to provide information to individuals about their interactions with the world.

According to Daniel Goleman (2002: 411), emotions refer to a distinctive feeling and mind, a biological and psychological state, and a tendency to act. And the bodily changes follow directly the perception of the existing fact, and our feeling of the same changes as they occur is the emotion (W. James, 1884, p. 189;). So, emotions are intense feelings that are shown to someone or something. And also emotions are implied as a reaction. Emotions are typically about someone or something; they are more likely to be experienced in relation to individuals or their actions than merely in a vacuum. Hence, one should expect there to be words that refer to the relation between someone who experiences emotion and its object

Johnson-Laird and Oatley’s (1989) analysis of emotional words supported their contention that there are five basic emotions: happiness; sadness, anger, fear, and disgust.

1. Happiness / Joy

This emotion is defined as a delightful emotional state, such as feeling satisfied, ecstatic, and prosperous. Usually, excitement arises from things that suddenly happen or like the surprise, and excitement is usually social, which involves other people around that situation. Happiness is directly grateful for someone and can understand themselves and others better.

Happiness can be expressed in various ways, such as :

• a. Smiling face
• b. The cheerful and pleasant tone of voice
• c. Body language that looks relaxed and enthusiastic

2. Sadness

This emotion is defined as feelings of disappointment, despair, uninteresting, and a bad mood. Like other emotions, sadness can come at any time and be experienced by everyone from time to time. The grade of sadness felt by each person is different, depending on the cause and how someone overcomes his sadness. Sadness can be expressed in various ways, such as :

• a. Gloomy mood
• b. Silent
• c. Flagging and no passion
• d. Withdraw from others
• e. Crying

3. Anger

This emotion is defined as feeling frustrated and unsuitable with other people. When tension occurs in an activity that does not subside, indeed increases, someone, express it with anger because the aim is not achieved and does not match his desire.

Anger can express in various ways, such as :

• a. Rough tone of voice or yell
• b. Sweating and face change red
• c. Becomes aggressive, like hitting, kicking, or throwing something around
• For instance, a child whose wish is not fulfilled by their parents tends to be angry. Anger like kicking, crying, and screaming.

4. Fear

Fear is a feeling that strongly encourages an individual to stay away from something and as much as possible avoid contact with it.

When we feel this emotion, the muscles become strained, the heart beats faster, and the mind becomes cautious. Fear can include various expressions, such as:

• a. Bug out and bowed head
• b. Trying to hide or evade
• c. Sweating, heartbeats, and breath become fast

For instance, someone who sees a ghost or someone who sees a snake, automatically he will run away because he knows it dangerous animal.

5. Disgust

Disgust is defined as dislike, like seeing, smelling, feeling, or hearing something, so we trying to avoid it. Disgust is usually indicated in various ways, such as:

• a. Go away from the objects that consider disgusting
• b. Physical reactions such as nausea and wanting to vomit
• c. Facial expressions that cover the nose and squint
• d. About the “ Inside Out” Movie

Inside Out movie is a comedy drama movie in 2015. It is an American 3D computer animation that was produced by Pixar Animation Studio and released by Walt Disney. This movie was directed by Pete Docter whereas the script Ronnie del Carmen was written by Ronnie del Carmen, based on the true story of the experience of Pete’s daughter. This movie premiered at Festival Film Cannes on May 18 2015 and received positive reviews from critics all over the world. According to Rotten Tomatoes, this movie achieved a rating. 98 %. And fill the second place in the Box Office at that time.

This movie tells about various emotions in the mind of an 11-year-old girl named Riley who was born in Minnesota. In her mind, there are five personified emotions, Joy, Fear, Anger, Sadness, and Disgust. These five emotions lived in a place called Headquarters or brain, which is the center of Riley's mind control which guides her in daily life and makes it a memory. His new memories are stored in colored balls that represent each emotion like Joy is yellow, Fear is purple, Anger is red, Disgust is green and Sadness is blue.

When she was a child, Riley was cheerful. However, it was different when Riley was an adolescent, where Riley was from the suburbs and had to move to the metropolitan city in California, San Francisco following her father. Headquarters became chaotic when Riley tried to adapt to a big city.

This film is related to thoughts, feelings, and emotions, this movie becomes a genius visualization of how memory and emotions work. Starting from the identification of emotions, a collection of memories that form a personality.

C. Methodology of The Research

1. Research Method

In this research, the researcher will use a qualitative method. According to Clissett (2008, p. 100), qualitative research covers a wide range of approaches for

understanding the phenomenon of something experienced by the subject such as human experience, perceptions, motivations, and behaviors related to the way of description in the analysis of words and languages whether in the form of speech or writing. In this aspect, qualitative inquiry means to understand what others do and say or to hear and catch what something means (Grant, 2008, p. 1).

The descriptive qualitative method is used in this research because the problems discussed are not related to numerical but the researcher will explain and describe about the work of paralanguage in expressing emotion in the Inside Out movie. The researcher will watch youtube or download the movie then analyze, conduct the data and make a conclusion about the Paralanguage works in that movie.

2. Data Source

In this research, the researcher used the “Inside Out” movie as the main object of the research. Then the researcher will collect the data from the conversations between the movie and the movie script.

3. Procedures for Collecting Data

Based on the sources data above, the researcher carries out the techniques below:

1. The researcher will watch the movie
2. The researcher will transcribe the conversation from the movie
3. The researcher will identify the conversation among the characters in the movie
4. The researcher will make a list of the data related to the paralanguage and emotions

4. Techniques of Data Analysis

In this research, the researcher will analyze the data by classifying the conversations among the characters in the Inside Out movie which include the paralanguage that expresses emotions.