Hungarian and English plays compared

This post is starts a series about analyzing British and Hungarian versions of the same play. G.B. Shaw’s play You never can tell (1962, original 1896) was selected for the study. Since the mental models of the Finnish and Swedish languages differ significantly (Strømnes, 1974), it is conceivable that the mental models of other languages belonging to the same language groups would be fundamentally similar and would differ from each other in the same way as the mental model of the Finnish language differs from the Swedish language model (see my previous post). The ideal situation for this kind of research would be to find versions of the same script with the same basic solutions from all the target countries, because the behavior to be investigated would then be standardized as far as possible.

The plays were selected by studying the Hungarian TV and BBC catalogs, looking for domestic versions of the same manuscripts filmed at about the same time. In addition, the implementation methods had to be consistent. Both language versions are very loyal to the original script. They were shot in 1974 (Hungarian) and 1976 (English). The English version is 113 minutes long and the Hungarian version 109. Only native speakers of that country had participated in both versions. The scenes take place in the dentist’s reception, on the restaurant’s terrace and in the restaurant.

The layout solutions are largely convergent. The English version includes assistants who presented restaurant guests in the second and last section. In this version, drawings of the events that were cross-stitched[1] were used at the beginning and between the scenes to present the venues. In the Hungarian version, there were no persons other than the main characters and the serving waiters. The difference in the number of persons placed some restrictions on space use in the Hungarian version during the terrace scenes. These differences have been taken into account in the analyzes by separating spatial variables by scenes. The plays were analyzed completely.

Hypotheses

The hypothesis is that the mental model of the Hungarian language is similar to the Finnish language model and the English language model to the Swedish. In the comparison of Finnish and Swedish / Norwegian pictorial productions (Strømnes et al., 1982) we found structural features which correlated with the structural features of the mental models of these languages. Therefor it is assumed that the mental models of other languages belonging to these language groups are similar if the same structural features are found in the image productions of these countries. According to the hypothesis, the structure of films made in the Indo-European countries should be clearly different from those made in the Ural-Altaic region.

Research Method and Recording Procedure

The research method used was developed in its basic form in the late 1970s for comparing Finnish and other Nordic television productions (Strømnes et al., 1982). Filming a play is a semi-structured task where the script is ready, but its pictorial implementation can be freely selectable by the director. The analytical method is completely quantitative and based on calculating selected phenomena on the screen and does not involve any qualitative assessment of the output. The occurrence of selected variables is recorded in the protocol using the time code associated with the film, which allows repeatability of the measurements and correlation of the variables. The only variable with evaluation is the depth of the image. Other variables can be easily checked even by inexperienced observers and, if necessary, measurements can be repeated. Learning the evaluation of the depth of the image is quite fast.

Compared to the phenomenological evaluation, the method is very time consuming. For one film, 1000-1300 lines of the record were accumulated. At least 4000 entries per full play were thus recorded. The average length of a period to be evaluated in this material was about 6 seconds. Some of the variables can be encoded for computer for analysis, but half of the work must be done manually, e.g. counting the movements of the people and the camera(s). The recording procedure will be explained in detail in the next post.

Due to the method used, the measurements have a high reliability. In doubtful cases, the measurement can be repeated several times until the undisputed entry can be recorded. The hardest control of reliability is to measure the image depth, because it is the only variable with evaluation. The measurements were carried out by two people who also had experience in previous work, which measured four pairs of plays. The consensus on the entries to be made was almost 100% among the surveyors. Although the surveyor is aware of the hypotheses of the study, systematic influencing of the measurement results is difficult due to the above-described detail of data collection.

The Hungarian television donated the material, but BBC charged for their material in accordance with commercial practice.

[1] Cross-stitching is a technique where one image is faded while replaced with another.

REFERENCES

Shaw, G. B. (1962) You never can tell. In: Bernard Shaw: Complete plays with prefaces, vol. VI. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. Original manuscript from 1896.

Strømnes, F.J. (1974) No universality of cognitive structures? Two experiments with almost perfect one-trial learning of translatable operators in a Ural-Altaic and an Indo-European language. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 15, 300-309.

Strømnes, F.J., Johansson, A. & Hiltunen, E. (1982) The externalised image. A study showing differences correlating with language structure between pictorial structure in Ural-Altaic and Indo-European filmed versions of the same plays. Helsinki: The Finnish Broadcasting Corporation, Report No. 21.