Sunday, February 20, 2011

The Mentalist

The Mentalist: Pink Chanel Suit (Season 3, Episode 6):

Opening the casket to see if the victim's body was hidden inside it.

The only way we can, uh.. [know for sure]
(hand gestures)
Well, we’re gonna have to take a quick peek.
  • "know for sure" has been ellipted, because the audience can infer that from the context.
  • paralinguistic features were used as pause filler and to hint that Patrick Jane wants to examine the casket
  • Following the hand gestures, hedging expressions: "well", "we're gonna have to" function to soften the authoritativeness and reduce social distance. Informal language "take a quick peek" to reduce social distance.

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