LANGUAGE FORM VS FUNCTION

Utterance from film "life of a Pi"

3’58”

Writer : So, you were raised in a zoo?

Pi         : born and raised...in pondichery, in what was the french part of india. My father owned the zoo. And I was delivered on short notice by a herpetologist who was there to check on Bengal monitor lizard. Mother and I were both healthy but the poor lizard escaped and was trampled by a frightened cassowary.

The way of karma, huh? The way of god.

Writer    : that’s quite a story. I had assumed your father was a mathematician because of your name.

Pi         : Far from it. I was named after a swimming pool.

Writer : there is a swimming pool named “pi”?

Pi         : you see, my uncle Francis was born with too much water in his lungs. They say the doctors swung Francis around by the ankles to clear the water out and that’s what gave him the huge chest and skinny legs that made him such a great swimmer.

Writer  : is Francis actually your uncle? He said he was friends with your father.

Pi         : He’s my honorary uncle. I call him Mamaji. My father’s best friend, my swimming guru.

I trained with him three times a week at the ashram. His lesson would save my life in the end.

“a mouthful of water will not harm you, but panic will. Remember to breath now, don’t hold your breath. Good boy.”

I hope you don’t mind vegetarian.

Writer  : No, no. Not at all. And your name?

Pi         : Huh?

Writer  : you were going to tell me how you got your name, I think.

Pi           : oh, yes. I got it from something Mamaji once told my father. You see, most travellers collect postcards or teacups on their journey but not Mamaji. Mamaji collects swimming pools. He swims in every pool he comes upon.

5’58”

Taken from a film “Life of A Pi”

ANALYSIS

The situation is in a house, Pi’s house. The conversation happens between a writer and Pi. They are talking about Pi’s childhood. At the time of talking, Pi is cooking and the writer is sitting in front of him. The first sentence that said by the writer is

Writer : So, you were raised in a zoo?

The sentence form is a statement (positive statement) but the utterance is used to asked for Pi’s confirmation whether he was raised in a zoo. The writer says it with upper intonation at the tail of the sentence that makes the sentence more like a question than a statement as showed from its form

The way of karma, huh? The way of god.

In this phrase, actually the first utterance “the way of kama, huh?” is the same meaning with “that is the way of karma, huh?” but Pi here uses it as a question by adding “huh?”, and he answers it by himself by continuing the same form of utterance but different function “The way of god” (it is the same meaning with “that’s the way of God”)

Writer : there is a swimming pool named “pi”?

Pi have told him that his name was taken from a swimming pool name, he said it right before the writer said the utterance above,. So the form of this sentence is a statement but the writer says it with higher intonation at the end so it changes function become a question, but Pi doesn’t really answer it since Pi knows that the writer have heard it clearly that his name was taken from a name of a swimming pool.