Akeelah and the Bee

When comparing Akeelah and the Bee to the lessons of linguistic of Phonology,
Morphology, and Semantics I see several similarities. I see a couple of examples of minimal
pairs for phonology. I also see roots of words and their origins as a part of Morphology. I also
have seen several examples of semantics in metaphors. I also have found three other different
examples of linguistics.
For phonology I found two different examples of minimal pairs, the first was between
gravel and grovel. Although only thing that changed was one letter, but the whole meaning
changed.
Teacher: Now, we're gonna start things off with ''grovel.''
Student: Gravel, like little rocks?
Teacher: No, grovel like get down on your knees and grovel.
Student: Get down on my knees? What?!
Teacher: Just spell the word.
Student: Uh, G-R... A-V-L.
Teacher: No, Chuckie, you spelled gravel. I meant grovel: G-R-O-V-E-L.
It was the same thing with my second example, which was eminent and imminent. Again, even
though only one sound changed about it, the whole meaning changes. Even though a slight sound
is the only thing different, it makes a bigger difference in context and how we use it.
Woman: Eminent.
Man: Did you hear the word?
Akeelah: I'm not sure if you're saying imminent or eminent.
Man: Would you like a definition?
Akeelah: That'd be cool.
(Audience laughs)
Woman: Eminent: rising above other things or places. High; lofty... eminent.
Akeelah: E-M-l-N-E-N-T, eminent? That's correct.
Woman: That's correct.
Such as with minimal pairs in ASL, even though it is just one thing changed, it can make
all the difference in meaning and context.

Morphology is the makings, or roots, of words. In Akeelah and the Bee Dr. Larabee
teaches Akeelah several root or words and their origins so that she could make up any larger
word as long as she knew its origin. Im sure this has helped a lot of people learn and become
more words and become more knowledgeable of their meanings. Such as this example from the
movie:
Dr. Larabee: Let me ask you something. Where do you think big words come from?
Akeelah: People with big brains.
Dr. Larabee: All right, what do you see?
Akeelah: A bunch of big words l don't know.
Dr. Larabee: Ah, look again. What kind of power do we get from the sun?
Akeelah: Solar.
Dr. Larabee: So what does ''sol'' mean?
Akeelah: Sun.
Dr. Larabee: What does ''terraneous'' sound like?
Akeelah: Terrain.
Dr. Larabee: Meaning the earth. ''Soliterraneous'' means the sun and the earth working together.
So where do big words come from?
Akeelah: Little words.
Dr. Larabee: And how many little words do you know?
Akeelah: Tons.
Dr. Larabee: Yes! And there are tons more for you to learn. There are Greek ones. There are
Latin ones. French ones. And if you learn them all, you can spell any word, no matter how big.
Semantics is finding the meaning behind words or sentences. The metaphors found in
Akeelah and the Bee are some great examples of finding the meaning behind the mere plain
words. Such as in the example of:
Akeelah: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are
powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented,
fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that
is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission
to do the same.
Dr. Larabee: Does that mean anything to you?
Akeelah: I don't know.
Dr. Larabee: It's written in plain English. What does it mean?
Akeelah: That I'm not supposed to be afraid?
Dr. Larabee: Afraid of what?
Akeelah: Afraid of... me?

And as Akeelah had said, this quote means that we should not be afraid of ourselves.
Finding the meaning behind the words or sentences, either in English or ASL, is essential to
being a fluent and competent interpreter.
There is also variations in register that can be found in the movie. The most prominent
example of this was when Dr. Larabee commanded Akeelah not to her usual Casual/Informal
language register while she was studying with him, she was to only use Academic/Formal
English. I feel this served the purpose of her becoming more fluent in the use of the words she
was using so that she could better remember them. Knowing when to use what register will help
us understand the best time to use the right jargon in the right situation, and not end up making
any of our clients looking like they do not know what they are talking about.
Another example of linguistics that I noticed in the movie was a style of lexical
borrowing, as to say that two cultures live next to each other with little to no contact. And even
though they have a system or commonality so that they can understand each other. However, as
time goes on, these two communities become more different because of borrowings of different
cultures, thus the two grow further apart. I feel that we could apply this to the two different types
and styles of culture and language usage within the two schools and societies shown within the
movie. Although they do interact and understand each other fairly well, there are still some key
differences between the two. Such as the usage of Aint and different slang words.
Finally I also see the similarities between the movie and linguistics when Akeelah was
asked to read the quote that contained the metaphor, the one that I quoted above. I feel that it had
a sort of artistic feel to it. Having this poetic quote can show us that we can use language for
more than just a system of communication. This can also be seen in the usage of ASL, whether it
is an ABC story or just a regular story.

I felt that this movie was a very good way to see how we could apply the usage of the
studies of linguistics to everyday life and how ASL, not just English can be applied in these
settings too.