Inarticulateness as a developmental process from inability to ability in speech genres

From a Bakhtinian and Vygotskian perspective, I demonstrate that there is a complex developmental process which, if not interrupted, leads from inarticulateness to articulateness in various speech genres. In order to characterize inarticulateness and its dialogic development, I first present a preliminary theoretical discussion on human language and human activity. Second, I illustrate the development of inarticulateness by focusing on its portrayal in the Hollywood movie “I love you, man.” I present a brief summary of the film plot in order to permit detailed analysis. This paper provides a contribution to the fields of (psycho) linguistics, pragmatics, discourse studies, and other related areas.