Background: Archaism and slang sit at opposite ends of the linguistic spectrum, yet both are powerful tools for rooting a story in a specific time and place. While literary critics have picked apart their use in novels for decades, we still don't have a clear picture of what happens to these delicate linguistic markers when a story moves from page to screen.

Objective: This article tackles that gap. It offers a comparative discourse analysis of how archaism and slang function in a classic novel and then how they are transformed in its film adaptation. Using F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925) [4] and a major film version as a case study, we'll track the impact of this media shift on the very texture of the story's language.

Methods: The study takes a qualitative approach, blending literary analysis with adaptation theory. Our framework pulls from sociolinguistic work on slang (Eble, 1996 [3]; Green, 2016 [5]), stylistic studies of archaism (Krysin, 2004) [8], and the foundational principles of adaptation laid out by Hutcheon (2013) [6]. To make sense of the film's dialogue, we also draw on the work of Kozloff (2000) [7].

Results: What we found is a strategic trade-off. The novel uses 1920s slang to create a feeling of authenticity and a formal, almost archaic narration to give it a timeless, tragic feel. Film adaptations, on the other hand, tend to flatten this specialized language. They often translate its purpose into visual cues, music, and performance, choosing to connect with a modern audience's emotions rather than sticking to strict linguistic history.

Conclusion: Moving slang and archaism from literature to film isn't a simple copy-paste job; it's a deep act of re-contextualization. This process shines a light on the different strengths of novels and films, showing how adaptive choices about language are absolutely critical in shaping a story’s tone, characters, and ultimate meaning.

Adaptation Studies, Film Discourse, Literary Analysis

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Baldick, C. (2015). The Oxford dictionary of literary terms (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Eble, C. C. (1996). Slang and sociability: In-group language among college students. University of North Carolina Press.

Fitzgerald, F. S. (1925). The great Gatsby. Charles Scribner's Sons.

Green, J. (2016). Slang: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.

Hutcheon, L. (2013). A theory of adaptation (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Kozloff, S. (2000). Overhearing film dialogue. University of California Press.

Krysin, L. P. (2004). Archaic elements in language and speech [Архаические элементы в языке и речи]. Institute of Linguistics RAN Press.