The dialogue is very formal, and because there is 180 years between both texts we can see the way in which the English language has changed. This is exemplified through "Mr Knightly, a sensible man about seven or eight-and-thirty", which means Mr Knightly is thirty-eight (Austen 8). The language used in clueless additionally differs from that in Emma as it is in the form of slang dialogue with multiple instances of teenage jargon, such as "doobie" and "laced". .
In comparing Clueless, one can see that it takes Austen several chapters to introduce her characters, unlike Heckerling, who can do it in seconds through facial expression, tone of voice, style of dress, gestures, body language and the frame of shot, i.e. Heckerling has used the camera shot from above in a dark environment which connotates lack of control and a feeling of despair, just after Cher gets out of Elton's car and is robbed. From here Cher is forced to lye down and place her hands on the floor. Heckling then uses the frame of shot from below looking up at the thief, which successfully creates meaning by signifying his power in contrast to Cher's weakness in this situation. What needs to be noted is the fact that both medium's ultimately create meaning through differing approaches, we can see that the cinematic techniques are a vital entity which work together with the language to create explicit meaning, unlike Austen who is mainly limited to the tool of language to generate her idea's.
In the film Clueless, the meaning is created as much through visual language as through words. The relationship between the linguistic and the images of the film are said to be "complementary", where both visual and verbal text are needed to make sense of the story. Therefore, it is then true to say that the visual images of the film are of "informational value". Thus, it becomes essential to have an understanding of the grammar of cinema language.