A Comparison of Horoscopes Aimed at Older Women and Teens

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A Comparison of Horoscopes Aimed at Older Women and Teens

The horoscope from '19' is informal. Colloquial language is used to

relate to the audience, for example 'bagged yourself some gorgeous

hunk', which has connotations of catching. The language is figurative,

with use of metaphors such as 'worships you like the goddess you are'.

The lexical field is astrology, conveying the future, uncertainty and

mystery to the audience with words such as 'goddess', which has

connotations of beauty and power used to make the reader feel

important and convey a good message to them, 'Mars' and ‘Venus’ are

astrological references to planets, and 'new beginnings' referring to

the future. There is use of elision, for example 'you're' 'it's' and

'who'll', indicating a casual and informal approach linked to both a

teenagers speech and what they would like to read. The origin of the

text is mainly Anglo Saxon, e.g. ‘time’ and ‘love’ although words of a

French Latinate origin are used; e.g. ‘charisma’.

The language used in ‘That’s life’ is figurative, using sentences such

as 'your personality is shining through'. The field of reference is

astrology, with words such as 'Venus' and 'Moon'. There is a slight

use of elision in the text, for example 'you'll', although this is not

common. The main origin of the horoscopes is Anglo Saxon, as it uses

simple words such as 'money'.

The horoscopes from the Internet article are very formal and use

learned language such as 'unnecessary agitation'. This indicates a

certain education level needed to understand the piece. The language

used is factual, 'you will be feeling full of energy' and 'this will

open the a...

... middle of paper ...

...used in the text; with the word

‘could’ appearing frequently, however ‘should’ and ‘will be’ are far

more definite uses of modals to instruct the reader of what their

actions should be. This suggests possibility to the reader, which is

relevant to the article as it is concentrating on a specific audience,

which want to find out what may happen to them in future events in

more detail, however, some declaratives give the text a feeling of

being factual, for example ‘you will be feeling full of energy’.

Conclusion

The texts I have analysed match my hypothesis. The horoscopes aimed at

older women are slightly more formal than those aimed at teenagers,

although they still contain colloquial language. The horoscopes from

the Internet site were of a high formality and contained more

astrological lexis than the others.

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