The general lexical choice is simple lexis with a general structure, and the semantic field is generally more male orientated with beer and food a subject of much comment in this article. The piece also uses a simpler lexis; however there are some words that would need certain level of education to have and understanding of “culmination” “eccentricity”. Another example of this is the phrase “Hedonist’s Handbook” the use of this word suggests an educated audience as is rarely used but the meaning is apt for this piece. A pleasure seeking handbook, this in itself assumes that men take pleasure in being “full of larger and courtesy food” and then “jumping off a ramp and trying to fly as far as possible”.
Grammar
The article is a lot more speech-like than other magazines and so uses simple sentence structure, this could also say something about how the author has addressed men as “simple”, an example of this is “so we start building our craft in the queue” it includes a main clause and a main verb. However the piece also uses some rather complex sentences including a compound complex sentence, this would main including two main clauses joined by a conjunction and it also must have at least one sub-ordinate clause. Grammatical complexity does not necessarily mean it is hard to read. The two different sentence types juxtapose each other in certain parts on the text which seems to appeal to the lesser educated reader but with a compound complex sentence following that would better explain and clarify a point. A further example of this would be, “Some 150,000 have gathered by the serpentine lake in the a packed-to-capacity Hyde park, London, for this celebration of eccentricity – think Robot Wars with wings.” The sub-ordinate clause of this sentence is hyphenated and it gives more information, the reference to a television programme could be received as being patronising, its suggesting that the reader can not understand what was said so gives an everyday example. The magazine also makes use of minor sentences “Bastard” for example is a sentence, whereas in rules of language is not as sentence. The minor sentence in this example is used for impact and is written as if it is being muttered under your breath, as an undertone and not meant to be heard by the person it is referring to.
As well as the intertextduality of the title creating a more comic tone to the piece, the author uses a bathoic sentence which is typical of this type of magazine as it is a feature normally associated with stand-up comedy, “Meanwhile, team loaded has had months to prepare, but we forgot”. The bathos feature is typically used in comedy and used here gives the audience the sense that they had the chance to prepare for the task and didn’t. This could possibly be used as a kind of excuse for their poor performance. This is also refers back to the stereotypical male attitude of ‘can’t be bothered’ that many people have.
Phonology
Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages. Although the article is one of a more comic nature, there is little alliteration, which might be expected in a more comical piece, “pilot Piers” is an example; this has a sarcastic reference to the giant aeroplanes being ‘piloted’ by the “team loaded”. The whole article has a real colloquial tone to it, and is informal however there is no direct reference to the reader as you might expect in a magazine.
Discourse
The general tone of the piece is one for very informal banter, it is more commonly known as ‘pub talk’, the type of subject matter and crude lexis and is usually associated with a male group of friends.