Then I took the same type of article from all three magazines i.e. the monthly Horoscopes and decided to analyze the different linguistic features like Latinate words, colloquial words, slang words, clippings/abbreviations, the types of sentences and pragmatics.
Analysis:
Lexis
This is to do with the choice of vocabulary used.
I’ve divided this section into Latinate words, colloquial words, slang words and clippings/abbreviations.
The choices of lexis in all three magazines are found to be different, as there is a difference in the ages of the readership. However there are similarities in the lexis because the text I have used from all three magazines are on the same topic. The words used in Horoscope’s are personal, tend to appeal to one’s emotions and convey opinions on one’s life. This could be because the purpose of horoscopes is to predict what will happen in the future and try to guide people on what they should do to improve their life or to avoid doing something wrong. So there will be some similarities like the use of nouns and adjective as well as the words semantically linked to astrology and time (which is also linked to astrology)(as shown in diagram1 and 2).
Latinate words
These are words that are derived from Latin and are usually used in texts that are important like in legal documents or in texts that are for an audience who are educated to show either importance, authority, intelligence or sophistication.
I took two sections from all three articles randomly (around 120 words) and listed the number of Latinate words found in each. I found that in the first text from ‘Elle’ magazine there were more Latinate words used than in the other two. (as shown in the table 1 in appendix).
It can be seen from the above table that the text from ‘Elle’ has a higher level of formality as more Latinate words are used than the other two texts. Some of these Latinate words would not be found in the ‘Sugar’ or ‘Go Girl’ magazine as it is too high a vocabulary for teenagers or girl’s to understand and also because such vocabulary would not be used by them daily if at all. The target audiences for the teen magazine and girl magazine are still developing their vocabulary and so would find it difficult to understand these words that is why simple words are used in their magazines.
Also as the magazine is a fashion magazine it maybe using these Latinate words to sound as sophisticated as the reader expects them to be because the magazine is all about fashion and looking good which are connected to looking sophisticated. The other words used in the first text like ‘partner’ and ‘lover’ would not be used in the other two magazines, as the readers of those magazines are too young to have lovers or partners. ‘Invested’, ‘career openings’, ‘agreement in principle’, ‘strict policy’ and ‘foolproof routines’ are words and phrases in the text which would also not be found in the other magazines as ‘Sugar’ and ‘Go Girl’ are informal compared to ‘Elle’. Most of the lexis is related to the reader’s career and personal life which maybe due to nature of text which is a guideline to the reader’s life. This is why there are a lot of words that appeal to the emotion of reader like ‘swept’, ‘breathless’, ‘soaked’, ‘passion’, ‘angry’, ‘exhilarated’, ‘happy’ and ‘feel’
However in ‘Sugar’ a lot of colloquial terms, slang language and informal words are used. The lexis is more describing about the teenagers ‘love’ life, friends and family situation
Slang is used in the text to exclude other age groups from understanding the context. The text uses the following informal words:
COLLOQUIAL WORDS
SLANG WORDS
There are a lot of colloquial and slang terms used as shown in the tables above showing how the text uses a lot of informal language to appeal to the reader’s i.e. teenagers who use these words everyday. These words cannot be found in ‘Elle’ as it is aimed at reader’s who are reading this fashion magazine to learn about the latest trends and sort of learning how to be sophisticated which comes back to being formal. And so using such informal language in that magazine would be out of context. Some of the colloquial words can be found in the ‘Go Girl’ magazine as this also an informal and tries to use simple language so that it is easier for the young girls to understand. However the slang words will not be found because the purpose of slang is to exclude others from the group so teenagers use their slang to avoid adults and younger children from knowing what they mean.
In ‘Go Girl’ the vocabulary used is quite basic compared to the other two magazines. It is also quite informal and the lexis relates to issues to do with young girls like their preferences in TV programs i.e.’…ITV or BBC1?’, food and drink ‘…strawberry or vanilla?’, clothes ‘…blue top or pink?’, their activities like reading, family issues and friends. There are a couple of colloquial terms like: ‘loadsa’, ‘pal’, ‘gotta’, ‘coz’, ‘fab’, ‘pressie’, ‘gonna’, ‘ain’t’, ‘mo’, ‘strutting’, ‘vids’ and ‘fav’ and a slang word ‘chill’. This shows us that less slang is used compared to the teen magazine but none is used in ‘Elle’.
Grammar
The reader is being directly addressed using the second person singular pronoun ‘you’ making the text seem personal. Most of the text in ‘Elle’ uses Standard English and uses complete correct sentences. In ‘Sugar’ there is a lot of non-standard grammar like ‘if things between you and a fit fella have been a tad frosty, fret not, ’cause they’re about to thaw!.’ In Standard English it would be ‘If things between you and a good looking fellow are not going well then don’t be afraid because his behavior towards you is going to change.’ ‘Go Girl’ also uses non-standard English like ‘ You’re feeling a bit frustrated at the mo, Aries, but chill out a little bit.’ In Standard English it would be ‘ You’re feeling a bit frustrated right now, Aries, but relax a bit.’
I counted the number of statements, questions, commands and exclamations in all three magazines and found:
From the above table it can be seen that ‘Elle’ has more statements in it, ‘Sugar’ has more questions whilst ‘Go Girl’ has more exclamations. This maybe because exclamations are used mostly during excitement and as girls are stereotypically perceived as being more excited over little things the writer may have used more exclamations to appeal to the ‘Go Girl’ magazine readership. Teenage girls are at the stage where they have mixed feelings or ‘mood swings’ and so tend to analyse the things in their life like ‘do my friends really like me?’ or ‘why can’t my parents let me go out? or ‘Why hasn’t he called yet? And so I think that’s why the writer uses more questions in this magazine.
The sentences in ‘Elle’ are a mixture of short and long sentences and it does tend to have a complex structure like ‘When a long anticipated problem fails to materialise, you can hardly believe it and are understandably ecstatic- its as if a great weight has been lifted off your shoulders.’ ‘Sugar’ also has a mixture of long and short sentences but the construction isn’t too complicated nor too basic it’s in between. ‘Go Girl’ has sentences using basic construction and a couple of complicated ones, it also has a mix of long and short sentences but tends to have shorter sentences.
Pragmatics
Throughout all three texts there is the use of figurative language which relates back to the context of the article. The text seems to give ambiguous advice which could fit into any aspect of the reader’s life be it career, personal or to do with family. ‘Elle’ magazine tends to use the most figurative language out of all three magazines. It has phrases like ‘shape up the future’, ‘fails to materialise’, ‘lie in limbo’, ‘weight been lifted of your shoulders’, ‘key to your future direction’, ‘life becomes like a narrow little dark tunnel’, ‘go with the flow’, ‘when current quickens you could find yourself swept away’, ‘white-water rafting for your love life,’ ‘….expect to be left breathless, exhilarated and soaked,’ ‘to the crunch,’ ‘sail through’ and ‘put this hurdle into perspective.’ ‘Lie in limbo’ is an idiom meaning to be left uncertain this would not be used in the other two magazines as the readers of those two magazines would not be able to understand the meaning. Some of the above metaphors would not be used in teen or girl’s magazines, as they would not fit in like in ‘Elle’ it says ‘this is white-water rafting for your love life’ can’t be used as girl’s don’t have a love life and it would sound too corny for teenagers. ‘Sugar’ doesn’t use much figurative language it has phrases like ‘ to their own device,’ ‘doing the ostrich thing…. so get your head out of the sand,’ ‘in your shoes,’ ‘object of your affections’ and ‘bursting with ideas’. There is one idiom used- ‘things in perspective’ meaning to see things from another point of view. This is much simpler to understand for teenagers who are still developing their language skills however the reader’s of ‘Go Girl’ magazine would not be able to understand, as they may not have yet come across such language. ‘Go girl’ hardly has any figurative language and is quite straightforward but it does have an idiom i.e. ‘on the horizon’ which means something will be happening soon.
Conclusion
After analysing the data I have found that for a younger audience the lexis is quite basic, sentences are shorter and have a basic construction and most of the text is in the literal sense so that it is easier for them to understand the article from the magazine. In teen magazine the lexis starts to become harder, the sentences become longer and start to become complex in construction and the text is partly in the literal sense and partly in non-literal sense as teenagers begin to develop the language skill of understanding the underlined meaning and not to take everything literally. The adult’s magazine tends to longer sentences and use complex constructions, as they already understand the construction of long complex sentences, have a higher vocabulary and a better understanding of the underlined meaning as so the use of more figurative language in the text.
Evaluation:
I did find some of the features I expected to find but I don’t think that using Horoscope’s as an example article was good. Also if I had used a fashion magazine for teenagers and little girl’s instead of entertainment magazines or an entertainment magazine for young adults then maybe the I could have had better findings.
