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Abstract

Fortune tellers and psychics have been around for thousands of years, practiced in ancient civilisations, and visiting a psychic is as popular today as it has ever been. Globally it has become a multibillion-dollar business, and many of those using their services are often vulnerable or in some form of emotional distress. Despite this there have been very few studies conducted in this field, especially from a linguistic perspective. This research looked at one particular area of psychic practice, the psychic mediumship platform demonstrations. The aim was not to discredit or make comment on the medium’s ability, but to examine the linguistic occurrences shaping the event.
A live demonstration was organised with a medium and invited audience which was recorded and subsequently transcribed, then analysed using grounded theory. Grounded theory is a qualitative method of research used to identify key elements of a phenomenon which are then categorised. Through comparison the categories are group together to form a hypothesis about what is occurring. It is an inductive approach, the results are generated from the data itself, and as such any emerging theory is tightly connected to that data.
The outcome pointed to three substantive theory codes that resulted in the successful delivery of the demonstration, Exchange of Information, Normalisation and Oratorical Devices. The medium was able to exchange information with the audience using a range of linguistic techniques. It was also found that in order to enable the audience to accept the dialogue, a form of normalisation took place. It is acknowledged however, that more extensive research needs to be carried out to test the hypothesis.

Course: English Language and Linguistics - BA - C2742S

Date Deposited: 2024-01-22

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14298.html