Cover not available
Article published In:
Pragmatics
Vol. 18:3 (2008) ► pp.453–468

Psychics and the ‘other side’

A discourse analysis of televised psychic readings

This article provides a discourse analysis of a large corpus of televised psychic readings. The goal of this study is to uncover the relationship between the linguistic structure of psychic readings and the psychics’ linguistic agenda. The findings of this study suggest that the psychics’ engage in linguistic tactics that allow them to negotiate and extract specific information from their subjects. The discourse structure of psychic readings facilitates deception, since the subjects, rather than the psychics, are the actual source of subject-specific information in a reading.

Keywords: Discourse structure, Feedback markers, Feedback technique, Linguistic agenda, Topic-response analysis, Psychic readings
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 1 September 2008
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.18.3.05mas
References (39)
Bird, G
(1979) Speech Acts and Conversation – II. Philosophical Quarterly 291: 142-152. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brown, G., and G. Yule
(1983) Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Brown, P., and S. Levinson
(1978) Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena. In E. Goody (ed.), Questions and Politeness: Strategies in Social Interaction.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 56-311.Google Scholar
Christopher, M
(1975) Mediums, Mystics and the Occult. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell.Google Scholar
Coulthard, M., and M. Ashby
(1976) A linguistic description of doctor-patient interviews. In M. Wadsworth & D. Robinson (eds.), Studies in Everyday Medical Life. London: Martin Robertson, pp. 69- 88.Google Scholar
Coulthard, M., and J. Sinclair
(1992) Towards an analysis of discourse. In M. Coulthard (ed.), Advances in Spoken Discourse Analysis. New York: Routledge, pp. 1-35.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Drew, P., and J. Heritage
(1992) Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Edward, J
(1998) One Last Time. New York: Berkley.Google Scholar
Fairclough, N
(1989) Language and Power. New York: Longman.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Fraser, B
(1988) Types of English discourse markers. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 381: 19-33.Google Scholar
Goffman, E
(1956) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press.Google Scholar
Grice, H.P.
(1975) Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J.L. Morgan (eds.), Syntax and Semantics, Vol. III: Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press, pp. 41-58.Google Scholar
Hyman, R
(1977) Cold reading: How to convince strangers that you know all about them. The Zetetic 11: 18-37.Google Scholar
(1981) The psychic reading. In T.A. Sebeok & R. Rosenthal (eds.), The Clever Hans Phenomenon: Communication with Horses, Whales, Apes, and People. New York: The New York Academy of Sciences, pp. 169-181.Google Scholar
Kurtz, P
(2000) The new paranatural paradigm. Skeptical Inquirer 26.6: 27-21.Google Scholar
Prince, E.P
(1981) Toward a taxonomy of given-new information. In P. Cole (ed.), Radical Pragmatics. New York: Academic Press, pp. 223-256.Google Scholar
Randi, J
(1981) Cold reading revisited. In K. Frazier (ed.), Paranormal Borderlands of Science. New York: Prometheus Books, pp. 106-110.Google Scholar
Roe, C.A
(1995) Pseudopsychics and the Barnum effect. European Journal of Parapsychology 111: 76- 91.Google Scholar
Sarangi, S., and C. Roberts
(1999) The dynamics of interactional and institutional orders in work-related settings. In R.S. Sarangi & Celia Roberts (eds.), Talk, Work and Institutional Discourse in Medical, Mediation, and Management Settings. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 1-57. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sacks, H., E.A. Schegloff, and G. Jefferson
(1974) A simplest systematics for the organization of turn- taking for conversation. Language 501: 696-735. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Shuy, R.W
(1990) Evidence of cooperation in conversation. In R.W. Riebert & W.A. Stewart (eds.), The Language Scientist as Expert in the Legal Setting: Issues in Forensic Linguistics. New York: The New York Academy of Sciences, pp. 85-105.Google Scholar
Thomas, J.A
(1989) Discourse control in confrontational interaction. In L. Hickey (ed.), The Pragmatics of Style. New York: Routledge, pp. 133-156.Google Scholar
Van Praagh, J
(2002) Heaven and Earth. New York: Pocket Books.Google Scholar
Wooffitt, R
(2001) Raising the dead: Reported speech in medium-sitter interaction. Discourse Studies 31: 351-374. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2006) The Language of Mediums and Psychics. Aldershot, England: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Beyond with James Van Praagh
. WB Network, Atlanta. 2-2-2003.Google Scholar
Beyond with James Van Praagh
. WB Network, Atlanta. 3-21-2003.Google Scholar
Beyond with James Van Praagh
. WB Network, Atlanta. 4-7-2003.Google Scholar
Beyond with James Van Praagh
. WB Network, Atlanta. 4-14-2003.Google Scholar
Beyond with James Van Praagh
. WB Network, Atlanta. 4-23-2003.Google Scholar
Crossing Over with John Edward
. FOX. WAGA-TV, Atlanta. 2-10-2003.Google Scholar
Crossing Over with John Edward
. FOX. WNYW, New York. 2-12-2003.Google Scholar
Crossing Over with John Edward
. FOX. WNYW, New York. Atlanta. 2-17-2003.Google Scholar
Crossing Over with John Edward
. FOX. WNYW, New York. 3-14-2003.Google Scholar
Crossing Over with John Edward
. FOX. WNYW, New York.3-21-2003.Google Scholar
Crossing Over with John Edward
. FOX. WNYW, New York. 4-23-2003.Google Scholar
Crossing Over with John Edward
. FOX. WNYW, New York. 5-14-2003.Google Scholar
Crossing Over with John Edward
. FOX. WAGA-TV, Atlanta. 5-21-2003.Google Scholar
Crossing Over with John Edward
.FOX. WNYW, New York. 5-28-2003.Google Scholar