Discursive features of the horoscope text

Abstract

   The article raises the issue of a current widespread linguistic phenomenon - the horoscope text. The study of this type of text has begun relatively recently, but the history of the horoscope has several millennia. Until now, the problem of attribution of this speech genre has remained unsolved, since horoscope texts possess the features of several discourses: astrological, magical, prophetic and media discourses. The article studies discursive features of horoscope texts at the semiotic, syntactic and pragmatic levels. From the point of view of semantics, the horoscope is characterized by archetypal images, verbalized in the signs of the Zodiac circle. For the first time, the 13th sign of Ophiuchus, which has been identified by astrologers relatively recently, is mentioned in the article. Nonverbal, verbal and creolized types of texts are distinguished based on the form of presenting the material in the horoscope. At the syntactic level, we consider common stylistic techniques and the structure of sentences in daily horoscopes. The structural organization, as a rule, complies with the functional dominant of the horoscope. The horoscope text consists of two compositional components: a description of the state of affairs and recommendations for further actions. From the point of view of pragmatics, we consider the main horoscope influence techniques, which empower these texts only with informative, but also with suggestive potential within the framework of the media discourse.