מאפייני לשונם של מגידי-עתידות

This paper presents some of our preliminary findings with regard to selected synchronic aspects of the language used by Hebrew-speaking fortune-tellers in the State of Israel today. Our data has shown that the language of fortune-telling (in either Hebrew or the other languages we have examined) must be viewed within a broad framework of sociolinguistic, discourse, and semiotic phenomena in order to study this particular kind of persuasive dyadic communication successfully. In particular, different kinds of fortune-tellers are categorized based on these linguistic, sociolinguistic and discourse phenomena. Thus it is shown how this particular kind of persuasive dyadic communication system can best be described by what we have chosen to call the omniscopus use of language. Further, the parallel external and internal plots created during the encounter between the fortune-teller and client are explained. The differences between the monologue-like communication of this particular dyadic encounter and other modes of conversational interaction are discussed.