Lonely Hearts

One interesting variety of language is the language of the lonely hearts page. Many newspapers host such pages and it constitutes a distinct variety with its own rules, structure and even dialect variations.

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, petite East End woman, loves keeping fit and music, seeks white male, 30-35, who is 100% genuine, honest and caring, for friendship possibly more.

MALE, 42, Asian looking but English, 5ft 10ins, medium build, thin on top with grey hair, looking for lady, 5ft 8ins, 35-47, intelligent, funny, fairly attractive, to get my thoughts alive and back on course.

CUDDLY male, young 47, likes food, wine, sports, comedies, evenings in/out, WLTM warm, considerate female, 30-40, NS, GSOH

The first comes from the Hackney Advertiser, the second from The Independent and the third from The Guardian.

Look in your preferred newspaper or magazine for more examples

Can you identify differences between them?

The Hackney Advertiser includes the following abbreviations:

• ND - Non Drinker
• OHAC - Own house and car
• TLC - Tender loving care
• NS - Non smoker
• YO - Years old
• OFAC - Own flat and car
• WLTM - Would like to meet
• GSOH - Good sense of humour

Features to look for include:

euphemisms, abbreviations, clichés, word order, semantic fields, noun phrases, sentence structure, dialect variations, headings.

Abbreviations are used to compress a large amount of information into what is usually a thirty word limit for the advertisement. GSOH counts as one word replacing the four words of "good sense of humour."
The abbreviations also show ideas which are frequently expressed by the writers. Others include M - man/male, F - female, r/ship - relationship etc.

Euphemisms are used to suggest romance and love rather than sexual activity. "Possible relationship" and "long-term relationship" suggest something more substantial than "friendship". A "loving caring man" may be requested, but sexual hints may lie in "for fun with a future", "seeks sensuous man", "open-minded female", "warm and passionate female","playmate and lover", "snuggles".
Euphemisms are also used for size - so instead of being "fat" people describe themselves as "curvaceous", "voluptuous", "well-built", "cuddly" or even "chubby". Small is "petite."

Clichés are an integral part of this variety, and the abbreviations above have been used because they represent clichéd phrases. The verbs used most often are "seeks", "would like to ..." and "looking for". "Seeks" would be an archaism elsewhere but is present in up to half of these advertisements.

The Structure of the piece is usually one sentence of the form subject noun phrase - verb - object noun phrase, with perhaps an optional adverbial at the end. The first noun phrase describes the writer and the second describes their requirements. Some seem to extend to two sentences, however the first is a noun phrase and the second sentence starts with the verb "seeks" so the structure really conforms to a single sentence structure. For example "Spontaneous, warm professional 48. Wants loving thoughtful man."

Dialect here describes the differences between the newspapers' style.
The Hackney Advertiser uses a conventional sentence structure, offers a key to abbreviations and uses no others, the writers refer explicitly to race and colour but not usually to jobs and the workplace.
The Independent refers to professionals, "well-educated" "articulate" people, even "public school", "congenial" and "tactile". the vocabulary, matching the audience is educated.
The Guardian uses a large number of abbreviations such as "re/ships" and has witty headlines to try and grab the reader's attention. These may use alliteration, rhyme and quotation or reference. Some of the headlines seem to convey a word picture of the person. Vocabulary is educated eg "sentient".

Semantic Fields involved refer to qualities such as status and material wealth, physical description, personality and activities & interests. The language is invariably positive even if this may involve either euphemism or self deprecating references.

Titles in the Hackney Advertiser consist only of the first word in bold capitals. Sometimes this is unadventurous: "male", "single" but at other times it may feature a key word: "Nigerian", "Happy-Go-Lucky", "Funloving" "retired", "Caring", "Curvaceous" etc.