Text(Spoken)
(quietly, nervously)
hi there this is Kevin and um I’m looking for that special someone (1.0) I’m a perfect kind of age five foot five inches tall (.) loving intelligent faithful caring honest good sense of humour and a fun person to be with (1.0) I like living life to the max and (.) I want a funloving person who enjoys (.) cinema pubbing clubbing music sport (.) keep fit going out dining in and out likes to travel (.) I would (.) ideally like to meet an attractive white female with similar interests (.) please leave your name and number and I’ll definitely get back toyou (.) no time wasters please bye(Teletext One-2-One, March 1998) In terms of the personal attributes and characteristics it lists, this text projects the commodified self very much as an array of positive qualities. Following the possible caveat of a height disadvantage to women who would seek a taller partner, the advertiser self-assigns seven highly positive personality aspects covering his commitment to the relationship and his social skills (cf. Pawlowski & Dunbar, 1999, p. 55).). What might the advertiser mean, here, by a perfect kind of age? First, and rather directly, he means neither too young nor too old. In order to unpack the semantic force of “too” in both “too
young” and “too old,” though, we have to reconstruct specific implicatures (Grice, 1975).