‘Neyse Halim Çıksın Falim’: Turkish women’s intimate discourse in fortune-telling sessions through coffee cup readings

ERÖZ B., Efeoğlu-Özcan E., BAŞARAN UYSAL B. Ç.

Discourse Studies, vol.27, no.1, pp.82-105, 2025 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 27 Issue: 1
  • Publication Date: 2025
  • Doi Number: 10.1177/14614456241252894
  • Journal Name: Discourse Studies
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, IBZ Online, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Communication & Mass Media Index, Communication Abstracts, Linguistic Bibliography, Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts
  • Page Numbers: pp.82-105
  • Keywords: Coffee cup fortune-telling, community of practice, intimate discourse, troubles talk, Turkish, women’s talk
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Turkish coffee is not only a popular beverage consumed daily in Türkiye, but also a medium that enhances social connections among women within the same communities of practice. In this study, we examine coffee cup fortune-telling as a discourse type and analyse the sociocultural and linguistic characteristics of this intimate and interactional data among 25 Turkish-speaking women who are close friends. The data consists of 22 informal, naturally-occurring and face-to-face coffee cup reading sessions which correspond to 2 hours 40 minutes of audio recordings. Our analyses reveal that Turkish women use culture-specific semiotic and linguistic resources as tools of reflection and persuasion in this jointly constructed discourse. We also argue that coffee cup readings provide opportunities for establishing solidarity through engaging the speakers in troubles talk.