VIII.A
The ‘Standards’ in theory and practice
1.
The previous Introduction to Text Linguistics presented, as far as I know
for the first time, the ‘seven standards of textuality’; contrary to the
academic decorum of the times, the book opened right off with authentic texts
and a hands-on demon-stration.1 Since then, people occasionally
approach me at conferences to be reassured that I ‘still believe in’ that
system. Perhaps linguistics has a reputation for faddish theoretical or top-down
innovations that are soon shelved; ‘case grammar’ and ‘generative
semantics’ come to mind. But text linguistics, and even more, discourse
analysis, have been mainly practical, bottom-up enterprises, promoting a grainy
realism which has been largely absent in ‘modern linguistics’ and which
supports access to diverse issues and interests. I recall how, at the National
University of Singapore in 1989, I received for evaluation in the same week two
theses that could hardly have been more different: a discourse analysis of
Spenser’s Faerie Queene from a university in India, and a study of
tractor operating manuals in Russian from a polytechnic in the German Democratic
Republic.
2.
The ‘seven standards’ too are at least realistic enough that they appear in
discursive practice, as do most of their Negatives, viz.:
[2325]
As Descartes made clear, the mind […] can learn to comprehend a series of
events by bringing them together into a cohesive, learned pattern to form
a language. (Logic and Design)2
[2326] he sounded
horrible, incohesive and babbly, so I sent his neighbor down to check on
him (Caeli Dictum)www
[2327]
I resolved […] that I would be most moderate, most correct; and, having
reflected a few minutes in order to arrange coherently what I had to say,
I told her all the story of my sad childhood. (Eyre)
[2328] ‘Gentlemen! Consider, for Heaven’s sake — help
— Sam
— here
— pray, gentlemen —
interfere, somebody.’ Uttering these incoherent exclamations, Mr.
Pickwick rushed between the infuriated combatants (Pickwick)
[2329] What could all this mean but an intentional affront? By some means
or other she must have had the misfortune to offend him. (Northanger)
[2330] Mason will not defy me; nor, knowing it, will he hurt me — but, unintentionally,
he might in a moment, by one careless word, deprive me, if not of life, yet
forever of happiness. (Eyre)
[2331] I am happy on every occasion to offer those
little delicate compliments which are always acceptable to ladies. (Pride)
[2332] ‘Long live the race of the immortal Alfred!’
However unacceptable these sounds might be to Prince John, he saw himself
obliged to confirm the victor (Ivanhoe)
[2333] They
were addressed by a congressman [with] spirited words on the
necessity of keeping ignorant foreigners out of America. ‘Say, that was a
mighty informative talk. Real he-stuff’, said Sidney Finkelstein. But
the disaffected Babbitt grumbled, ‘Four-flusher! Bunch of hot air!’
(Babbitt)
[2334] Amongst the media sources on offer, […] there was real choice
available in terms of depth and detail, ranging from entertaining but uninformative
tabloids to highbrow news sources (Media and Voters)3
[2335] Humour can be an excellent behaviour for easing tensions, [namely] situational
humour, i.e., funny within the context of the situation people are in at the
time. (Improve Your Personal
Skills)4
[2336] ‘Situational’ […] refers then to a particular teaching
technique involving physical demonstration of actions and objects; [or] to the
language which is likely to occur within a specific context of situation
[…] Most situational teaching in the first sense implies highly unsituational
language in the second sense (Vivian Cook)www
[2337] One only has to note the impressive erudition manipulated by the
likes of [Jorge Luis] Borges, [Julio] Cortázar, [Alejo] Carpentier, or [Carlos]
Fuentes or the intertextual references that abound in the new narrative
to realize that the Spanish-American writer […] is now very much a citizen of
the world. (Postmodernism and Contemporary Fiction) 5
[2338]
Personal (expressive) writing, the kind espoused by [Peter] Elbow, imagines a non-intertextual
space, a space in which students can ‘express their own thoughts and ideas’
(Beyond Dichotomy)www
These
practical senses mostly imply Ameliorative Attitudes for the terms and
Pejorative ones for their Negatives: a text ought to be ‘cohesive’
[2339], ‘coherent’ [2340], ‘acceptable’ [2341], or ‘informative’
[2342]; and being explicitly ‘intertextual’ is a lively trend in literature
and philosophy [2343]. Less distinct about Attitudes are ‘intentional’ as a
matter of emphasis [2344], and ‘unintentional’
as a lack of control [2345].
[2339]
The
staff interviewed spoke cohesively about the function of the unit and its
philosophical underpinnings. (Haven)www
[2340]
What do you mean, Sir? […] Be plain and coherent, if you please. (Dombey)
[2341] we are seeking an agreement at Maastricht that is acceptable to
the House. (Hansard)
[2342] We want this bulletin to be informative yet agile, helpful in
understanding key phenomena of Mexican reality (Mexico Insight)
[2343] Patsy Stoneman provides a brilliant intertextual account of Wuthering
Heights. (Language and Literature)
[2344] ‘We want the representatives and senators to know that any restriction
on patient safety is going to be a grave mistake, and I use that word
“grave” intentionally’, said Jack Goodrich (Post-Gazette)www
[2345] In
praising Strom Thurmond's racist presidential bid, Trent Lott unintentionally
told the truth about his views on civil rights; (Philadelphia City Paper)www
3. From the standpoint of theory,
however, the seven standards are aspects of all texts. They do not
suddenly disintegrate at some well-marked borderline, but rather fall along a
cline of explicitness. The benevolent Mr Pickwick’s protests in [2328] are
only implicitly ‘coherent’, and we still know just what he meant; the
malevolent Prince John in [2332] did have to ‘accept’ the ‘popular
shout’, albeit with ‘vexation’; and the insolent ‘tabloids’ in [2334] are ‘informative’ in their prying voyeuristic manner decidedly not
aimed at ‘highbrows’.
4. Problems
regarding the standards are generally taken in stride, e.g., for Mary
Wollstonecraft’s novel left unfinished at her premature death in childbirth:
[2346] Those persons will […] gladly accept even of the broken
paragraphs and half-finished sentences; […] The fastidious and cold-hearted
critic may perhaps feel himself repelled by the incoherent form in which
they are presented. But an inquisitive temper willingly accepts the most
imperfect and mutilated information, where better is not to be had.
(William Godwin, preface to Wrongs of Women)
Textuality
really breaks down only under extraordinary conditions, e.g., when a woefully
unintelligent computer translator programme like Babelfish on the Internet works
piece by piece, giving us [2347-49], which are phantasmagorical until you
consult the originals [2347a-49a].6
[2347] With Foz de Iguassu compete oversize factories of humans and nature
together. […] Visitors can
near-dare themselves over foot pledge, bars and bridges to close to the cases.
Like a giant discharge the Devil Throat on Argentine page transforms the Rio
Iguassu into turned up snow-white gout.
[2347a] Bei Foz de Iguassu konkurrieren überdimensionale Werke von Mensch und
Natur miteinander […] Besucher können sich über Fußpfande [typo
for: Fußpfade], Stege und Brücken bis nahe an die Fälle heranwagen. Wie
ein Riesenabfluß verwandelt der Teufelsschlund auf argentinischer Seite den Rio
Iguassu in aufgewühlte schneeweiße Gicht [typo for: Gischt].
[2348] All rooms are connected by
high-put, considered timber bridges and wood bars around a wet will with rains
to reduce as well as the slip hazard with gunk education.
[2348a] Sämtliche Zimmer sind durch hochgelegte, überdachte Holzbrücken und
Holzstege miteinander verbunden um ein Nasswerden bei Regen, sowie die
Rutschgefahr bei Matschbildung zu verringern.
[2349] João Person surprised. An impressive urban green area that valley as the
second place, in the world, trees for inhabitant. […]. Spread for the edge,
Bath of I Smell organizes the mess.
[2349a] João Pessoa surpreendeu. Uma impressionante área verde urbana que vale
o segundo lugar, no mundo, em árvores por habitante. […] Espalhados pela orla,
Banho de Cheiro organiza a bagunça [i.e., the festival]. (Majestosa Cidade das Acácias)www
Whatever
textuality can be assigned to these ‘translations’ has to be transferred
from the originals.
5.
Here are seven highly diverse samples from authentic texts:7
[2350] WARNING! Driver carries only $20.00 in ammunition
(bumpersticker, US)
[2351]
atheist: a son or daughter who dates someone of a different religious persuasion
bum:
any male over the age of 18 who is not studying to be a doctor
respect:
something parents got from their kids in the old days
talking
back: making a statement that doesn’t coincide with your parents’ own
opinion
(MAD
Magazine’s Dictionary of Cliché Parental Terms)
[2352]
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps
in this petty pace from day to day
To
the last syllable of recorded time;
And
all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The
way to death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s
but a walking shadow, a poor player
That
struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And
then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told
by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying
nothing. (Macbeth V, v, 17-28)
[2353] Given the historical relationship between Africa and the West it is ironic that the latter is today preaching the virtues of freedom to Africans. Former colonisers and ex-slave-owners have made a virtue of championing political and economic liberalisation. Yesterday’s oppressors appear to be today’s liberators, fighting for democracy, human rights, and free market economics throughout the world. [Yet] once stripped of its humanist rhetoric, […] this reasoning is […] the same notion used to justify slavery and colonialism: that the strong should be free to exercise their strength without moral or legal limitations that protect the weak. (Tunde Obadina in Africa Today, Nigeria)
[2354] Multiculturalism is a word drilled into students’ minds at diversity-focused universities. The Penn State Objectivist Club would like to change the rampant support. […]. In a speech titled ‘Your Professors’ War Against the Mind: The Black Hole of Post-Modernism and Multiculturalism’, […] Gary Hull likened the views of the multiculturalist and the post-modern professor to that of a sadistic doctor who treats healthy patients by infecting them with viruses and breaking their legs and later asking them to come back for more. […] ‘The multiculturalist agenda at the University seeks to destroy our American identity [by] teaching students that the Empire State Building is as good of an architectural structure as a tepee; a concerto by Mozart is no greater than the beating of a tom-tom’. (Penn State Collegian)
[2355] Failing return of the product within 7 days, the Supplier’s liability shall be limited on return to Supplier of the product or parts thereof, to the replacement or repair (in sole discretion of Supplier or of its duly authorised service dealer) of the product to elim-inate any defect in material and workmanship found to be due exclusively to any acts or omission on the part of Supplier of which defects Supplier shall have been notified in writing by the Customer within the aforesaid warranty period. (warranty packed with an electric heater, Botswana)
[2356]
J1Z is a handle electric tool drived by series generation. Its features are
small in volume, light in weight, convenient to catch etc. It can be used in
places which is moist and narrow. It can be used in the workshop with good
conduct electricity such as work high above the ground. Read the explanation
following before the tool got through power.
1. Be sure to carry out strictly the relevant rules.
Otherwise you must obey our explanation first.
2. The workpiece to be drilled must be regularized and
pay more attention.
3. Use the plug correctly without changing the plug as one please and pluging the outlet with bare conducting wire directly not using the plug.
4. Not to use power without
limited.
Check before being
used. Let the tool have nonloading and see whether there is abnormal noise and
the scraws become flexible and fall off and the inverting sparkle is normal or
not. If the rotation speed is reduced abnormally, you should reduce to exert
yourself. The drill should be repaired day to day. Do keep same part. If they
are damaged you must change the new one and the same one. (instruction sheet
packed with a power drill, Botswana)
These
samples appeared in a variety of discourse domains: bumpersticker [2350], humour
magazine [2351], historical stage tragedy [2352], political commentary magazine
[2353], campus newspaper [2354], product warranty [2355], and oper-ating
instructions [2356]. Only [2356] was not produced by fluent users of English;
and only [2352] is not from a contemporary source.
6.
All these samples actualise the standards of textuality with resources
appropriate to their text types (cf. II.131). Their Cohesion draws on the
resources of Lexicogrammar, Prosody, and Visuality for forming, arranging, and
combining the expressions. A bumpersticker like [2350] should be short and pithy
to fit on a bumper and to be quickly read in passing by other motorists It
starts with a Participial Noun as a one-word Tone Group visually highlighted in
the upper-case exclamation ‘WARNING!’, like the text type for announcing a
danger. The Grammar is terse and assertive, e.g., the Noun ‘driver’ with no
Article, and the Simple Present ‘carries’ instead of the more logical
Progressive ‘is carrying’. The most prominent Lexical Choice goes at the end
where it can exploit End Weight for Strong Stress: ‘¡am·mu·!ni·tion’.
7.
The Grammar and Visuality of dictionary entries as imitated in [2351] are
typically formatted with a head word, a colon, and a definition which uses the
same Word-Class, e.g., a Noun (‘atheist – son’) plus a Relative Clause, or
a Participle (‘talking back – making’) in a Non-Clause. The Flow of the
Prosody is accordingly rough, with the head word occupying a short Tone Group
and the definition one or more longer ones, e.g.:
[2351a]
‘!bum: || ¡an·y
!male ¡o·ver the ¡age
of ¡eight·!teen |
who is ¡not !stud·y·ing to be a !doc·tor’.
A
Thematic Sequence relates to the family (‘son – daughter – parents –
kids’).
8.
The Lexicogrammar of [2432] is dominated by Stylistic Figures of metaphor and
personification centring on the themes of ‘time’ and ‘life’. Some
Collocations are more predictable like ‘dusty death’ and ‘tale told’
whilst others are less so like ‘tomorrow creeps’ and ‘syllable of time’;
and some have come to seem predictable just because they occurred here, like
‘struts and frets’ and ‘sound and fury’.
9.
As is typical for a Shakespearean historical tragedy, the Prosody is in blank
verse with no rhyme and with a rhythm that is regular but not monotonous except
iconically so in the first line, e.g.:
[2352a] To·!mor·row,
and to·!mor·row, and to·!mor·row
!Creeps in this ¡pet·ty ¡pace
from !day to ¡day
To
the ¡last !syl·la·ble of re·¡cord·ed !time;
||
And
¡all our !yes·ter·¡days
have ¡light·ed
!fools
The ¡way to !dust·y !death.
|| !Out, ¡out, ¡brief
!can·dle! [etc.]
The
Grammar and Prosody often have the end of a Tone Group and a Clause both falling
at the end of a line. Where this does not occur, the final Word may still get
some extra Weight at a slower pace, e.g. ‘fools’. The short Non-Clause Tone
Group with piled-up Stresses, !Out,
¡out,
¡brief
!can·dle!’,
iconically invokes briefness.
10.
The Lexicogrammar and Prosody of [2353] are appropriate for essayistic writing.
Even with my omissions, the Sentences are long (24, 14, 19, and 40 Words), each
comprising several Tone Groups. In almost every Tone Group, End Weight assigns
strategic focus: ‘!West – !Af·ricans – ¡lib·er·al·is·!a·tion – !lib·er·¡at·ors – !world – !free·dom – !strong – !weak’. Its Thematic Sequences are fitted to a report on political
economy, e.g. ‘freedom – slave-owners – oppressors – liberators – democracy – human rights – humanist’); and the
contest among political ideologies is iconically reflected in balanced lexical
parallels (e.g. ‘freedom – slavery’;
‘yesterday’s oppressors – today’s
liberators’; ‘the strong – the weak’). All
these connections make the Cohesion of the text explicitly efficient and
effective, even though the Style is fairly Formal and Impersonal in the sense of
section VI.E.
11.
Campus newspapers like [2354] are as a rule dismally insensitive to matters of
Prosody, e.g., not exploiting End Weight for strategic effect. Compare the
original opening with this rewritten version:
[2354a]
A word circulated daily and drilled into students’ minds on the campuses of
universities, which, like Penn State, focus on di·!ver·si·ty, is ¡mul·ti·!cul·tur·al·ism. ·!Chang·ing this rampant support is the goal of the Penn State Ob·!ject·iv·ist
¡Club.
Such
newspapers also crudely mix lexical Styles, such as Formal (e.g.
‘diversity-focused universities’) with Informal (e.g. ‘come back for
more’, ‘as good of a structure’). The Style is mainly set by a cargo of
venomous smears and flakspeak of yellow journalism on the ‘New Right’ (e.g.
‘drilled
–
rampant
–
War
–
Black
Hole
–
sadistic
–
infecting
with
viruses
–
breaking legs
–
destroy’).
12.
Sample [2355] is a lexicogrammatical, prosodic, and visual monstrosity of
Strenuous, Formal and Impersonal Style. It is formatted as a single Sentence of
85 Words with just one true Tone Group termination (at ‘7 days’) and two
false ones in the midst of a grammatical pattern (at ‘thereof’ and
‘dealer’); otherwise it is a tedious, breathless drone. Beside the sole
Independent Clause (‘liability shall be limited’) in the grammar, the
Sentence carries one Dependent Clause (‘Supplier shall have been notified’),
7 Nouns instead of Verbs (e.g. ‘return’, ‘replacement’), and no less
than 20 Prepositional Phrases (if we count ‘parts thereof’). This Grammar
deliberately obscures the Cohesion of who ‘shall’ do what and when. The
Lexical Choices intensify the tedium by intrusive repetitions (‘return’ and
‘defects’ twice, ‘product’ 3 times, ‘Supplier’ 5 times).
13.
The Cohesion of [2356] is curious in quite different ways. By itself, the
prosody would flow well enough, aside from the sentences about ‘pluging’ and
‘nonloading’. But the Grammar identifies the writer to be signally disfluent
in Standard English (e.g. ‘drived – places which is – through power –
without limited – have nonloading – reduce to exert yourself’), as do some
Lexical Choices (e.g. ‘convenient to catch – good conduct electricity –
regularized – become flexible – inverting sparkle’). All this was surely
not designed to puzzle readers as the cohesion of [2356] was.
14.
Regarding Coherence, the topics of our samples are mostly
straightforward: this ‘driver’ is well-armed [2350]; American ‘parents’
piously preach conformist behaviour to their ‘kids’ [2351]; ‘life’
woefully fails to ‘signify’ anything; [2352], the ‘economic liberalisation’
of today re-enacts the ‘colonialism’ of ‘former’ times [2353];
‘multiculturalism’ and ‘post-modernism’ in the university constitute
‘ram-pant warfare’ [2354]; this ‘Supplier’s liability’ is impregnably
‘limited’ [2355]; this ‘electric tool’ requires a thorough
‘explanation’ before use [2356]. Yet their coherence could be deconstructed
by uncovering some underlying strains or contradictions (II.176). The
‘driver’ is not a professional ‘carrier’ of ‘ammunition’ [2350]; an
‘atheist’ would not accept any ‘religious persuasion’ [2351];
‘life’ is accused of being both tediously long in its ‘creeping pace’
and yet ‘idiotic’ in its ‘briefness’ [2352]; ‘human rights’ are
grossly violated by ‘slavery’ [2353]; no ‘doctor’ ever behaves in such a
criminally ‘sadistic’ manner [2354]; no ‘warranty period’ has been
‘aforesaid’ unless it be the silly ‘7 days’ [2355]; the drill is
‘handle’ (i.e. handy) and ‘convenient’, yet you must ‘carry out
strictly the relevant rules’ [2356], or else.
15.
These strains are also related to the Intentionality. [2350] is to
discourage theft or assault. [2351] is to caricature the self-righteous naggings
of ‘parents’ at their ‘kids’. [2352] portrays Macbeth’s meaningless
life of crime having convinced him that ‘life’ in general ‘signifies
nothing’; just after Lady Macbeth ‘by self and violent hands took off her
life’, he may be preparing himself for ‘leaving’ it ‘becomingly’, as
if ‘throwing away’ ‘a careless trifle’, just like the Thane of Cawdor,
another Scottish traitor whose title set Macbeth on his evil path (Macbeth
V, vii, 70-71; I, iv, 4-11). [2353] seeks to show how the ‘preaching’ of the
‘West’ about ‘economic liberalisation’ masks a ‘concept’ of
‘freedom’ for ‘the strong’ to ‘oppress’ the ‘weak’. [2354], in
direct contrast, seeks to reassert the cultural supremacy of the West by
defaming the ‘multiculturalism’ that promotes cultural equality and
‘diversity’. [2355] wants to make sure that ‘the Customer’ won’t have
the foggiest idea of the ‘Supplier’s liability’ and won’t press claims.
[2356] wants to praise the product yet to anticipate and avoid imminent risks
and problems.
16.
The Acceptability of these texts depends on distinctive cultural
knowledge. [2350] presupposes a culture where ordinary drivers carry guns in
their cars — established practice in the United States or South Africa, but
unknown in the United Arab Emirates or Brunei. [2351] presupposes a culture of
alienation between generations within the American family. [2352] presupposes a
familiarity with the innovative rhetorical strategies of Elizabethan drama,
which may not be easy to follow for modern audiences. [2353] would be warmly
accepted by an informed audience whose lives have suffered under colonialism and
globalisation. In contrast, [2354] would be warmly accepted by an uninformed
audience dogmat-ically convinced of the universal superiority of mainstream
(white male) ‘American culture’. [2355] and [2356] are barely acceptable,
and [2355] is, I have argued, quite intentionally so.
17.
The Informativity of the samples is relatively high insofar as they
strain coherence and adapt their text types. [2350] adapts the sign posted on
buses in American cities to ‘warn’ aspiring thieves that the ‘driver
carries only $20.00 in cash’. [2351] creates surprise effects by making
explicit the implicit bigotry in the sanctimonious discourse of some parents.
[2352] is an engaging fabric of metaphors and personifications that
paradoxically endow ‘nothing’ with concrete Visuality. [2353] surprises by
its ‘ironic’ linkage between ‘freedom’ and ‘slavery’, once starkly
proclaimed by the ruling party in Orwell’s 1984 but now smoothly masked behind
‘humanist rhetoric’. [2354] surprises by the scorched-earth flak-speak of
accusing ‘professors’ of conduct that would send any real ‘doctor’ to
prison. [2355] is intentionally uninformative. [2356] is unintentionally
informative through its sublime ineptness, which has evoked lively hilarity
among my university colleagues who teach English as a foreign language.
18.
The Situationality of the samples broadly reflects the societies where
they were to be received. [2350] reflects the galloping rise in poverty,
joblessness, and crime in the US, whilst nervous citizens stock up on firearms.
[2351] reflects the significant decline in US family ties such as mutual respect
and shared cultural values.
19.
Sample [2352] reflects an ambivalent society fascinated by the pageantry of
royalty, power, and wealth, yet repelled by the injustice, immorality, and
inhumanity of those who wielded them. The Elizabethan ‘stage’ was home to
guilt-ridden kings and nobles who ‘strutted’ their ‘hours’ and then were
deservedly cast into ‘dusty death’. Shakespeare excelled in interweaving
with plays with his own personal ambivalence between his pride in the power of
language, most celebrated in his Sonnets for ‘outliving marble and the gilded
monuments of princes’ (LV, 1), versus his anxiety over the ‘imaginary
puissance’ of his ‘rough and all-unable pen’ that ‘mangles the full
course of glory’ (Henry V, Prologue 25, Epilogue 1, 4).
20.
Samples [2353] and [2354] reflect converse reactions to the same post-modern
contradiction arising when multicultural and multinational societies and
economies sharply intensify both the competition for resources and the
concentration of wealth and privilege (I.22). In [2353], Tunde Obadina, the
Economics Editor of the monthly magazine Africa Today (‘the voice of
the continent’), is leading into a close analysis of the ‘African Growth and
Opportunity Act’ (AGOA), then before the American Congress and later signed
into law in The Trade and Development Act of 2000. Its website8
contains the usual self-promoting discourse and glitzy visuals showing the
benefits of the ‘free market’ [2357], also praised by the large majority of
sponsored websites.
[2357]
The Act offers tangible incentives for African countries to continue their
efforts to open their economies and build free markets.
Yet
only 6 of the 38 eligible African countries have notably raised their exports to
the US; 16 have exported nothing at all (Washington Office on Africa).
21.
In [2354], a ‘Collegian Staff, in obsequious sympathy with the ‘Club’,
framed the discourse of the late Gary Hull. The latter was probably a cut-price
clone of upscale campus Rant-A-Rant Horowitz (VII.30), vowing to defend ‘our
American identity’ against a fiendish conspiracy among ‘post-modern
professors’. The substantive issues are not even stated, let alone addressed;
instead, ‘professors’ are smeared with a simile so outrageous as to demolish
any claim to ‘Objectivity’. The relevant political and economic issues are
merely hinted through Metonymy by opposing monumental icons of powerful
Americans (‘Empire State Building’) and Europeans (‘concerto by Mozart’)
against modest indexes of Native Americans (‘teepee’) and African Americans
(‘tom-tom’) — crass functional non-sequiturs mismatching pre-modern
against modern, since the tepee properly matches the ‘Western’ camping tent
(mobile home for nomadic life) and the tom-tom the ‘Western’ telegraph
(instrument to use sounds for transmitting messages over distances); and no
‘multiculturalist’ advocates them for contemporary use anyway.
The discourse exploits the situation of white males who fear that their
university degrees will not shield them from social and economic insecurity and
who are thirsting to hear pretexts for not sharing with other ‘cultures’.
22.
The situationality of both [2355] and [2356] involves a consumer having bought
an electrical apparatus that can readily cause major property damage or personal
injury. These probabilities are not mere speculation, viz.:
[2358] The National Fire Protection Association reports there are around
3,000 fires caused by electric heaters each year (Pullman Fire Department)www
This
space heater was evidently thought too primitive to need instructions; it
didn’t even have an ‘off/on’ switch. Instead, the text [2355] was devoted
to deploying wondrously Strenuous Style for the intention of shielding the
‘Supplier’ against ‘liability’ if the heater burns or shocks people, or
causes short-circuits or fires in their homes.
23.
The power drill in [2356], on the other hand, was accompanied by verbose
instructions that were plainly well-meaning though not plainly meaningful. You
are even instructed when and how to read the instructions. Instead of
forestalling responsibility for ‘defects in material and workmanship’ as in
[2355], the goal is to help the user live with the defects. I confess to having
used the tool myself before I deciphered the ‘relevant rules’, and, sure
enough, after I had drilled exactly four holes in a hard wall, I heard
‘abnormal noise’ and beheld the ‘rotation speed’ ‘reduced
abnormally’ — to zero in fact. The heat from the drill bit had visibly
melted the motor and welded it fast. I fear I failed to ‘regularize’ the
wall and make it ‘pay more attention’; nor did I ‘reduce to exert
myself’ soon enough upon witnessing ‘abnormality’. So I learned too late
the true urgency of ‘day to day repair’. The dealer at the Gaborone Mall
‘changed the new one’ by replacing the whole tool; but I never got the
chance to drill by the ‘rules’ because it was soon ‘conveniently catched’
out of my Land Rover by car thieves in a Pretoria garage.
24.
Finally, the Intertextuality of our samples guides and supports the other
six standards of textuality. Bumperstickers like [2350] provide a medium of
commercially manufactured discourse for displaying the drivers’ presumptive
views or personalities without social contact. These views can be defiantly
anti-social, especially when the topic is the male love of guns. The
‘intertext’ for [2351], however, invoking ‘parents’ preachy admonitions
about ostensibly anti-social behaviour of their children, wryly suggests that
the ‘parents’ speak an outlandish language in need of translating with the
aid of a dictionary or glossary.
25.
The intertextuality for [2352] is more diffuse. Its connections reach back into
the ‘Elizabethan revenge tragedy’ whose language Shakespeare elevated to
unrivalled brilliance; but also into historiography, notably Raphael
Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande (1577) that
provided material for other history plays as well;9 and into the
mythologies of witches and goddesses of destiny in various text types, including
stage plays. The ‘dramatic monologue’ or ‘soliloquy’ was a celebrated
sub-text designed as an elegant set-piece for the characters to meditate out
loud. In modern cinematic staging, such as Roman Polanksi’s Macbeth,
these may be shown with the character not speaking but staring into space, as a
visual icon representing thought without speech.
26.
The intertext for [2353] is the discourse of ‘economic liberalisation’,
which culls its thematic terms from the discourses of the post-modern
globalising ‘re-colonisation’ by trade policies favouring the rich such as
the ‘African Growth and Opportunity Act’ (VIII.20). Counter-discourse
‘stripped of humanist rhetoric’ makes Obadina’s point quite forcefully
[2359].
[2359]
I called it the ‘Africa Recolonization Act’. […] The Congress of South
African Trade Unions declared this bill worse than no bill at all. Indeed, South
African President Nelson Mandela declared the bill ‘not acceptable to us’.
[It] requires sub-Saharan Africa to adopt a range of policies straight
out of the International Monetary Fund’s discredited play book: cuts in
spending on health care and education, orienting food production away from
meeting domestic needs and toward exports, and dives-ting natural resources and
precious public assets to foreign investors. […] Look at the coalition
promoting it — a corporate who’s who of oil giants, banking and insurance
interests, as well as apparel firms seeking one more place to locate their
low-paying sweatshops. (Jesse L. Jackson, Jr.)10
Due
to onerous rules for qualifying, and to hundreds of exclusions, even the lurvely
IMF calculated that the benefits to Africa were only one-fifth what they would
have been under a genuine free-trade regime. Presumably that works out to five
times as much benefits to, erm, ‘American interests’.
27.
Curiously, the ‘intertext’ of right-wing monoculturalist discourse like
[2354] seems to be blankly unaware of how efficiently this ‘globalised free
market’ is already imposing an agenda of power and inequality heavily biased
toward white males in the US and its ‘allies’. Why bother to rant and smear
cultural minorities whose human rights are already being quietly and efficiently
suspended by the ‘free market forces’, the ‘war on drugs’, ‘American
interests’, ‘homeland security’, and the ‘war on terrorism’?
Plausibly, the agenda calls for heaping insult on injury and discredit in
advance any counter-movements of social consciousness and responsibility by
stridently repeating that the victims of inequality are actually perpetrators of
a heinous plot to ‘destroy American identity’, and deserve the least
benefits and indeed perhaps violence (I.18). In particular, the vindictive
far-right stink tanks with intellectual pretensions, like the ‘Ayn Rand
Institute’ and the ‘Center for the Study of
Popular Culture’ of Rent-A-Rant Horowitz,
are madly eager to mudsling distinguished academic experts in multiculturalism,
who command the most articulate authority to deconstruct the far-right agenda
and reveal what it is — a very real and wealthy plot to destroy American
democracy. Besides, multicultural
universities offer successful careers whereby graduating foreign students can
become permanent US residents — another perennial anathema to the far right.
28.
More generally, as I have noted, far-right flakspeak is intended to engender a
confrontational environment of ‘cultural war’11 which leaves no
room for rational discussion and debate among the supporters of differing
ideologies (VII.26-39, 35). The laughable overkill of some smears — e.g.,
university professors ‘likened’ to ‘sadists’ who diabolically spread
‘infectious viruses’ and ‘break legs’ — are like the overkill of
‘pre-emptive strikes’ in a real hot war American style. Such reduced and
debased exercises of language, aimed at reducing and debasing human beings,
expressly turn language against itself (I.38).
29.
The ‘intertext’ for [2355] is the discourse of product warranties colonised
by the legal discourse of statutes and regulations, whose Strenuous Style shows
indicators like ‘thereof’ and ‘aforesaid’. This mode of discourse
merges three goals: fulfilling legal obligations, brandishing authoritative
knowledge of the niceties of law, and intimidating the buyer. Injured consumers
would have to hire their own lawyers just to determine what the warranty says,
only to find that their cause is already lost.
30.
The intertext for [2356] is more curious. The producer(s) know both the product
and the conventions for giving instructions, but, like many people I have
encountered around the world, they sadly overrate their own knowledge of
English, a tendency of course encouraged by the commercial value of English and
rarely observed for other ‘foreign languages’. The country of origin was
nowhere indicated in the text or on the tool and the package, but the native
language of the writer(s) must be radically unlike English. Apparently, the
grammar was cobbled on the model of the native language, as my students in
Arabia did (II.200), and the vocabulary was culled from an unreliable bilingual
dictionary. Such discourse underscores the need for better access to ‘English
for Professional Purposes’ than has remotely been achieved so far (II.208).
31.
Having briefly revisited the seven standards of textuality, I now revisit the
three design criteria for evaluating texts (cf. II.130). My own status as a text
receiver is of course hardly typical. I might qualify as an intended text
receiver for [2352] as a keen admirer of Shakespeare, for [2353] as an
‘ecologist’ then living in Africa, and for [2356] as a user of power drills.
I do not qualify as a prospective car-burglar for [2350], nor as a gullible
student or closet racist for [2354]. I can read discourse like [2351] with some
empathy as a counter-discourse against the discourses of arrogant parental
authority, though I am not personally involved or addressed. But I would point
out that the alienation within the ‘Western’ family in ‘modern
societies’ is no joke, least of all when exported into societies where the
strength of family ties is essential for cultural identity or even for physical
survival under adverse conditions (cf. VIII.59).
32.
The most efficient texts in getting readily processed would be [2350],
[2351], and [2354], all expressed in ordinary language despite occasional
twists. More effort is needed for the poetic language of [2352] and for the
political and economic language in [2353]. For [2355] and [2356], so much effort
is needed that readers might give up, though only [2355] was designed to
encourage them to do so by being radically inefficient.
33.
How far these texts would be effective in promoting the goals of the
producers or presenters is an unsettling question. Receivers of [2350] might be
scared off but, if armed themselves, might instead feel challenged to an
adrenaline-pumping gun battle like they daily watch on TV. Receivers of [2351]
will feel amused only if they are ‘kids’ getting nagged or adults
remembering how they once got nagged by their parents; others might feel
indignant. The receivers of [2352] may realise that Macbeth is just
universalising his own hopelessness (VIII.15), but may instead get carried away
by the eloquent pessimism and concur that ‘life’ is hollow and
meaningless at bottom.
34.
The goal of [2353] is to alert African readers to the deeper irony of
‘preaching the virtues’ of a ‘freedom’ which, just like ‘slavery’,
allows ‘strength’ to be ‘exercised without moral or legal limitations’.
Audiences with access to relevant information about issues like the ‘African
Growth and Opportunity will welcome a critical look behind the ‘humanist
rhetoric’; but most Africans whose lives will be affected by ‘free market
economics’ have no such access and will be either deceived by such ‘Acts’
or just ignored. Besides, the apostles of ‘free market’ and ‘free trade’
can freely dictate their terms to the nations of Africa (cf. VII.104ff), and
have efficient ‘procedures’ to get any money that goes in back out, and
fast:
[2360]
The IMF expects borrowers to give priority to repaying its loans on schedule
[and] has in place procedures to deter the build-up of any arrears, or overdue
repay-ments and interest charges [and] ensure that the IMF is among the first to
be repaid.12
The
recent fate of Argentina should be an object lesson to any debtor nation.
35.
In contrast, sample [2354] would be effective for poorly-informed American
readers, who might credit these fearsome accusations and turn angrily against
their ‘professors’. Other readers (like me) would refuse to believe that
‘professors’ (of all people) would want to wage a ‘war against the mind’
and ‘destroy American identity’. We would retort that people who use such
blatantly partisan language are not ‘Objectivists’ but alarmists and
slanderers (VIII.21).
36.
Sample [2355] is effective precisely by not being efficient, since communication was never intended. The goal of the ‘Suppliers’ —
identified only as ‘Nu-World Industries’ with no location or address where
you could possibly ‘return of the product’ or ‘notify in writing’ — is
to fulfil the legal requirements for ‘war-ranties’ in a way that evades
responsibility. The Suppliers can act like officials who, when accused of
misconduct, are their own judges; and the accusation is thrown out if a formal
writ is not submitted in an ‘aforesaid period’, period. They could have
known that in this part of Africa, many buyers of low-cost heaters would not be
fluent enough in formal English to compose such a writ even in the grossly
unlikely event that they had understood why, where, and how to do so.
37.
Sample [2356] is just the opposite: not effective because it is not efficient.
It would be effective only for readers with a sound working knowledge of
electric power tools, but then it would be rather superfluous. Unlike [2355],
effective communication does seem to have been sincerely intended in [2356],
witness the assiduous urging to ‘read the explanation’.
38.
How far these samples would be appropriate to the situation is another
unsettling question. I have seen many bumperstickers like [2350] signalling a
frank disregard for appropriateness in general and for political correctness in
particular (VIII.24). They have a captive audience in the immediate visual field
of the motorist behind. And the risks of hostile reactions are far lower than if
the same texts were uttered face to face — though some of my friends were
stopped by Florida police for the wryly philosophising bumpersticker ‘Shit
Happens’ (which it did, right then).
39.
MAD Magazine, the source of sample [2351], is a special discourse of a
different nature. It is a mainly sophisticated ‘comic’ intended for satire
and caricature of the inane, pretentious, or hypocritical manifestations of US
culture, such as gory films and imbecilic TV sitcoms. It plays off the discourse
of smarmy advertisers, moral crusaders, religious fanatics, high rollers, seedy
politicians, and the despotic military and police. A favoured strategy in MAD
is to display people saying what just would not be appropriate or
politically correct in their real situations and thus betraying their hidden
intentions. Subverting conventional appropriateness is thereby made appropriate
to the magazine’s own situation.
40.
Shakespeare’s history plays are special too. We know from historical records
that these persons could hardly have spoken so nicely, but we have somehow
accepted his representation of the modes of discourse are that appropriate for
kings and nobles, compelling admiration despite frequently ignoble motives. Such
is sustained even in a soliloquy, despite the stage fiction that nobody’s
listening.
41.
Samples [2353] and [2354] could not both be judged appropriate by the same
audience, because they imply opposing viewpoints on cultural diversity, and
operate with two widely differing strategies: the one ecological and
intellectual, the other confrontational and emotional. They indicate most
clearly of all the seven samples how texts seek to position the audience and
encourage them to take sides (II.176). We are asked to choose between the valid
opposites of ‘freedom’ and ‘slavery’, or between ‘liberators’ and
‘oppressors’ in [2353]; and between the sham opposites of ‘American
identity’ and ‘multiculturalism’, or between ‘Empire State Building’
and ‘teepee’ in [2354].
42.
Finally, both [2355] and [2356] are highly inappropriate from the standpoint of
the audience, though for totally disparate reasons, as we have seen. The likely
effect would be severe disorientation, and if you don’t understand the
problems and dangers of such appliances, you may be in for a real shock.
43.
So far, I have examining the texts as I found them, much as was done with the
seven texts placed at the start of the 1981 Introduction. But now I shall
round off with a demonstration of deconstructing by a ‘critical rewriting’
that reverses and thus highlights the ideological agenda to position the
audience and make one particular view of the world seem natural and general
(II.132, 177). (The term ‘rewriting’, does not mean limited to ‘written
texts’, though for me at least the work is most efficient and effective using
a word processor.)
44.
The ‘deconstructive rewriting’ in [2350b] explicitly escalates the stance of
defiance and menace merely implicit in the original [2350]. [2351b] takes on the
position of the self-righteous parents.
[2350b] WARNING! Mess with me and you’ll get yer head
blowed off!
[2351b] atheist: a person who has wilfully forsworn
allegiance to the One True God and will burn in Hell for all eternity
bum: any male who, entirely through his own laziness,
has ended up in the gutter, and has no claim to any help from family or society
respect: the dutiful deference parents deserve at all
times from their grateful children
talking
back: responding to wise parental advice with insolent comebacks that should
earn you a sound whipping
[2352b]
uses abjectly Plain Style to abrogate all intent of casting a pall of grandeur
over the emptiness of life, and so loses all effectiveness to compel either
empathy or sympathy.
[2352b]
The way the next days just keep on coming and coming toward the end of time is
trivial and all the days lead us twits to grungy graves. So let it go! Life is
like some oozy blot, or some lousy actor who moans and mooches about on the
stage for while and then shuts up. Life is like a story from some eejit, all
noise and no meaning.
Nothing
is left of the textual fabric of a beauty that paradoxically consoles and
transcends its own sadness (cf. VI.71).
45. [2353b] switches sides by ‘preaching’ from just
the position which [2353] was intended to deconstruct. [2354b] switches in the
opposite direction by occupying the position violently attacked in [2354] and
asserting that multiculturalism affirms the identity of America rather than
‘destroying’ it.
[2353b] The long history of bringing our Western
Enlightenment to Africa, the Dark Continent, imposes upon us the moral
imperative to enlighten the Africans today on the virtues of freedom through
political and economic liberalisation. Now more than ever, our radiant
commitment to democracy, human rights, and free market economics must be spread
to Africa to help the Natives outgrow their primitive bartering with animal
skins and join Modern Civilisation and the New World Order -- Ours.
[2354b]
Multiculturalism is a vital topic for today’s university campuses that are
committed to serving our multicultural society in a spirit of democracy and
equality. Yet multiculturalism has been the continual target of unprincipled
attacks by right-wing radicals who masquerade as ‘Objectivists’ and as
champions of ‘academic freedom’ and ‘excellence’ to mystify their brutal
and unconstitutional campaigns for white male supremacy. They bewail the
‘destruction of American identity’, but the real identity of America is
multicultural, and always has been — a open nation of natives and immigrants
building its strengths upon diversity and upon the freedom to be diverse.
46.
This much ‘deconstructive rewriting’ was not too difficult insofar as I
could be considered conversant with the cultural situations reflected by the
original texts. Rewriting [2355] and [2356] had to overcome turgid resistance of
two distinct modes. By far the harder task was to rewrite the heater warranty
into a really user-friendly version such as [2355b].
[2355b]
If the Customer does not return the product within 7 days, the Supplier or its
authorised service dealer has the right of deciding whether to replace or repair
it. We will do so only if we find some defect in material and workmanship that
is entirely our own fault. In addition, the Customer must send the Supplier a
written notice of the defect before the warranty period ends.
Instead
of switching sides on cultural issues, as I had done in [2350a-2341b] and
[2353a-2344b], I switched disempowerment by arrogant ‘Suppliers’ over to
empowerment of ordinary ‘Customers’. I expunged the stylistic indicators of
legalese and greatly streamlined the grammar. My version [2355b] retains the
agenda of limiting the ‘Supplier’s’ responsibility, but rejects the agenda
of confusing and intimidating the Customers. Now you would at least have fair
warning that you shouldn’t depend too much on the ‘Supplier’ or ‘service
dealer’ when there’s trouble. Yet by making the text more efficient to read,
I made it less effective for the ‘Supplier’s’ intention (cf. VIII.36),
which might have been more aptly deconstructed like this:
[2355c] The Supplier has the liability
rigged so that you’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell of getting this piece
of cheap junk fixed or replaced. Even if it goes phut or burns your house down
within 7 days, you can hardly find us; or if you manage anyway, we’ll say it
wasn’t our fault; or if it obviously was our fault, we’ll point out
we didn’t get a written notice during those 7 days (you know, the African mail
service…). So sayonara, sucker!
47.
Rewriting [2356] required both some knowledge of electric machinery and some
facility in inferring from the flubspeak the intended expressions which may
resemble them in sound or spelling (e.g. ‘handle’ = ‘handy’, ‘series
generation’ = ‘serial generator’) or else in meaning (e.g. ‘moist’ =
‘damp’, ‘narrow’ = ‘cramped’, ‘have nonloading’ = ‘spin
freely’). The ‘inverting sparkle’ might be the ‘sparks in the
generator’ that runs on alternating (‘inverting’?) current.
[2356b] J1Z is a handy electric tool driven by a serial
generator. It has the advantages of being compact, light, and convenient to
hold. It can be used not merely in workshops with well-secured electrical
outlets but also in damp or cramped conditions or on high metal frames. Please
observe these instructions carefully.
1. Use only a power source with the proper voltage.
2. Use the correct plug; do not exchange it randomly and
do not just insert the bare wires into the outlet.
3. Before using the tool, let it spin freely and check
for excess noise, loosened screws, or abnormal sparks in the generator.
4. Take care to ensure that the item to be drilled has a
suitable shape and surface.
5. If drilling slows down the rotation, reduce your
pressure on the drill.
6.
When repairs are necessary, they should be performed at once. Exchange any
damaged part with the authorised factory replacement.
Furthermore,
I reorganised the overall pattern to enhance Coherence. The item marked ‘1.’
in the original text [2356] does not qualify as a technical instruction; it
seems to mean that unless you are already familiar with how to operate the tool,
you should read the ‘explanation’. In exchange, the unnumbered materials in
the paragraph placed below item ‘4.’ do qualify, and I have reformatted them
as such. I also rearranged the individual instructions into a more logical
order: first connecting to power, then checking the tool, then checking the
‘piece to be drilled’, then responding to some event during the drilling,
and finally responding to defects in the tool. The ‘plug’ matters a lot
because the drill is sold without one — buildings in southern Africa have a
variety of outlets — and some people have indeed been sticking the ‘bare
wires’ into the outlet and getting more thrill than drill by confusing the
live wire with the ground wire.
48.
‘Critical’ or ‘deconstructive rewriting’ reminds us that our own
responses as ‘text linguists’ and ‘discourse analysts’ are not a
neutral or objective processes, but, in accord with the approach of
discursivism, can be made explicit objects of reflection and manipulation
(II.112). Ecologism regards the standards of textuality as theoretical resources
for the practices of critically probing texts from multiple perspectives and
working out multiple social or ideological agendas built on discursive themes
like ‘freedom’ or ‘multiculturalism’.
49.
In return, the standards as such do not constitute the practical resources of
units, items and patterns — the
‘concrete wherewithal of speech’ (Sapir)13 — that underwrite or
sponsor Cohesion, Coherence, Intentionality, and so on. The resources
are
provided by the triad of Lexicogrammar, Prosody and Visuality, which comes fully
into view by finally transcending the mind-set of ‘linguistics’ where
language is a composite of ‘levels’ with ‘-emes’, or ‘components’
with ‘rules’, extracted from analysis and arranged in formal systems. In its
place, we recognise the organisational resources actively supporting synthesis
and determining Style, such as Collocations in Lexicogrammar, pitch contours in
Prosody, and mental imagery
in Visuality. Textuality is all of a piece; and discourse analysis as our
particular professional practice should sustain its own conscious dialectic with
discourse synthesis as the general social practice.
VIII.B.
Close-Up: Shopping as an ‘Art Form’
50.
The text shown below comes from an advert published in Time (Asian
edition, 24/06/1994), with numbering added for handy reference:
[2361.1] Shopping, once a chore for
necessities and now an art form and major leisure activity, is a great barometer
of social change. [2361.2] If you shopped in Indonesia before the 1980s, your
options were limited to traditional markets and neighbourhood ‘mom and pop’
stores. [2361.3] Wealthy Indonesians were forced to go overseas if they wanted
to buy upmarket international brands [2361.4] because these goods were simply not for sale at home.
[2361.5] Then came the retail
revolution. [2361.6] Now there are hundreds of supermarkets, department stores,
plazas, malls, and supermalls to rival the best in the west dotted all over the
archipelago; [2361.7] a mega mall and a hyper mall are on the drawing board.
[2361.8] Growing per capita income — now at US$ 750 per annum — [2361.9] and
Indonesia’s massive population has [sic] spurred a retail frenzy [2361.10]
which began in the capital Jakarta, the country’s headquarters for commerce,
industry and its burgeoning middle class — [2361.11] Indonesia’s prime
shoppers. […]
[2361.12] Our steadily expanding economy is coupled with rapidly rising family incomes; [2361.13] the middle and upper-income groups who constitute our consumer base are the groups exhibiting the most dramatic upward mobility. [2361.14] The nation’s growing middle class population, those with annual incomes over US$ 4,500, is already estimated to total nearly 20 million.
[2361.15]
We saw shopping malls as another type of family recreation where you all go to
relax and have fun.
51.
The global Intentionality of the text richly shapes the arrays of selections and
combinations: to whet the public (or just private) appetite for shopping; to
boast about the spread of malls; to project a bullish air of economic progress
in ‘rising family incomes’; to extol the management of the Indonesian
economy; and to make the country attractive for investors, ‘upmarket’
tourists, and ‘wealthy Indonesians’ who, perish the thought, might otherwise
shop, invest, or vacation ‘overseas’. These three groups are reassured that
Indonesia will treat their money well, whether by returning high profits from
investment or by furnishing ‘upmarket international brands’ to flaunt in the
faces of one and all.
52.
The intention of extolling the Indonesian economy adduces ‘social change’ as
the force behind ‘rapidly rising family incomes’ [2361.1, 12]. The ‘middle
and upper-income groups’ are asserted to ‘constitute our consumer base’
[2361.13]; but elsewhere, only the ‘middle class’ are designated
‘Indonesia’s prime shoppers’ [2361.11]. To be sure, blurring the border
between middle and upper incomes is an alluring notion for the vainglorious
social climbing behind the euphemism ‘upward mobility’. But the
‘burgeoning middle class’ is the key group leading the ‘retail frenzy’
in their drive to display their recent comparative wealth, whereas the upper
class serenely takes its long-standing superlative wealth in stride.
53.
In an intriguing move of self-deconstruction, the text also plants clues that
this ‘social change’ has bypassed nearly all of the population, provided we
do some basic arithmetic. If the whole population was roughly 190 million, and
the population with ‘incomes over US$ 4,500’ came to ‘20 million’
[2361.14], then 89% (170 million) must have been in the lower class living on
less than $4,500. If we multiply the whole population by a ‘per capita
income’ of $750 [2361.8] for each citizen, the total income of Indonesia was
around $142.5 billion. Multiplying $4500 by the 20 million citizens whose
‘incomes’ were at least that much [2361.14] gives a total of $90
billion. If we adjust our first total by subtracting the second total, $52.5
billion was left over for the 170 million in the lower class, so their income
for a year would be just $308.82 apiece — 85¢ a day — even if the rest did
not earn any more than US$4,500 — 15 times as much — but of course
Suharto’s ravenous flock of cronies and relatives did, as was
amply disclosed after the ignominious downfall of his mind-bendingly crooked
regime in 1999, five years after this ad appeared.
54.
So a latent contradiction might be detected at the epicentre of the intention-ality
of our text. On the one hand, the statistics could serve the intention of
touting the progress of the ‘economy’ as a whole by camouflaging the
regressive poverty of 89% of the population behind an ‘income’ cooked to
look at least twice as high ($750 versus $308) — a pungently ironic conception
of ‘growth’ [2361.8]! On the other hand, the same statistics could serve the
intention of allowing interested readers to compute the poverty, as I did. The
contradiction thus fades into an intentional dualism engrained in the current
‘global free market’: if you do business in Indonesia, the rich will buy
your products at top prices, whilst the poor will work your operations at bottom
wages. A win-win situation.
55.
The poverty of the workers is irrelevant anyway insofar as they wouldn’t be
‘shopping’ in your ‘malls’ even if (suitably disguised) they got past
the ‘security’ rent-a-cops at the entrance. Indonesia did its best to adopt
the ‘post-modern’ economy, described in I.22, that shifts its emphasis in
marketing away from large volumes of low-priced commodities — the
‘necessities’ in ‘mom and pop stores’ — over to small volumes of
high-priced commodities — the ‘upmarket brands’ in ‘supermalls’ —
purchased just because they are not ‘necessities’ and thus best
flaunt the buyers’ discretionary wealth and refined tastes. These brands make
each act of acquisition into an iconic public bid for invidious prestige by
certifying over and over the buyer’s surplus affluence. So the notion that
‘wealthy Indonesians’ simply must be able to buy those ‘brands’
[2361.3] is treated here as totally obvious.
56.
To make Cohesion and Coherence explicit, thematic content is strategically
placed near the Front of Clauses or Sentences, or of some other unit situated by
itself. Thus, the Subject of the first Sentence sets the theme to be
‘shopping’ [2361.1], and other Subjects fall into a prominent Thematic
Sequence: ‘wealthy Indonesians’ [2361.3]; ‘these goods’ [2361.4];
‘growing income’ [2361.8]; ‘expanding economy’ [2361.12]; ‘middle and
upper-income groups’ [2361.13]; and ‘middle class population’ [2361.14].
57.
Other Thematic Sequences contribute as well, as when ‘shopping’ links up
with ‘shopped – for sale – retail – commerce – retail – shoppers’. An
intimately related Thematic Sequence is grouped around money: ‘wealthy – upmarket – income – economy – incomes – middle and
upper-income – incomes’.
More elaborately connected is a Sequence for growth: ‘hundreds –
growing – massive – burgeoning – expanding – rising – upward –
growing’; expressions can form iconic Morphemic Sequences to mimic the
‘growing’ process in the size of places to shop, e.g. ‘markets
=> upmarket => supermarkets’; ‘stores =>
department stores’; ‘malls => supermalls => mega mall
=> hyper mall’. These Sequence could attract ‘dotted’ in
[2361.6], which usually means ‘scattered’ but here could mean ‘found
every-where’; and could be iconic for the ‘frenzy’ in [2361.10]. I would
even wonder whether ‘per capita’ and ‘capital’ [2361.8,
10], though seemingly remote in meaning, might not trigger associations with the
imported capitalism that has distributed the wealth in this badly skewed
head count.
58.
The stylistic factor of Attitudes does its bit too. Some of the Items carry
Attitudes prefigured in ordinary usage, e.g., Pejorative for a ‘chore’
[2361.1] being tedious, and ‘forced’ implying compulsion [2361.4]. Other
Items take on Attitudes in context, as when ‘tradition’, usually
Ameliorative in Southeast Asian cultures, appears Pejorative here by association
with backwardness and ‘limitations’ [2361.1, 2, 4]. In return, ‘frenzy’
(typically associated with people or sharks gone out of control) appears
unexpectedly Ameliorative as a manifestation of ‘growing income’ [2361.8-9],
though for me more of the sharkish meaning persists than was intended.
59.
The sole Sequences of Pejorative expressions decry the bleak situation ‘before
the 1980s’: ‘chore – necessities – forced’; ‘limited – not
for sale’; ‘traditional markets – neighbourhood mom and pop
stores’. As I noted, the common Ameliorative value of ‘tradition’ is reset
to Pejorative here to animate people into buying the very latest modern
commodities, which they must rush out to find in shopping malls. The use of
‘mom and pop’ as a patronising Western term is pungently ironic in a culture
where the traditional home life accords profound respect to parents and
grand-parents. Still, the breakdown of family ties furthers the interests of a
market where selfish people spend all the more on surplus commodities to pamper
themselves. The modern ‘family’ now forms a collective of hedonists who
flock to ‘shopping malls’ for ‘recreation’, ‘relaxation’, and
‘fun’ [2361.15, 1] — to revel ostentatiously in the ‘leisure’ based
upon wealth not earned by labour.
60.
The Lexicogrammar is easily dominated by the Thematic Sequences enumerated
above, featuring expressions and collocations relating to marketing, wealth, and
growth. Set off against this background are a few choices that take on
Marked-ness and Weight. The Collocation ‘shopping as an art form’ is
formatted like an Appositive or a Simile resembling a sealed package, as opposed
to the direct Statement formatted as a Clause, ‘shopping is an art
form’, though the latter is in fact 10 times more frequent on the Internet,
notably for locales like Singapore and Hong Kong, which seem to exist mainly for
shopping (but I didn’t find Indonesia). Perhaps a sly inference is intended,
associating with the pricey ‘art objects’ and ‘collector’s items’
malls love to hawk. Shoppers might feel more foolish to be smarmed as artists if
they were less hungry for status and for the certification of ‘refined
taste’ to be proven by ‘upmarket’ purchases (VIII.55).
61. The collocation ‘rival the best in the west’ [2361.6], in contrast, seems pointedly plain, like an improvised cliché (I found 11,153 hits on the Internet with AltaVista). But it may be a subtly marked choice in contexts where shopping malls and ‘international brands’ are the essential symbols, indexes and icons of the Westernisation so cordially wedded to consumerism. The colourless collocation unobtrusively puts local shopping facilities on a par not just with the ‘west’ but with the latter’s ‘best’.
62.
The mixed lexicogrammatical Styles of the text could address multiple audiences:
expressly Informal Style (e.g., ‘chore – mom and pop – at home – relax
and have fun’) alongside the more Formal Styles of the discourses of business
(e.g., ‘goods
–
sale
–
retail
–
drawing board
–
commerce
–
consumer base’),
economics (e.g., ‘economy – per capita – upper-income groups – estimated’), and
sociology (e.g., ‘barometer of social change
–
revolution
–
middle class
–
family incomes
–
upward mobility’). If the
Informal Style suggests easy-going friendliness, the Formal Styles flatter
readers by attributing to them academic and intellectual prowess, plus high
fluency in English — itself no small status symbol in Southeast Asia. The same
attribution may be implied by the Greek-based Morphemes ‘mega’ and
‘hyper’, which convey a pleasing if vague promise of superlative bigness
rounding off the enumeration of seven types of shopping places (VIII.57).
63.
The stylistic Weight of some Lexical Choices might be tested by contrasting them
with alternatives at lower Weight: ‘chore’, not ‘task’; ‘barometer’,
not ‘measure’; ‘revolution’, not ‘change’; ‘archipelago’, not
‘islands’; ‘massive’, not ‘large’; ‘spurred’, not ‘caused’;
‘frenzy’, not ‘excitement’; ‘headquarters’, not ‘centre’;
‘burgeoning’, not ‘growing’; ‘prime’, not ‘main’; ‘coupled
with’, not ‘along with; ‘constitute’, not ‘make up’;
‘exhibiting’, not ‘showing’; ‘dramatic’, not ‘great’; and of
course ‘upmarket’, not ‘overpriced’, and ‘upward mobility’, not
‘piling up money’. Perhaps such choices are iconic upmarket words for a
vocabulary seeking its own upward mobility?
64.
The lexical and stylistic shift in the last sentence [2361.15] turns so Plain as
to acquire paradoxical Weight, where we might have expected something more like
[2361.15a].
[2361.15] We saw shopping malls as
another type of family recreation where you all go to relax and have fun.
[2361.15a] Our economic indicators projected shopping
malls to constitute attractive familial recreation and relaxation sites.
Instead,
the Formal Styles of business, economics, and so on, abruptly yield to an
Informal Style of carefree life, as if the builders of malls just now remembered
all they really want is to supply ‘fun’ and ‘relaxation’ for your whole
‘family,’ purely out of community spirit — never mind the submerged irony
of converting the traditional family as a community of love and respect into a
collective of idle, fun-seeking mall-freaks (VIII.59). The choice ‘you all
go’ is exquisitely cheeky for a guarded exclusive showcase where 89% of all
Indonesians would probably be turned away by ‘security officers’.
65.
In the Lexicogrammar, strategic choices can be noted for the Parameter of
Transitivity in the sense of III.87. The Active Verbs strategically collocate
with their Direct Objects: ‘buy – brands’; ‘rival – best’; ‘spurred – frenzy’; ‘saw – malls’. Three
Passives deal with restrictions on shopping: ‘were limited
–
were not for sale
–
were forced’, the last of
these connoting an unjust compulsion upon the ‘wealthy’ (VIII.58); two more
are for the abstractions typical of academic discourse: ‘is coupled
–
is estimated’. The
dominant Transitivity is rather the Medial, though only a few
Finite Verbs occur: ‘is a barometer – go overseas – are on the
drawing board – go to relax’. The one Existential Medial in ‘there are…supermalls’
[2361.6] avoids saying who built or owned them, as if they spontaneously sprang
from the foment of ‘the retail revolution’; the latter’s Definite Article
implies that this ‘revolution’ is a recognised reality. Most of the Medial
activities are expressed instead either as Nouns, e.g., ‘frenzy – mobility’; or as
Present Participles, e.g., ‘growing – burgeoning – expanding – rising – exhibiting – happening’,
invoking an effect of intense development and change like natural processes. I
find not a single genuine Agent plus Action Verb as Subject plus Predicate, such
as ‘rich foreigners built more shopping malls’. In fact, the Subjects of the
Clauses are never an individual Agent, but only collectives like
‘population’ or abstractions like ‘economy’.
66.
This distribution suggests examining the Agent Pronouns. The Second Person
‘you’ appears at the start as the unlucky pre-1980s shopper whose ‘options
were limited’; and at the happy end as the lucky 1994 shopper homing in on
‘relaxation’ and ‘fun’. The First Person Plural appears in ‘our
expanding economy’ and ‘our consumer base’ [2361.12, 13]. Since these
entities elsewhere appear with the Possessive Nouns ‘nation’s’ and
‘Indonesia’s’ [2361.14, 11], the text can subtly purport to speak for the
whole country. But the ‘we’ who ‘saw family fun’ in [2361.15] would
presumably be the creators of ‘shopping malls’, who would love to identify
their own interests with those of the nation, and maybe they did.
67.
The Prosody of the text could deploy Strong Stress to intensify Items like ‘!forced – !hun·dreds – !mas·sive – !head·¡quar·ters – dra·!mat·ic
–
!best
in the !west’;
or contrasts like ‘!once – !now ’; ‘!chore – !art
¡form
’; or ‘!meg·a ¡mall – !hy·per ¡mall’.
Strong Stress for strategic End Weight would probably fall upon ‘¡so·cial
!change’,
‘¡in·ter·¡na·tion·al !brands’, ‘!re·tail
!fren·zy’, ‘!prime
¡shop·pers’,
and ‘¡up·ward
mo·!bil·it·y’.
Opportunities for End Weight can be increased by having short Tone Groups that
are not Clauses, e.g., the Appositives ‘!ma·jor !leis·ure
ac·!tiv·i·ty’
in [2361.1] and ‘!prime
shop·pers’
in [2361.11]. Also, ‘!re·tail
¡rev·o·¡lu·tion’
is a Subject which gets End Weight by being displaced after its Verb; compare
the weaker effect of ‘Then the !re·tail
¡rev·o·¡lu·tion
¡came’.
68. The Visuality of the sample is dominated by retouched photos of the inside and outside of a monstrous Indonesian ‘supermall’.
The interior shows the
standard Visuality of a shopping mall, which makes it the perfected symbol,
index and icon, all at once, of the in-your-face ‘look what I got!’
life-style that drives the manic pursuit of colossal wealth by fair means or
(more often) foul, and wins support for political leaders, however repugnant,
who coddle the rich and shaft the poor — Suharto and Marcos, Thatcher and
Reagan, Poppy Bush and Son-of-a-Bush. The soaring atrium with its honeycomb of
escalators, the orgies of plate glass, marble, and fake gold-and-silver, the
tropical hothouse greenery, the fashion-model sales clerks, and the trendily
overdressed clientele, compose the ideal visual frame for the ‘international
brands’ as the correspondingly overpriced commodities imported from
prestigious far-away places and pressed upon you by glossy adverts telling you
what you must have and just didn’t know it.
69. At the centre of the interior photo stands a lone woman in an evening dress looking out, presumably waiting for an affluent male shopper — maybe you, sir. The exterior shows a soaring facade with a phallic red tower at the centre, and a parking lot filled with shiny, stratospherically priced autos such as BMWs.
Mounted behind the text is a page size image of a young woman with mildly
rather than ethnically oriental facial features in a simple sheath dress whose
plainness highlights a zipper in the middle extending all down the front and
having a large hand pull-ring at the top. Service literally at your fingertips,
tuan.14
70.
Although more detailed than many studies of a brief text, my treatment certainly
does not purport to be complete; such is not an aspiration of discourse analysis
at large (II.113). Still, I hope to have shown that the design is not nearly so
simple as it would seem in an ordinary reading. And I hope to have pursued the
analysis at least to the point of uncovering some non-trivial and socially
relevant strategies and motivations which can plausibly be attributed to
selected choices and patterns, and which are not readily apparent on the
surface.
71.
Nor again does my own analysis purport to be ‘correct’ or ‘objective’. I
am obviously not the intended reader who jets off to Indonesia in quest of
‘income’ or ‘fun’; and shopping malls freak me outlike a horror trip on
angel dust. On the contrary, I have worked out a programmatic counter-discourse
to deconstruct the motives of the actual writer(s) and the intended reader(s),
taking sides with ecologism in order to frame consumerism. If 11% of the
population has (at the very least) 15 times more money than the other 89% in
abject poverty, and if that money is being showily squandered in ‘supermalls’,
then I for one decline to praise the country for ‘social change’; and I
regard any such ‘consumer frenzy’ as a social disease and long-range
bioplanetary menace, not at all as just ‘another type of family recreation’.
Notes
to Chapter VIII
1
I had planned to begin the same way this time, but realized that such a
prologue could be misleading and so would make a better epilogue.
2
By Krome Barratt (London: Herbert,
1989).
3
By William L. Miller (Oxford: Clarendon, 1991).
4
By Peter Honey (London: Institute of Personnel Management, 1992).
5
By Edward Smith (London: Batsford, 1991).
6
The German are data quoted from my paper ‘Theory and Practice
of Translation in the Age of Hypertechnology’, at the Second International Congress of Translators, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 23-27
July, 2001. They are no longer posted on the Internet.
7
This section was modelled on the opening of the 1981 Introduction
(see Note 1).
8
At www.agoa.gov.
9
Compare Allardyce Nicoll and Josephine Nicoll (eds.), Holinshed's
Chronicle as Used in Shakespeare's Plays
(London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1927).
10
‘HOPE For Africa: A Human
Face on
the Global
Economy’, at
www.jessejacksonjr.org.
11
A phrase from Pat Buchanan’s keynote (!) speech at the
1992 Republican National Convention.
12 At www.imf.org.
13
Sapir, Note 28 to Ch. II, p. 93.
14
Once the rough Malay equivalent of respectful sir’, ‘tuan’ is now
deemed ‘closely related to feudalism or colonialism; a person addressed […]
would be regarded as feudalistic, out-dated, and old-fashioned.’ (Being
Culturally Appropriate in IFL)www
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