Discourse Analysis interpretation (textuality) "CRUISE GUARDS ‘WERE ASLEEP’"

CRUISE GUARDS ‘WERE ASLEEP’

Dozing guards allowed a group of peace campaigners to breach a missile security cordon yesterday. The women protesters claimed to have walked right up to cruise launchers. As sentries slept, they tip-toed past sentries at 3 a.m. and inspected a cruise convoy in a woody copse on Salisbury Plain.

Greenham Common campaigner Sarah Graham said: “for the sake of making things more realistic, the copse was protected by soldiers dug into fox-holes. “And there were dogs rather than the usual reels of barbed wire”. But, she claimed, the American airmen were dozing by the launchers. One was kipping beneath one of the vehicles,” She added.

Eventually, one of the airmen ‘woke up’ and spotted the women, who had been trailing the convoy from the Greenham Common base in Berkshire since Tuesday. The ministry of Defence confirmed there had been an incident. Ten women had been arrested, charged with trespassing and released on bail.

1.      Cohesive Features

a.       Substitution

This text has an addition a set of place holders which can be used to signal the omission, there is in last sentence of second paragraph.

One was kipping beneath one of the vehicles. One here refers to the American airmen

b.      Ellipsis

There are some parts of clause to be omitted, but in contexts it can be assumed.

-          one of the airmen ‘woke up’ and spotted the women

A simple written sentence above has omitted words from there is no subject before ‘spotted’, it should be filled ‘he’ in full form of sentence.

-          Ten women had been arrested, charged with trespassing ….

It is also a simple written sentence; in full form would be ‘they’ …

c.       Reference

-          The Phoric adverbs     :  There in sentence (and there were dogs….)

   There in sentence (there had been an incident)

-          Comparative                : there were dogs rather than the usual reels of ….

-          Pronouns                     : they (they tip-toed … ) refers to peace campaigners

  She (but, she claimed …) refers to Sarah Graham

  She (of the vehicles,” she added) refers to Sarah Graham

-          Definite Article           : The women protesters claimed to have….

  the copse was protected by soldiers….

….the usual reels of barbed wire

the American airmen were dozing…

…. kipping beneath one of the vehicles
eventually, one of the airmen…

…. and spotted the women

… who had been trailing the convoy….

…. the Greenham Common base in Berkshire

The ministry of Defence confirmed…

-          In this text, there is no Demonstrative deictic like these, those, this, and that.

d.      Conjunctions  

* they tip-toed past sentries at 3 a.m. and inspected a cruise …

* … the airmen ‘woke up’ and spotted the women

                   * … charged with trespassing and released on bail.

 *But, she claimed, the American airmen….

e.       Lexical cohesion

1)      Reiteration

- Repetition

            … to breach a missile security cordon yesterday.

- synonymy

            *Guards = Sentries = Soldiers = the Airmen

            *Dozing = Slept

            *Breach = Trespassing

            *Walk = Tip-toed       

- hyponymy

*Women protesters + Sarah Graham + Ten Women (Greenham Common Campaigners) 

            *Guards / Sentries / Soldiers / the Airmen (Army)

- metonymm

*Greenham Commonn Campaigners : Women’s peace camp established in Berkshire, England

* The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and the headquarters of the British Armed Forces.

- antonymy

            *Dozing / Slept >< Woke up

2)      Collocation

*security cordon

*woody copse

2.      Coherence

The components of textual words in ‘Cruise Guards were asleep’ are mutually accessible and relevant. This text belongs to Causality (Type of Coherence), it can be seen from the first paragraph as a causal for the conflict. From the first sentence ‘dozing guards allowed….’ And ‘….a group of campaigners breach a missile security cordon’ are the beginning of causality type of coherence and could be developed to the next expanded statements as reasons and purposes even in context meaning. So, this text is really coherence.

3.      Intentionality

Concerning the text producer’s attitude that intention of the writer distribute knowledge or attain a goal specified in a plan to give an information about this text where there are some strained situation between guards and greenham campaigners. The kinds of news’ characteristics are usually to persuade someone, to uncover the happened issues such the greenham campaigners’ activity, and to criticize a person or people in certain capacity like governments or guards’ occupation in particular.

4.      Acceptability

The text of Cruise Guards were asleep is acceptable enough for the receiver even the vocabulary choices, synonymy, and reiteration are difficult to be understood. We can see the acceptability in cohesion features and coherences of this text which can be analyzed. We are able to define the metonymy of “Greenham Common Camp” as the organization of women’s peace campaigners established in Berkshire England and “The Ministry of Defence” as the implementation of government defence policy and the headquarters of the British Armed Forces.  It also can be measured through process of inferencing like Speech Act, Illocutionary, implicatures etc.  The illocutionary produced in Cruise Guards were asleep in utterance “for the sake of making things more realistic, the copse was protected by soldiers dug into fox-holes” has a purpose as an intended illocutionary force while other device such as a lowered voice quality for a threat in under conventional conditions occurred. In other case, the implicature or addressee assumption like “soldiers dug into fox-holes” can be defined in various things and Presupposition like “American airmen” word used may be interpreted as the lack of American Army in their occupation.

Indeed, this text can be accepted by the reader or receiver.

5.      Informativity

Concerns the extent to which the occurences of the presented text  are interested, expected and unknown information before. I pay attention to other expanded information in this short text taken from the news. We as the receivers are also influenced by the situation in which why the woman arrested by the soldiers, why the campaigners breached the missile security cordon, the dozing guards and so on. This information takes the receiver beyond the text; force us to look my mind, the society, the physical and everything.

6.      Situationality

In this text, Concerns the factors which make a text relevant to a situation of occurrence.

For example: Dozing guards

7.      Intertextuality

There is the evolution of a text related to the text type.

For example: Dozing guards               sentries slept, or the American airmen were dozing and being the airmen “woke up”.

            Finally, I have to answer the question “does the text ‘cruise guards were asleep’ communicative or not?”. Based on the analysis through the textuality of the text above, this text is communicative. A communicative text is occurred when the text meets seven standards textuality. These standards are considered to have been satisfied, so the text is communicative.