Dialogue in and between Different Cultures - International ...

Contrastive Analysis of English and Polish Military Texts
Anna Szczepaniak-Kozak
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland
The article aims at a comparison of contemporary English and Polish military texts of
logistics. To conduct a contrastive analysis of such texts, some elements of de Beaugrande
and Dressler’s (1981) interactive model of text and discourse processing are
applied, with the goal-planning and topicalizing levels of analysis as the most productive
stages. It appears that although these two schools of writing are congruent in terms of
the discussed subjects, involved discourse participants and established terminology,
there exist differences as far as grammar and vocabulary structures are concerned, e.g.
frequency of impersonal constructions and imperative mood constructions, use of
metaphors, cases of pleonasms. The contrasted styles of writing differ also in terms of
the text layout. However, although we cannot postulate that there is only one model of
the written military language, we can observe numerous features which are shared by
various texts existing within this professional environment across languages.
1. Introduction
Any textual analysis of military texts constitutes a very elaborate and extensive
research. For the purpose of studying the military discourse the following schools
of thought seem very advantageous: (1) James Gee’s (2000:40-45) theory of
situated identity, meaning and cultural model together with his model of
communication aspects, (2) Dell Hymes’ (1972) SPEAKING grid, and (3) M.A.
K. Halliday’s (1994) study of functional grammar elements. However, the present
paper presents the results of a research project conducted from a textual
perspective mainly following de Beaugrande and Dressler’s (1997) ideas. Their
approach is known under the name ‘interactive model of text and discourse
processing’.
2. Methodology
When Poland started its efforts to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the
Alliance laid down several conditions which our national military forces had to
satisfy. One of them was adjusting Polish regulations to those of already
associated NATO countries. In fact, one of the reasons why the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization operates so efficiently is that all member countries must
adhere to the same principles and work according to the same regulations.