Dialogue in and between Different Cultures - International ...

90 Anna Szczepaniak-Kozak
to make clear the relations between the presented items of information. These are
order of importance, comparison and contrast, analogy, exemplification and
illustration (cf. Trimble 1985:10-20). It should be added that the use of such a
technique does not exclude the use of some others, especially if the rhetorical
function is of a complex character.
The remaining stages, i.e. lexicalizing, grammaticalizing, sound/letter layout,
are not discussed as they seem self-explanatory.
3. Data analysis
At the level of goal-planning, the analysis should focus on discovering the
macrostructure of the examined discourse. The macrostructure stands for the
framework or topic which is decisive for the selection and arrangement of
information included in a given text (cf. Duszak 1998:122). As far as the
linguistic military data are concerned, their primary objective is clarity and
simplicity. Military writers do not burden their readers with blurry metaphors or
unreliable information. The level of abstraction is significantly low in comparison
to other technical sciences like physics, chemistry, or mathematics. Military
professionals, when writing about military logistics, prefer not to stray from the
tangible, observable and, first of all, measurable and definable.
Both Polish and NATO military systems represent very similar institutional
conditions and extra-linguistic factors, e.g. there are the same discourse participants,
installations and equipment, chain of command and security requirements.
These factors account for the significance of the overlap of the subject matter in
all the contrasted texts. For example, both samples which discuss logistics
planning characteristics include stages, concepts, and procedures that are very
alike. In fact, what distinguishes these writing styles is the degree of detail and the
arrangement of concepts. In fact, the texts which conceptually differ the most are
those discussing medical support, i.e. Samples 3 and 4. Although both present
issues related to planning, staging, commanding, and prioritizing of medical
activities, they place emphasis on different subjects. For example, the Polish
passage on medical and veterinary support stresses the importance of protection
against and doing away with the effects of a nuclear, biological or chemical
(NBC) attack. To a certain extent, this can be explained by Poland’s membership
in the Warsaw Pact and the propaganda of the Cold War. In contrast, although the
contrasted passage from NATO document (Sample 4) comprises a separate
section concerning the NBC environment, its main focus is on medical support to
combined or multinational operations rather than on a specific, threat-dependent
condition like in the Polish Sample 3.
Generally, it may be postulated that Polish documents are more detailed in
character. This is probably conditioned by the fact that the Polish instructions are
directed to servicemen responsible for a specific branch of military logistics. To
illustrate, “General characteristics of logistic support planning” (Sample 6) was